1771 Engraving, Abydos-Woodstock Reserves

Statement of Significance

The place is a rare example of contact period rock art created by a European in the Pilbara region, Western Australia and Australia. It is located within a site is highly valued by the national and international community of rock art specialists, academics, and heritage professionals. The place has the potential to refine or develop scientific dating techniques regarding rock art in the Pilbara, Western Australia, Australia and the world as a research site. It has considerable potential to yield information regarding human occupation in Australia.

Values

The place is a rare example of contact period rock art created by a European in the Pilbara region, Western Australia and Australia located within a site that is highly valued by the national and international community of rock art specialists, academics, and heritage professionals.

Abydos-Woodstock has significance as a site where Indigenous people were employed to work on the pastoral land, and thus shows interactions between white settlers and traditional owners of the land. The engraving within the larger significant place provides an additional aspect to understanding these relationships, suggesting as it does that non-Indigenous people were present in this location much earlier than previously supposed. The place has considerable importance to the understanding of the history of the region and European settlement of Western Australia.

Study of the place has the potential to refine or develop scientific dating techniques regarding rock art in the Pilbara, Western Australia, Australia and the world as a research site. It has considerable potential to yield information regarding human occupation in Australia.

Physical Description

The place is located adjacent to BHP Mt Newman railway line amidst a series of dated inscriptions across a large granite boulder. Within this group, is an additional panel which includes four petroglyph motifs, including the apparent date '1771' and the letter 'H'. The 'H' is located above an anthropomorphic figure. A circular shape with lines radiating from the centre is also located within the group, located above the date. The circular figure and the 'H' appear to have been engraved on the surface of the boulder with a metal edged tool, similar to a knife blade, and a stone hammerstone. The numerals and figure have been created with a stone hammer.

History

The attribution of the 1771 Engraving to a European in the year 1771 raises several potential questions regarding how the artist made their way from the coast approximately 200 kilometres upriver to the interior of Australia. Although, Dutch, British, French and Portuguese sailing vessels reportedly sailed within the vicinity of the northern and western coasts of Australia during in the late 1600s on, there does not appear to be any other evidence of European presence in the area or along the coast around this period.

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.