Wet, cold weather was forecast, so rather than head up the mountains for a walk, Bob and myself decided that we would do a walk in Royal National Park. in July 2020 we had walked from Waterfall Station to Uloola Falls, and then to the Karloo Pool and Heathcote Station. That had been great walk where we had visited a number of Aboriginal heritage sites. Since that trip, I had looked at online aerial photos and seen other possible places that could have Aboriginal Art, so had suggested a trip from Waterfall to Uloola Falls, and this time continuing to Audley and then walking to Loftus. This seemed a good trip to do given the forecast.
So we set out from Waterfall and were soon walking along the fire road to Uloola Falls. At the first site, we looked around carefully on a large open rocky area, and found some possible sharpening grooves.
we returned to the fire trail and kept walking.
It wasn’t raining but the weather looked ominous. The ran radar showed we should soon be hit by a large band of rain.
The second site we checked out, was one we had seen on the previous trip. We had found what looks like a small engraved Emu footprint.
Near this, was a track that led through the bush to another open rock area. Could it have art? No – it led to an old campsite.
We returned to the fire road.
We reached Uloola Falls and kept on walking along then ridge to Audley. By now it was raining hard.
At one open rocky area, we left the track, and this time we did spot some Aboriginal engravings. There were some “fish” shaped engravings.
And we also spotted a series of what looks like footprint engravings.
And some engravings that looked like Kangaroo footprints –
Others have suggested that these marks were made by bushes blown in the wind –
Here are some more engravings –
Further along we checked out another possible site. We did not find any engravings, but did spot two modified rock pools. Small concrete dams had been made, apparently by bushwalkers in the 1930’s for drinking water supplies.
We then spotted an overhang under the rock. Could it have art? No, but we did find an old track sign – with Uloola and Audley and arrows. In the past, the track must have gone around the rock on that side.
Because of the rain, we took the first track down to Audley rather than continuing to Robertson Knoll.
At Wattle Flat on the Hacking River, we stopped for lunch under shelter.
From there it was an easy walk to Audley, then across the causeway and up the Honeymoon Track to National Park Station, then we followed the railway tracks back to Loftus. The short section walking along the highway, with cars flying past at high speed, was the low point of the trip. the rest had been excellent.