View source for Walga Rock

{{Short description|Granite monolith on Austin Downs Station in Western Australia}}
{{Use Australian English|date=January 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2014}}
{{Infobox mountain
| name              = Walga Rock
| other_name        = {{lang|wbv|Walganna|italics=unset}} Rock,  {{lang|wbv|Walgahna|italics=unset}} Rock
| etymology         = 
| native_name       = 
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| photo             = WALGA Rock 01.jpg
| photo_size        = 
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| map               = 
| map_image         = 
| mapframe-zoom     = 2
| map_alt           = Map showing location of Walga Rock
| map_caption       = 
| map_relief        = 
| map_size          = 
| location          =  
| label             = 
| label_position    = 
| country           = [[Australia]]
| state             = [[Western Australia]]
| state_type        = [[States and territories of Australia|State]]
| region            = [[Mid West (Western Australia)|Mid West]]
| region_type       = [[Regions of Western Australia|Region]]
| district          = [[Shire of Cue]]
| district_type     = [[Local government areas of Western Australia|Shire]]
| elevation         = 
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| translation       = Blood that comes from the Kangaroo<ref name="lew16">{{cite news |first=Christopher |last=Lewis |date=2016-08-15 |title=WA's largest Aboriginal rock art gallery hopes to attract tourists, create jobs |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-15/creating-tourism-and-jobs-at-walga-rock/7848162 |work=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |location=Western Australia |access-date=2019-06-08 }}</ref>
| language          = 
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| range             = 
| coordinates       = {{coord|-27.4002743|117.4688244|type:landmark_region:AU|display=inline,title|format=dms}}
| coordinates_ref   = 
| topo              = 
| type              = Granite whaleback<ref name="kraiva10" />{{rp|46}}
| age               = 
| geology           = K-feldspar porphyritic monzogranite<ref name="kraiva10" />{{rp|46}}
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| embedded          = {{Infobox designation list
|embed = yes
|designation1 = State Register of Heritage Places
|designation1_offname = Walga Rock
|designation1_type = Municipal Inventory
|designation1_criteria = 
|designation1_date = 28 November 1996
|delisted1_date = 
|designation1_partof = 
|designation1_number = {{SRHP|6591}}
|designation1_free2name = Municipality
|designation1_free2value = Shire of Cue
}}
}}
'''Walga Rock''', also known as '''Walgahna Rock''' and '''Walganna Rock''', is a [[granite]] monolith situated about {{convert|48|km}} west of [[Cue, Western Australia]],<ref name="kraiva10">{{cite report
|last1=Van Kranendonk |first1=MJ
|last2=Ivanic |first2=TJ
|last3=Wyche |first3=S
|last4=Wilde |first4=SA 
|last5=Zibra |first5=I|author-link=
|year=2010
|title=A time transect through the Hadean to Neoarchean geology of the western Yilgarn Craton – a field guide
|url=http://geoconferences.org.au/wp-content/uploads/gsdrec_2010_19.pdf
|publisher=Geological Survey of Western Australia
|number=Record 2010/19
|location=East Perth, Western Australia
|access-date=2019-06-07
}}</ref>{{rp|46}}<ref name="cue19">{{cite web
|title=Aboriginal Art – Walga Rock
|year=2019
|url=https://www.cue.wa.gov.au/tourism/attractions/item/aboriginal-art-walga-rock
|website=Shire of Cue
|access-date=2019-06-08
}}</ref> within the [[Austin Downs]] pastoral lease.<ref>{{Heritage Council of Western Australia|name=Walga Rock|id=06591|access0date=2022-12-23}}</ref> It is one of the largest granite [[monolith|monoliths]] in [[Australia]].<ref name="lew16" />

It is of profound cultural significance to Aboriginal people; the [[Wadjarri|Wajarri]] elders are the acknowledged [[traditional owners]].<ref name="atns07">{{cite web
|title=Agreement to return Walga Rock to the custodial care of its traditional owners
|date=2007-07-11
|url=https://www.atns.net.au/agreement.asp?EntityID=3792
|website=The Agreements, Treaties and Negotiated Settlements database (ATNS)
|access-date=2019-06-08
|df=dmy-all
}}</ref> An extensive gallery of Aboriginal art exists within a cave in Walga Rock.<ref name="kraiva10" />{{rp|46}}<ref name="cue19" /><ref name="afe">{{cite web |title=Aboriginal Sites – Western Australia: Walga Rock, East Murchison region |website=Australia For Everyone |url=http://www.australiaforeveryone.com.au/aborsites_wa.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100827204705/http://www.australiaforeveryone.com.au/aborsites_wa.htm |archive-date=2010-08-27 |access-date=2021-04-25 }}</ref>  While it is the subject of a great deal of research and fieldwork subsequent to a detailed examination conducted in the 1930s by the American anthropologist {{thinspace|D.|S.}}{{nbsp}}Davidson (who considered it to be "one of the most extensive galleries so far reported in Australia"), the first known European record of Walga is by [[Daisy Bates (author)|Daisy Bates]]. Though she did not visit the rock and its gallery when travelling through the region in 1908, "Walga" is marked near the mining towns of Cue and [[Day Dawn]] and many other sites of Aboriginal significance on sketch Map 19 held at the [[State Library of Western Australia]] as part of her Special Map Collection.

