Third Saturday… a colleague and her husband took me to one of the national parks around Sydney: Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.

We had a great day: lots of different wildflowers, great vistas, and last but not least, some examples of ancient rock engravings by the Guringai people.

Illawong Point

Our first stop was at Illawong Point where we had a spectacular view over the Coal and Candle Creek. This creek is a branch of the Cowan Creek, which again is a branch of the Hawkesbury River, which starts at Broken Bay, which we will see at our next stop.

As an aside: the word “creek” reminds me of the Dutch word “kreek”… used for streams that are a LOT smaller than the rather impressive waterway in the photo above.

Some Australian birds – not specific for the national park: I’ve seen them elsewhere in Sydney, but I just managed to take a picture of them here:

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And true to Australian form – a magpie is lovingly called “maggie”…

West Head Lookout

Next stop: West Head Lookout. Great vistas of Broken Bay, which basically is the estuary of the Hawkesbury River. Supposedly the bay got its name from Captain Cook, who recorded “broken land” north of what is now Sydney Harbour. There is some controversy about where exactly he saw this land, but it could well be at what is now called Broken Bay. The island in the middle of the bay is named Lion Island since its form looks somewhat like a sphinx, or a lying lion – head on the right, tail on the left:

Looking out towards the ocean provides a view of Barrenjoey Head with its lighthouse. This is Sydney’s northernmost point. On the right hand site of the photo a little bit of beach is just visible: Palm Beach.

And again – some wildlife. This time two (very different) plants:

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These particular examples of the grass tree are only very small (in a later post I’ll show taller specimens), but the flower spikes are rather impressive nonetheless. The paper bark tree, or melaleuca quinquenervia to give it its formal name, is of the myrtle family. Its bark was used by the Aboriginals for all sorts of things, from wrapping food to providing shelter.

A walk through the bush

On a little walk through the national park we came across many great plants native to Australia. On first sight the bush seems rather brown, and not very interesting. But when taking a proper look there is a lot to discover. The following is only a selection of many photos that I took, but hopefully it gives an impression of the rich flora of the bush around Sydney…

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Doesn’t it look as if the plants just grow out of sand…? And these scribbles on the tree: apparently these are used in certain children’s books as “secret messages”. It is only relatively recently (mid-30s of the last century) that it was found that the larvae of a very small moth created the scribbles.

And then this:

Indeed – a footprint of a kangaroo…☺ My closest encounter with this Australian native so far!

Ancient rock engravings

Ku-ring-gai Chase national park has some great examples of ancient rock engravings by the Aboriginal people that used to live around Sydney:

The engravings are much larger than I somehow had expected… the photos below show only a part of them:

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Not very much is known about the engravings. They are found at many places around Sydney, from the ocean to the Blue Mountains. As the English who arrived in Australia in the 18^th century weren’t exactly interested in understanding the culture of the people who lived in the country already, and as many of the Aboriginal people died, not in the least from diseases that were almost certainly brought to them by the new settlers, the meaning of these engravings is not known. The engravings often show fish, humans (top figure), animals (bottom figure shows hopping wallabies), or mythical figures. Based on similar findings from other indigenous groups, it is thought that these sites were important for all sorts of ceremonies, such as to increase a food source, hence the depiction of animals.

What seems better known, is the way the engravings were made. Presumably an outline was made first, and then a series of holes were made along this outline with a pointy material, probably stone. This would be possible, as the rock around Sydney consists of a relatively soft sandstone. As a last step, the holes would be connected by groves resulting in the engravings still seen today. It is thought that the Aboriginal people would probably have retraced the engravings every so often to keep it visible. This practice is certainly done now by the National Park and local Aboriginal communities.

Waratah

On our way to lunch, we had an excited cry from the back seat to stop the car, as waratahs were sighted…

The waratah is the floral emblem of New South Wales, the state of which Sydney is the capital. And a nice flower it is:

Beaches

Finally – on our way back home, they took me past some of the northern beaches. Where we saw firstly a few more beautiful birds:

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And then – beaches:

Note in the photo above how there is also water “behind” the beach: this is a so-called “lagoon”. These lagoons near the coast are not very deep, have salt water and are often separated by a shallow bank of sand or something like that. This barrier can be easily broken, and a lagoon therefore can empty into the ocean and be re-filled at high tide.

Just about visible in the photo above, is the rock pool at Freshwater Beach: at the top-middle of the photo. There are many rock pools in Sydney, offering swimming in ocean water without the risk on being taken away into the ocean by currents… or sharks…

And that was the end of a very interesting day!