Yakkan Toort/Dog Rock

Statement of Significance

Yakkan Toort/Dog Rock has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons: It is one of a group of significant geographic elements that form the local Aboriginal creation story and is included in the Department of Indigenous Affairs (now Department Planning Lands Heritage) sites register as a place of mythological significance, together with its tail (Yakknint) on Aberdeen Street, Michaelmas and Breaksea Islands, Kardarup/Mt Melville, Corndarup/Mt Clarence, Irrerup/Mt Adelaide, Burmup/Bluff Rock, Mairitch/Oyster Harbour, and the King and the Kalgan Rivers. It was nominated by the Albany Aboriginal Corporation as part of a list of seven significant heritage places endorsed by the local Aboriginal people and which they call “Yacka”, meaning wild dog tamed. It is one of the most recognisable and iconic landmarks in Albany playing an enduring and major role in tourist branding and one of the most photographed elements in the Albany. It is highly valued by the local community and owing to its popularity and endearing nature has survived several past attempts for its removal.

Physical Description

Some of the notable features of this place include: • Situated at the bend of Middleton Rd • Large granite rock in the shape of a dog’s head • At another site is the ‘tail’ of the dog Some obvious modifications include: • White reflector blocks painted on rock appear as a collar, but help vision on the bend of Middleton Rd at night

History

Yakkan Toort/Dog Rock is so named owing to its strong likeness to a bullmastiff dog’s head sniffing in the breeze and a number of stories and myths have survived about the rock’s origin. Yakkan Toort/Dog Rock was nominated by the Albany Aboriginal Corporation as part of a list of seven significant heritage places endorsed by the Menang Noongar community to be included in the City of Albany Municipal Heritage Inventory in 2000. Local Aboriginal people call Yakkan Toort/Dog Rock “Yacka”, meaning wild dog tamed. A wild dog (such as a dingo) is called a twert. Near the Roman Catholic Church, St Joseph’s rises a sharp rock which was known as “Yakknint” – dog’s tail. It is very sacred under tribal law and part of the creation story and the path that mythical beings took while traveling across the landscape. The central elements of this story begin on Michaelmas and Breaksea Islands and travel to the central part of Mt Melville, and take in Yakkan Toort/Dog Rock and its tail, Oyster Harbour, and the King and the Kalgan Rivers. Yakkan Toort/Dog Rock also become an important and endearing landmark to the British settlers to Albany and was an early tourist icon and popular subject from the earliest days of photography. Although a much-valued landmark and Albany icon now for the majority of residents, the rock despite its popularity has periodically caused consternation in the local community because of safety, traffic and hazard issues, and its future retention in-situ threatened by numerous proposals for removal especially with the growth of the private motor car and increased traffic and road and residential development. In the 1920s it was proposed that the rock should be blasted out because it was a traffic hazard and to allow future road widening, attracting articles in the local newspapers entitled “The Dog Rock Controversy”. However, after heated debate and agitation, the community support for the rock to be left was overwhelming. In the 1930s it was again the subject of local criticism because children were attracted to playing on the rock and at risk from the passing traffic. In the 1960s a suggestion was made to transfer Yakkan Toort/Dog Rock to the roundabout junction at Albany Highway, Chester Pass Rd and Denmark Rd, to become a more central tourist attraction. Radio Station 6VA manager Ted Furlong even proffered the idea that the rock could be relocated by being cut into slices and then reassembled at the new site.

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity: High Authenticity: High

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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