Walga Rock
| Walga Rock | |
|---|---|
| Walganna Rock, Walgahna Rock | |
 | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 463 m (1,519 ft)  |
| Coordinates | 27°24′01″S 117°28′08″E / 27.4002743°S 117.4688244°E |
| Naming | |
| English translation | Blood that comes from the Kangaroo[1] |
| Geography | |
| |
| Country | Australia |
| State | Western Australia |
| Region | Mid West |
| Shire | Shire of Cue |
| Geology | |
| Mountain type | Granite whaleback[2]: 46 |
| Type of rock | K-feldspar porphyritic monzogranite[2]: 46 |
| Official name | Walga Rock |
| Type | Municipal Inventory |
| Designated | 28 November 1996 |
| Reference no. | 6591 |
| Municipality | Shire of Cue |
Walga Rock, also known as Walgahna Rock and Walganna Rock, is a granite monolith situated about 48 kilometres (30 mi) west of Cue, Western Australia,[2]: 46 [3] within the Austin Downs pastoral lease.[4] It is one of the largest granite monoliths in Australia.[1]
It is of profound cultural significance to Aboriginal people; the
Painting
Other than to the place and its ancient gallery, visitors are regularly drawn to an apparently anomalous painting of what appeared at first glance to be a European-tradition sailing ship. It appears superimposed over some of the earlier works and underneath there are lines of writing that to some resembles a Cyrillic or Arabic script. While the Indigenous gallery is in itself remarkable, there has been a great deal of speculation about the painting, especially considering it is located 325 kilometres (202 mi) from the coast. It has been argued that it was drawn by survivors of the heavily armed three-masted Dutch East India Company (Dutch: Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, commonly abbreviated to VOC) ships Batavia or Zuiddorp; or that it represents a "contact painting"[7] by Indigenous Australians who saw a ship on the coast and then moved inland. While there are many examples of Indigenous art depicting vessels on the Western Australian coast, including others showing what appears to be SS Xantho and possibly another steamer at Inthanoona Station east of Cossack, the Walga Rock painting is one of the most inland examples.[8][9]
Those believing the images represents a VOC ship, are of the opinion the middle (or main) mast of the three shown in the Walga Rock/Walganha Rock image had broken and fallen overboard. Ratlines (to enable the crew to scale the rigging), and some stays (holding the masts vertical) are depicted and seven gunports are evident along the hull.
Evidence now points to the image being that of a two-masted steamship with a tall funnel and Malaysian visitors to the Shipwreck Museum in Fremantle advised they felt the four lines underneath the Walghana ship could represent
SS Xantho: inspiration for the Walga Rock ship image?
Of the two-masted colonial steamships operating in the north-west of Australia, SS Xantho owned by the controversial pearler and pastoralist Charles Edward Broadhurst is the most likely inspiration for the Walga Rock painting.[10] Research indicates the Walga Rock "gunports" may not be false at all, rather they are most likely square or rectangular scuttles (port holes) that can be opened like a gunport. These often appeared on passenger ferries designed to operate in sheltered waters and were opened for the comfort of its passengers when travelling in calm waters and when it got too hot below decks. When SS Xantho was built in 1848 as a ferry, reference was made in its contract to it being similar to PS Loch Lomond which is known to have rectangular ventilation ports, for example.[11]
The first European account of the Walga Rock ship image appeared in the Christmas Edition of the Geraldton Guardian in 1928. In looking to who the artist or artists may have been, research conducted by mid-west historian Stan Gratte, based on interviews with "old Cue residents" and local sheep station identities the Ryan brothers, indicates the Walga Rock painting was produced around 1917 by Sammy "Malay", also known as Sammy Hassan.
Apparently a "Malay" (the name generally but incorrectly describing indentured labourers who came to the north west from the islands north of Australia), Sammy Hassan is known to have camped for many years at Sammy Well outstation on the north east end of Dirk Hartog Island at an outcamp that still appears marked on station maps and some charts as "Sammy Well". It was considered that Sammy Hassan could have been one of many hundreds of indentured "Malay" pearl divers who were transported to north west Australia in the early 1870s. Of these, 140 boys aged between 12–14 were transported on SS Xantho from Batavia, for example. Some "Malays" were abandoned by Broadhurst at Geraldton when SS Xantho sank in 1872 and many others suffered a similar fate three years later in Shark Bay. Research into the possibility the lines of writing were Arabic added further to the Ryan's belief that the artist was Sammy Hassan.
Despite some sources linking Sammy Hassan with the image, others disagreed with the 1917 date, however, with some believing the image was from the turn of the century.
