Both Bob and myself were keen to visit more Aboriginal sites on Kings Tableland. Perhaps one reason was that the road had recently been graded and was in very good condition. But also, on other recent trips, we had planned to visit some more sites but had run out of time, or the weather had been bad.
On this trip, we were also joined by Doug, who was keen to do the driving. We were soon walking along a rather overgrown fire road on the way to our first site.
We reached the cave we had been looking for.
This cave has two red ochre hand stencils in a lower recess. Just walking past the cave and casually looking, you would not see the art.
There may be some other ochre art under the stencils? Perhaps boomerangs?
There was also a stone axehead in the cave –
This rock looks like basalt, a rock not present in the area.
We then headed back.
Boronia ledifolia
Back along the overgrown fire road –
The second site we wanted to look out was near a waterhole. The way in was rather swampy, and we climbed up a cliff to get to a higher level.
We could look down at the waterhole –
In the creekbed above the waterhole were a series of sharpening grooves. Here are two –
And three more grooves here –
Another three or four grooves here –
We had to be careful on the steep slippery rock.
We then walked back to Doug’s car.
Wattle
White-eared Honeyeater
Eastern Spinebills
We then visited two more sites, that both Bob and myself had seen before.
The first is an art cave, with a series of sharpening grooves above the cliffline.
Below, is a very interesting cave with pecked out engravings of Emu footprints.
The last site we visited, has sharpening grooves and two engravings. And great view!
Just to the right of the sharpening grooves is a Kangaroo engraving –
And on the other side of the grooves is a male human figure engraving –
This had been another very interesting day in the Mountains.
