| ABORIGINAL SITES - New South Wales |
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Sydney region
It comes as a surprise to many, including people who have lived there all their lives, that the Sydney region is a vast gallery of Aboriginal rock art. It believed that over 6,000 drawings, most of which are carved into sandstone rock faces, once existed throughout what is now the Sydney metropolitan area, but many have been destroyed, bulldozed or blasted out of existence to make way for farms, bridges and later, suburbs. In most cases, those clearing the land or responsible for it did not know about the art's existence, nor did they have any inkling as to its value as either the last remaining evidence of a new vanished culture, its spiritual and religious importance to the survivors of that culture or as a part of Sydney's heritage.
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Wollemi National Park
A chance discovery by a bush walker has become one of the most significant finds of Aboriginal rock art in Australia's history. A cave containing more than 200 paintings, some believed to be 4,000 years old, was found by a bush walker in 1995 in a remote part of the Wollemi National Park, north-west of Sydney. The bush walker is thought to be the first person to have laid eyes on the paintings since the last Aborigine left his or her mark there almost 200 years ago. The exact location of the site - a rock shelter 12 metres long, six metres deep and one to two metres high known as Eagle's Reach - is being kept a secret to stop it from being damaged by either vandals or well-meaning sightseers.
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Mt. Grenfell
Several rock shelters containing Aboriginal art are located in the Mt. Grenfell area, 50 km west of Cobar in the arid lands in Central West NSW. The site, which is well signposted of great significance to the Ngiyampaa Wangaaypuwan people. It is easily accessed via a gravel road that leads north from Barrier Highway between Cobar and Broken Hill. Around 1,300 figures on the walls of rock overhangs have been created in solid blocks of colour rather than as stick figures or single line designs, in reds, yellows and ochres. What are now large multicoloured panels are the result of superimposition by generation after generation of Aboriginal painters.
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