Shark Bay identities also disputed Sammy "Malay's" link with the Walga Rock image, for local legend has it that he received a shark bite while recovering gold coins (which he regularly presented to the Dirk Hartog Island station owners) from a wreck near his camp; and after dragging himself back to his hut died from blood loss, accompanied only by his dog.[12]: 281
Further, though accepting the image is likely to represent SS Xantho, in her most recent research anthropologist Esmée Webb disputes the Sammy "Malay" connection believing it to be a Yamaji "warning story" about pearlers capturing Aboriginal men and women and marooning them on offshore islands.[13]
In 2020 the many claims and theories surrounding the Walga Rock ship image up to that time were examined and presented in a paper appearing in the Great Circle, Journal of The Australian Association for Maritime History entitled "The Walga Rock Ship: Chronicle of a Century-Old Unsolved Mystery".[14]
In that work numerous unresolved issues, including the identity of the artist, the date the ship image first appeared and the discrepancy between the Shark Bay legend that Sammy died from the effects of shark bite at his camp on Dirk Hartog Island and the Ryan Brother's account that he moved to Walga Rock and produced the painting in 1917, were not resolved.
Research recently conducted by Denis Cherry MD has cast considerable light on Sammy Hassan and his life in Western Australia nonetheless. Dr Cherry has traced an application from Sammy seeking permission to marry an Aboriginal woman 'Mary Ann' dated October 1906 and posted from Pindar near Cue. Cherry has also found evidence Sammy Hassan was born in Singapore, had arrived in the Colony around 1890 and died from old age at Cue hospital in the early 1930s. While Dr Cherry's research is ongoing he has resolved two issues outstanding after the publication of the 2020 Walga Rock paper in the Great Circle: First, Sammy Hassan was living in the Walga Rock-Cue-Pindar area in the early 20th century, and second, having arrived in the colony well after SS Xantho sunk he was not one of the many "Malays" who the pearler C.E. Broadhurst brought to the north-west. While Dr Cherry’s research also indicates there may have been another man described as ’Sammy Malay’ (or similar) in the mid-west pastoral industry, he is presently working to resolve the matter.
Though a man called 'Sammy Malay’ was certainly at Shark Bay and a ’Sammy Malay’was in the Walga Rock area and living in the company of Aboriginal folk at the time the Ryan Brothers stated he produced the ship painting at the ancient gallery there, the question who produced it and why it was painted remains unresolved.
References
- ^ a b Lewis, Christopher (15 August 2016). "WA's largest Aboriginal rock art gallery hopes to attract tourists, create jobs". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Western Australia. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
- ^ a b c d Van Kranendonk, MJ; Ivanic, TJ; Wyche, S; Wilde, SA; Zibra, I (2010). A time transect through the Hadean to Neoarchean geology of the western Yilgarn Craton – a field guide (PDF) (Report). East Perth, Western Australia: Geological Survey of Western Australia. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
- ^ a b "Aboriginal Art – Walga Rock". Shire of Cue. 2019. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
- ^ "Walga Rock". InHerit. Heritage Council of Western Australia.
- ^ "Agreement to return Walga Rock to the custodial care of its traditional owners". The Agreements, Treaties and Negotiated Settlements database (ATNS). 11 July 2007. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
- ^ "Aboriginal Sites – Western Australia: Walga Rock, East Murchison region". Australia For Everyone. Archived from the original on 27 August 2010. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
- ^ Bigourdan, Nicolas (2006). Aboriginal Watercraft Depictions in Western Australia (PDF) (Report). Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Museum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
- .
- .
- ^ "The potential Xantho/Broadhurst Exhibition – a vision statement". Western Australian Museum. 2004. Archived from the original on 25 August 2006. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
- ISBN 978-0-85905-676-2.
- ISBN 9780957754003.
- ^ "OtherSites". Western Australian Maritime Museum. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
- ^ McCarthy, M. (2020). "The Walga Rock Ship: Chronicle of a Century-Old Unsolved Mystery". The Great Circle. 42 (1). Australian Association for Maritime History: 88–125.
Further reading
- Bigourdan, N., & McCarthy, M., 2007. Aboriginal watercraft depictions in Australia: on land and underwater? Bulletin of the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology, 31: 1-10.
- 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, Michael (2007). "Miscellaneous Sites: Sammy Well" (PDF). In Green, Jeremy (ed.). Report on the 2006 Western Australian Museum, Department of Maritime Archaeology, Cape Inscription National Heritage Listing Archaeological Survey (Report). Fremantle, Western Australia: Australian National Centre of Excellence for Maritime Archaeology, Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Maritime Museum. pp. 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: preliminary 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..