Description

This fascinating and beautiful site is famous for its line of "rabbits". Are they rabbits, in which case this site is younger than the 200 years in which rabbits were introduced to Australia? Or are they bilbys, now extinct in this area, but perhaps commonplace thousands of years ago? Or are they a line of men with weird headdresses?

This site has a number of excellent engravings, and is also notable for athe wonderful views over Woy Woy and the surrounding waters.

It also has some fascinating cupmarks (see below) which appear to be very much man-made, supporting the hypothesis that cup marks seen elsewhere (e.g. Elvina track) are man made rather than formed by geological processes.

To get there

Take the turning off the F3 to Woy Woy and Gosford, and follow the Woy Woy Road past the Bulgandry site. On the left you will see "Staples Lookout" signposted, and 200m further on is a small parking place. Park here, and follow the footpath through the trees (mind the spiders!). The engravings can be hard to find - the easiest way is to follow the series of rock ledges until you can't go any further (at which point you will be standing next to the engraved shields) and then backtrack to find the "rabbits".

For more information

• Stanbury & Clegg (1990), p. 80

For full information on books (publisher, ISBN, etc) see the "Further Reading" page.

Image Gallery

Click on thumbnail on left to see full-sized image

	Map showing the location of the engraving site.
	Overview of the site, reproduced from Stanbury & Clegg (1990), with kind permission of John Clegg. © Stanbury & Clegg 1990.
	Plan of the site, reproduced from Stanbury & Clegg (1990), with kind permission of John Clegg. © Stanbury & Clegg 1990.
	Shields, eel, and fish
	Three cup-marks. Are these engravings or natural geological features?
	A cup-mark and an emu-foot. See below for another similar cupmark from nearby.
	A man
	A rabbit
	A kangaroo/ rabbit to the left with others dancing with it?
	Same as the pic above, but with the kangaroo/rabbit outlined
	Photo taken by Shaun Bourke (private communication) of a cup mark further up the hill, near Lyre trig point. Note how this cup mark cuts across the sedimentary strata, and is on a slope, making it very unlikely that it was caused by geological processes. Photo © Shaun Bourke 2007