Walga Rock

Walga Rock"Walgahna Rock" is claimed to be the second largest monolith in Australia.^[1]

Located at 27°24′S 117°27′E / 27.400°S 117.450°E / -27.400; 117.450Coordinates: 27°24′S 117°27′E / 27.400°S 117.450°E / -27.400; 117.450,^[2] about 50 kilometres south-west of Cue, Western Australia, it contains a cave with an extensive gallery of Indigenous art.^[3]

Painting

A painting of what appeared at first glance to be a sailing ship appears superimposed over some of the earlier works and underneath there are lines of writing that while resembling a Cyrillic or Arabic script have not been identified. 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 from the coast. It has been argued that it was drawn by survivors of the heavily armed three-masted Dutch East India (VOC) ships Batavia or Zuytdorp; or that it represents a 'contact painting'^[4] by Indigenous Australians who saw a ship on the coast and then moved inland.

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.

A Steamship, not a VOC ship

It was not generally known until recent years that colonial-era steamers also carried sails and often used them more than their engines, especially when the wind was in the right direction, or they were short on coal. Few observers who are aware of that fact now doubt that the image is that of a steamship with the tall feature mid-ships being not a broken mast, but a long segmented funnel characteristic of the colonial era. The high poop deck of the VOC ships is also missing.

A 19th century era sail (not the lateen-type sail seen on VOC ships) appears set on the mizzen (aftermost) mast of the Walga Rock ship. If this is correct, the bow is to the right of the image. To set a mizzen sail while at anchor in order to keep a vessel's head into the wind and ride more comfortably was a common practice and persists even to this day. STS Leeuwin is often seen at anchor with a mizzen set for example. In further casting doubt about a VOC ship necessarily being the inspiration for the Walga Rock image, false (painted), gunports were a common feature in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The barque City of York wrecked on Rottnest Island in 1899 is shown in contemporary images with false gunports painted along its sides for example. Many steamers were similarly adorned.

The similarities between the Walga Rock image and a flush-decked (without high poop or forecastle) 19th-century two-masted steamer with a long segmented funnel, with a mizzen sail up (to keep its head into the wind) and with false gun ports is compelling.

SS Xantho?

 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 was of such import as the State's first coastal steamer (see following) it is a likely possibility as the inspiration for the  Walga Rock painting.  It is also possible that the Walga Rock 'gunports' may not be false at all, rather they square or rectangular  scuttles (port holes) that can be opened like a gunport.  These often appeared  on  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 Xantho was built in 1848 as a ferry, reference was made in its contract to it being similar to  the PS Loch Lomond  which is known to have rectangular ventilation ports. 

Independent research conducted by mid-west historian Stan Gratte (OAM), based on interviews conducted with 'old Cue residents' and local station identities the Morgan brothers show that the Walga Rock painting was produced around 1917 at the time when former pearler Sammy 'Malay', (also known as Sammy Hassan), arrived there from Shark Bay. 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 remained camped at Sammy Well outstation on the north east end of Dirk Hartog Island before leaving the Bay to join Wajarri people at a well near Walga Rock.^[5]

It is possible that Sammy Hassan was one of many  hundreds of indentured  'Malay'  pearl divers who were transported  to NW Australia in the early 1870s.  140 boys age between 12-14 were transported on the Xantho from Batavia, for example. Some were abandoned by Broadhurst at Geraldton when  Xantho sank  in 1872 and  many others suffered a similar fate  three years later in Shark Bay. 

While there are many examples of Indigenous art depicting vessels on the Western Australian coast, including others showing what appears to be the SS Xantho and possibly another steamer at Inthanoona Station east of Cossack, the Walga Rock painting is one of the most inland examples.^[6]

Recently Malaysian visitors to the Shipwreck Museum in Fremantle advised they felt the four lines underneath the Walghana ship could represent Jawi ( a Malay-Arabic script).

References

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, 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. Available in PDF form. http://wamuseum.com.au/collections/maritime/march/DHI-site/index.html
• 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..