I was heading up the mountains with Bob, and we were on our way to Mt Victoria for a walk on the Asgard Plateau. On the way, we decided to make a quick visit to Red Gum Park at Bullaburra to allow me to photograph Minnatonka Falls. I thought recent rain may have actually made this waterfall a bit better than with its usual flow (barely a trickle). I wanted a good photo of the waterfall to include in my Waterfalls of the Blue Mountains Website.
Minnatonka Falls
So, we turned off down Noble Street at Bullaburra and soon were walking down the track into the park. We soon arrived at a lookout. Around the lookout were four round holes. They seem to have been bored into the rock. Each one had a diameter of about 15 cm. I had seen these before on my previous visit, and was quite puzzled by them then. Seeing them again brought up the same questions. Are they man made or made by natural processes? If they are man made – who made them? Aboriginals or later visitors? Even if they are not man made, could they have been used by aboriginals for various purposes?
Aboriginals did use holes for storing water. They placed a rock over the top to stop evaporation or animals. They also used holes for grinding purposes – e.g. grinding up cycad seeds. And they also used holes for cooking – using hot water or steam. They could do this by putting water into the hole and then heating rocks up on a fire and then placing to rocks into the water. All these practices seem to be documented.
Nearby, at Gloria Park at Hazelbrook, and very close to the Highway, are another set of holes. These ones are much larger. One early account claims that aboriginals made the holes, but this has been disputed. But it does seem that channels to divert water into them have been chipped out by aboriginals, and when they were excavated (they had part filled with dirt) – implements such as spear tips were found.
We continued on to Minnatoka Falls, only a a few minutes further on. The waterfall was certainly larger than my previous visit but you would not call it impressive. I took a few photos and we headed back to Bob’s car.
More photos are on this webpage.