Walga Rock

File:Walga Rock.jpg

View from the ground

Walga Rock is the second largest monolith in Australia. Located at 27°24′S 117°27′E, about 50 kilometres south-west of Cue, Western Australia, it contains a cave with extensive indigenous art galleries, most notably (from a European perspective) a painting of a sailing ship. There has been a great deal of speculation about this painting, especially considering it is located 325 kilometres from the coast. While it was has been argued that it was drawn by survivors of the Dutch East India ships Batavia (ship) or Zuytdorp; or that it represents a contact painting by indigenous Australians who saw a ship on the coast and then moved inland, research shows it is far more likely to be the colonial steamship Xantho. It appears to have been produced by Sammy 'Malay', also known as Sammy Hassan, one of the many pearl divers who were transported to NW Australia in the early 1870s. Over 140 were transported on the Xantho from Batavia and the Straits Settlements and many of these divers were abandoned by the controversial pearler and pastoralist Charles Broadhurst, some at Shark Bay. The similarities between the Walga Rock image and an 1870s two masted steamer with a long segmented funnel between two masts, with false gun ports and with its mizzen sail up (to keep its head into the wind) are remarkable. To many its identification as a two masted steamer is far more plausible than a three-masted East India ship from the 17th or 18th centuries. Further, Sammy Hassan occupied what is now known as Sammy Well on the north east end of Dirk Hartog Island and moved to the Walga Rock area in 1917 when records show the Walga Rock painting appeared.

• View from the top
  View from the top
• The cave
  The cave
• The ship painting
  The ship painting

Further reading

• Gunn, R. G. et al. (1997)_Walga Rock (Walganha) : a Wajarri rock art and Dreaming site in the Murchison Basin, Western Australia : WA Register of Aboriginal sites no. P249 / a report to the Yamaji Language Centre, Geraldton and the Australian Heritage Commission, Perth ; by R.G. Gunn, R.E. Webb and D.E. Marmion. Geraldton, W.A. : Yamaji Language Centre.
• Hussey, B.M.J. (2003) Ferals at Walga Rock.(regarding feral animals) Western Australian naturalist, Vol.24, no.2 (30 Dec. 2003), p.115-117
• Jenkinson, Charles.(2004) Site returned. Wilgie Mia and Walga Rock handed over to their traditional owners - the custodianship of the Wajarri Tribal Elders. Geraldton guardian, 19 Nov. 2004, p.13
• Laud, Peter.(2001) Rock art under study. Destinations, Mar/Apr. 2001, p. 8-9,
• McCarthy, M., 2000. "Iron and steamship archaeology:success and failure on the SS Xantho". Kluwer/Plenum. p. 60-1.
• McCarthy, M., 2007. Sammy Well. In Green, J., (ed.) "Report on the 2006 Western Australian Museum, Department of Maritime Archaeology, Cape Inscription National Heritage Listing Archaeological Survey". Report—Department of Maritime Archaeology Western Australian Museum, No. 223 Special Publication No. 10, Australian National Centre of Excellence for Maritime Archaeology: 195-202.
• Playford, P., 1996, "Carpet of Silver: the wreck of the Zuytdorp". UWA Press, Nedlands.WA.
• Webb, R. E. and Gunn, R.G.(1999) Walga Rock. Part 2 : preliminery artefact analysis, detailed art recording : Western Australian Register of Aboriginal Sites no. P249 / second report to the Yamaji Language Centre, Geraldton and the Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra. East Perth, W.A. : Distributed by the Heritage Council of W.A.
• Webb, R. E. (2003) Management work undertaken at Walganha (Walga Rock), an Aboriginal rock-art site, near Cue, Western Australia / a report to the Heritage Assistance & Projects Section, Department of Environment & Heritage, Canberra, ACT, Thoo Thoo Warninha Aboriginal Corporation, Cue, WA, and the Shire of Cue . East Perth, W.A. Distributed by the Heritage Council of W.A..