==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 script|Cyrillic]] or [[Arabic script|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 {{convert|325|km}} from the coast. It has been argued that it was drawn by survivors of the heavily armed three-masted [[Dutch East India Company]] ({{langx|nl|Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie}}, commonly abbreviated to VOC) ships {{ship||Batavia|1628|2}} or {{ship||Zuiddorp|1701|2}}; or that it represents a "contact painting"<ref name="big06">{{cite report |title=Aboriginal Watercraft Depictions in Western Australia |first=Nicolas |last=Bigourdan |year=2006 |publisher=Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Museum |number=216 |url=http://wamuseum.com.au/collections/maritime/march/documents/No.%20216%20Indigenous%20depicts.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721184040/http://wamuseum.com.au/collections/maritime/march/documents/No.%20216%20Indigenous%20depicts.pdf |archive-date=21 July 2011 |access-date=2021-04-25 }}</ref> 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 {{ship|SS|Xantho||6}} and possibly another steamer at Inthanoona Station east of Cossack, the Walga Rock painting is one of the most  inland examples.<ref name="rey87">{{cite journal |first=Robert |last=Reynolds |title=The Indenoona Contact Site: A Preliminary Report of an Engraving Site in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia |journal=Australian Archaeology |volume=25 |issue=1 |year=1987 |pages=80–87 |doi=10.1080/03122417.1987.12093126 }}</ref><ref name="pawi09">{{cite journal |last1=Paterson |first1=Alistair |last2=Wilson |first2=Andrew |year=2009 |title=Indigenous Perceptions of Contact at Inthanoona, Northwest Western Australia |journal=Archaeology in Oceania |volume=44 |issue=S1 |pages=99–111 |doi=10.1002/j.1834-4453.2009.tb00071.x }}</ref>

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 [[Jawi alphabet|Jawi]] (a Malay-Arabic script). 

==SS Xantho: inspiration for the  Walga Rock ship image?==
Of the two-masted colonial steamships operating in the north-west of  Australia, {{ship|SS|Xantho||6|wl=no}} owned by the controversial pearler and pastoralist [[Charles Edward Broadhurst]] is the most likely inspiration for the  Walga Rock painting.<ref>{{cite web |title=The potential Xantho/Broadhurst Exhibition – a vision statement |website=Western Australian Museum |year=2004 |url=http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/collections/maritime/march/shipwrecks/Xantho/Xantho_Exhibition.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060825063109/http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/collections/maritime/march/shipwrecks/Xantho/Xantho_Exhibition.html |archive-date=2006-08-25 |access-date=2021-04-24 }}</ref> 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 {{ship|SS|Xantho||6|wl=no}} was built in 1848 as a ferry, reference was made in its contract to it being similar to {{ship|PS|Loch Lomond||6}}  which is known to have rectangular ventilation ports, for example.<ref name="mcc17">{{cite book |first=M. |last=McCarthy |year=2017 |title=Xantho and the Broadhursts |publisher=Hesperian Press |location=Carlisle, Western Australia |pages=71–73 |isbn=978-0-85905-676-2 }}</ref>

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 {{ship|SS|Xantho||6|wl=no}} from Batavia, for example. Some "Malays" were abandoned by Broadhurst at Geraldton when {{ship|SS|Xantho||6|wl=no}} 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.<ref name="edw99">{{cite book |last=Edwards |first=Hugh |year=1999 |title=Shark Bay through Four Centuries, 1616-2000: A World Heritage Area |publisher=Shire of Shark Bay |isbn=9780957754003 }}</ref>{{rp|281}} 


Further, though accepting the image is likely to represent {{ship|SS|Xantho||6|wl=no}}, 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.<ref name="wan">{{cite web |title=OtherSites |website=Western Australian Maritime Museum |url=http://wamuseum.com.au/collections/maritime/march/DHI-site/other-01.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706113530/http://wamuseum.com.au/collections/maritime/march/DHI-site/other-01.html |archive-date=2011-07-06 |access-date=2021-04-24 }}</ref> 
 
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".<ref>{{cite journal |last=McCarthy |first=M. |year=2020 |title=The Walga Rock Ship: Chronicle of a Century-Old Unsolved Mystery |journal=The Great Circle |publisher=Australian Association for Maritime History |volume=42 |number=1 |pages=88–125 |url=https://www.academia.edu/51156986 }}</ref>

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==
{{reflist}}

==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.&nbsp;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.&nbsp;13
* Laud, Peter.(2001) ''Rock art under study.'' Destinations, Mar/Apr. 2001, p.&nbsp;8-9, 
* McCarthy, M., 2000. "Iron and steamship archaeology:success and failure on the SS Xantho". Kluwer/Plenum. p.&nbsp;60-1.
*{{cite report |chapter=Miscellaneous Sites: Sammy Well |last=McCarthy |first=Michael |year=2007 |editor1-first=Jeremy |editor1-last=Green |title=Report on the 2006 Western Australian Museum, Department of Maritime Archaeology, Cape Inscription National Heritage Listing Archaeological Survey |publisher=Australian National Centre of Excellence for Maritime Archaeology, Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Maritime Museum |location=Fremantle, Western Australia |number=223 (Special Publication No. 10) |pages=195–202 |chapter-url=http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/maritime-archaeology-db/sites/default/files/no._10_cape_inscription_report.pdf |isbn=((10876465360)) |access-date=2021-04-25 }}
*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..

[[Category:Mid West (Western Australia)]]
[[Category:Australian Aboriginal cultural history]]
[[Category:Landforms of Western Australia]]
[[Category:Monoliths of Australia]]