The Greater Blue Mountains incorporates a number of national parks and is full of cultural significance, with six Aboriginal groups having connections to the area. There are over 3,000 recorded Aboriginal heritage sites in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, but the rugged and remote topography means that for every known site there are likely to be at least two more yet to be “discovered” or recorded. The parks in this area include include:

  • Blue Mountains National Park, which protects many important cultural sites of the Dharug and Wiradjuri people, has a number of easily accessibly and signposted Aboriginal rock art sites.
  • Wollemi National Park is the traditional home of the Wiradjuri, Dharug, Wanaruah and Darkinjung people. Evidence of their occupation includes ceremonial grounds, stone arrangements, grinding grooves, scarred trees and rock engravings.
  • Yengo National Park which is home to the Darkinjung and Wonnarua People, has 640 Aboriginal cultural sites recorded in the park and nearby areas.
  • Gardens of Stone, the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri people, has many shelters with rock art and hand stencils in its countless valleys and overhangs.
Shelter above a tributary of Linden Creek, which has a small number of Aboriginal rock art motifs in charcoal
Shelter above a tributary of Linden Creek, which has an extensive but weathered Aboriginal rock art panel with figures in charcoal and red ochre
An impressively high, long and deep shelter below Linden Ridge in the Blue Mountains, Stratton Cave contains Aboriginal rock art which was "discovered" by A.J. Stratton in 1934.
A large, weathered charcoal Aboriginal art figure in a low shelter in the Mellong Range.
A complex Aboriginal art shelter in the Mellong Range, which has multiple stencils including hands and a boomerang and human figures in charcoal and white ochre.