Walga Rock, also known as Walgahna Rock and Walganna Rock, is a granite monolith situated about west of Cue, Western Australia. It is one of the largest granite monoliths in Australia. Of profound cultural significance to Aboriginal people, the Wajarri elders are the acknowledged traditional owners. An extensive gallery of Aboriginal art exists within a cave in Walga Rock.
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 from the coast. It has been argued that it was drawn by survivors of the heavily armed three-masted Dutch East India Company ships or ; or that it represents a 'contact painting' 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 mast of the three shown in the Walga Rock/Walganha Rock image had broken and fallen overboard. Ratlines, and some stays 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 appears set on the mizzen 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. 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, gunports were a common feature in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The barque 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 19th-century two-masted steamer with a long segmented funnel, with a mizzen sail up and with false gun ports is compelling.
SS Xantho?
Of the two-masted colonial steamships operating in the north-west of Australia, owned by the controversial pearler and pastoralist Charles Edward Broadhurst was of such import as the State's first coastal steamer 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 are square or rectangular scuttles 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 was built in 1848 as a ferry, reference was made in its contract to it being similar to the which is known to have rectangular ventilation ports. Research conducted by mid-west historian Stan Gratte, based on interviews conducted with 'old Cue residents' and local station identities the Morgan brothers, shows that the Walga Rock painting was produced around 1917 at the time when Sammy 'Malay' also known as Sammy Hassan is recorded as having arrived there from Shark Bay. Apparently a 'Malay', 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. As Shark Bay legend has Sammy 'Malay' dying from a shark bite at his outcamp 'Sammy Well' and anthropologist Esmée Webb disputes the Sammy 'Malay' connection, more research is required, however. Either way it is possible that Sammy Hassan was 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 the from Batavia, for example. Some were abandoned by Broadhurst at Geraldton when 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 and possibly another steamer at Inthanoona Station east of Cossack, the Walga Rock painting is one of the most inland examples. Recently Malaysian visitors to the Shipwreck Museum in Fremantle advised they felt the four lines underneath the Walghana ship could represent Jawi. Recent research into that possibility has not established a link, however.
