Recognising the Kariong Hieroglyphs as a Sacred Site

In a beautiful but unremarkable Australian bush setting, just above picturesque Brisbane Waters and near the town of Kariong, a cluster of approximately three hundred hieroglyphs has been carved on two sandstone rock walls. The academic interest excited by these glyphs, chiefly on the part of the Department of Egyptology at Macquarie University, has been limited to a decisive debunking of claims that the hieroglyphs are genuine relics of an ancient Egyptian voyage to Australia. Yet the glyphs have become part of the belief stories of a number of people both local and global, and are part of a complex understanding of a very different reality, one in which Australia becomes the new Indus Valley, the Pharaohs walked in Woy Woy, and the local area gains centrality in the spiritual understanding of some people. This paper examines the rich layers of cultural significance the Kariong site has accrued.