At Port Hedland there are many acres of a low limestone plateau literally covered with carvings, many of which are badly weather-beaten; several of the carvings are of the scraped type found at Port Jackson. The accompanying illustrations depict a chosen number of the Port Hedland designs drawn to scale.
Fig. 10. Rock carvings at Port Hedland (× 1/20).
Fig. 11. Rock Carvings at Port Hedland (× 1/20).
Fig. 12. Rock carvings at Port Hedland (× 1/20).
Among them we observe: Two turtles (Figs. 1 and 2), the one of which (Fig. 1) being shown in a dorsal aspect, the other (Fig. 2) apparently in a ventral; two large fish (Figs. 3 and 4) resembling the Port Jackson type; a lizard track (Fig. 5), showing the trail of the tail in the centre; a human foot-print (Fig. 7), with an emu track above it; a large stingray (Fig. 8), with protruding eyes and long tail standing erect; a shark’s liver (Fig. 9), at any rate, it was described as such by a native; a stingray’s liver (Fig. 10); an emu track (Fig. 11); a lizard (Fig. 12); shields (Figs. 16, 18, 19, 21, 30), variously decorated; boomerangs (Figs. 14, 15, 20, 27, 28, 32), variously decorated; spear-throwers (Figs. 22 and 31); a corrobboree plume (Fig. 33), such as is worn in the hair or stuck in the armlets during many of the ceremonial dances; pubic tassels (Figs. 34, 35, 36), used as a covering, suspended from a hair belt; a “circle-within-circle” design (Fig. 39), often figuring conspicuously among emblematic and ceremonial patterns; a human foot-print (Fig. 37); a dog track (Fig. 38); a lizard (Fig. 41); a group of figures (Fig. 40), consisting of a spiral, of similar significance as Fig. 39, a chain of turkey tracks on the right, and three paired tracks of a bounding wallaby on the left. One or two of the remaining smaller figures are of doubtful meaning, the most remarkable being Fig. 25, which for an aboriginal ideograph is extraordinarily complex and symmetrical.
PLATE XXXVIII