Walga Rock

---

title: "Walga Rock" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["mid-west-(western-australia)", "australian-aboriginal-cultural-history", "landforms-of-western-australia", "monoliths-of-australia"] description: "Granite monolith on Austin Downs Station in Western Australia" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walga_Rock" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Granite monolith on Austin Downs Station in Western Australia ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox mountain"]

Field	Value
name	Walga Rock
other_name	Walganna Rock, Walgahna Rock
photo	WALGA Rock 01.jpg
mapframe-zoom	2
map_alt	Map showing location of Walga Rock
country	Australia
state	Western Australia
state_type	State
region	Mid West
region_type	Region
district	Shire of Cue
district_type	Shire
translation	Blood that comes from the Kangaroo
coordinates
type	Granite whaleback
geology	K-feldspar porphyritic monzogranite
embedded	{{Infobox designation list
embed	yes
designation1	State Register of Heritage Places
designation1_offname	Walga Rock
designation1_type	Municipal Inventory
designation1_date	28 November 1996
designation1_number
designation1_free2name	Municipality
designation1_free2value	Shire of Cue
::

| name = Walga Rock | other_name = Walganna Rock, Walgahna Rock | etymology = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | photo = WALGA Rock 01.jpg | photo_size = | photo_alt = | photo_caption = | 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 = State | region = Mid West | region_type = Region | district = Shire of Cue | district_type = Shire | elevation = | elevation_m = | elevation_ft = | elevation_ref = | prominence = | prominence_m = | prominence_ft = | prominence_ref = | isolation = | isolation_km = | isolation_mi = | isolation_ref = | parent_peak = | listing = | translation = Blood that comes from the Kangaroo | language = | pronunciation = | range = | coordinates = | coordinates_ref = | topo = | type = Granite whaleback | age = | geology = K-feldspar porphyritic monzogranite | volcanic_arc = | volcanic_belt = | volcanic_field = | volcanic_arc/belt = | last_eruption = | first_ascent = | easiest_route = | normal_route = | access = | child = | 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 = |designation1_free2name = Municipality |designation1_free2value = Shire of Cue Walga Rock, also known as Walgahna Rock and Walganna Rock, is a granite monolith situated about 48 km west of Cue, Western Australia,{{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 |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

It is of profound cultural significance to Aboriginal people; the Wajarri elders are the acknowledged traditional owners.{{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

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 km from the coast. It has been argued that it was drawn by survivors of the heavily armed three-masted Dutch East India Company (, commonly abbreviated to VOC) ships or ; or that it represents a "contact painting" 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 and possibly another steamer at Inthanoona Station east of Cossack, the Walga Rock painting is one of the most inland examples.

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.

SS Xantho: inspiration for the Walga Rock ship image?

Of the two-masted colonial steamships operating in the north-west of Australia, owned by the controversial pearler and pastoralist Charles Edward Broadhurst is the most likely inspiration for the Walga Rock painting. 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 was built in 1848 as a ferry, reference was made in its contract to it being similar to which is known to have rectangular ventilation ports, for example.

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. Research into the possibility the lines of writing were Arabic added further to the Ryan's belief that the artist was Sammy Hassan, as does advice from Malaysian visitors to the Shipwreck Museum in Fremantle who felt the four lines underneath the Walghana ship could represent Jawi (a Malay-Arabic script). Local legend records Sammy Hassan accidentally shooting himself in the leg, being hospitalised and eventually dying of his injuries.

A man known as 'Sammy Malay' 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". Apparently a "Malay" (the name generally but incorrectly describing indentured labourers who came to the north west from the islands north of Australia), it was considered that Sammy could have been one of many hundreds of indentured "Malay" pearl divers who were transported to north west Australia in the early 1870s. Hundreds were seen operating alongside European and Aboriginal pearlers at the Flying Foam Passage near Cossack and many travelled to Shark Bay and centres on the north-west coast as indentured labourers with contracts promising they would be housed and repatriated by the pearling masters. 140 boys aged between 12–14 were transported on from Batavia for work in the industry for example. Many contracts were broken and as one example some "Malays" were abandoned by Broadhurst at Geraldton when sank in 1872 and many others suffered a similar fate three years later in Shark Bay.

Despite the Ryan Brothers linking Sammy Hassan with the image, other local identities disagreed with the 1917 date, however, with some believing the image was from the turn of the century.

Shark Bay identities also disputed ‘their' 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 shipwreck that lay in shallow water near his camp; and after dragging himself back to his hut died from blood loss, accompanied only by his dog.

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".

In that work numerous unresolved issues, including 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 by the time the Great Circle article appeared in 2020.

Further, though accepting the image is likely to represent , anthropologist Esmée Webb disputed the Sammy "Malay" connection believing the ship to be a Yamaji "warning story" about pearlers capturing Aboriginal men and women and marooning them on offshore islands.

Research conducted by Denis Cherry MD has cast 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 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 adding weight to the Ryan Brothers’ accounts, and second that there appears to have been another man described as ’Sammy Malay’ (or similar) in the mid-west pastoral industry.

Thus, though a man called 'Sammy Malay’ certainly lived at Sammy Well in Shark Bay 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 why it was painted remains unresolved.

References

References

1. Lewis, Christopher. (2016-08-15). "WA's largest Aboriginal rock art gallery hopes to attract tourists, create jobs". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
2. {{Heritage Council of Western Australia
3. "Aboriginal Sites – Western Australia: Walga Rock, East Murchison region".
4. Bigourdan, Nicolas. (2006). "Aboriginal Watercraft Depictions in Western Australia". Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Museum.
5. Reynolds, Robert. (1987). "The Indenoona Contact Site: A Preliminary Report of an Engraving Site in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia". Australian Archaeology.
6. (2009). "Indigenous Perceptions of Contact at Inthanoona, Northwest Western Australia". Archaeology in Oceania.
7. (2004). "The potential Xantho/Broadhurst Exhibition – a vision statement".
8. McCarthy, M.. (2017). "Xantho and the Broadhursts". Hesperian Press.
9. Edwards, Hugh. (1999). "Shark Bay through Four Centuries, 1616-2000: A World Heritage Area". Shire of Shark Bay.
10. McCarthy, M.. (2020). "The Walga Rock Ship: Chronicle of a Century-Old Unsolved Mystery". Australian Association for Maritime History.
11. "OtherSites".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::