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.
Two adjacent indigenous heritage sites along Mount Irvine Road near Bilpin. One has axe grinding grooves, and the other hand stencils.
- Wollemi National Park
- Number of motifs: 10
- Quality: 4/5
- Condition of art: Good
- Year first recorded: 1976
- Originally recorded by: Ian Sim
An unusual Aboriginal rock art site on the side of a tall cliff face, which has two faces and what appears to be a snake.
- Wollemi National Park
- Number of motifs: 3
- Quality: 2/5
- Condition of art: Good
- Year first recorded: 2022
Dark red ochre paintings preserved in two rock shelters on the south-eastern slopes of Mount Manning, in Yengo National Park.
- Yengo National Park
- Number of motifs: 45
- Quality: 5/5
- Condition of art: Good
- Year first recorded: 1965
- Originally recorded by: N. W. G. Macintosh
- View Site Sketch
An interesting panel containing Aboriginal cave paintings in a shelter near Bilpin. Most of the figures are painted in charcoal.
- Wollemi National Park
- Number of motifs: 10
- Quality: 3.5/5
- Condition of art: Good
- Year first recorded: 2022
- Originally recorded by: Mark Roebuck
Weathered Aboriginal charcoal figures at the base of a tall cliff-line above the Nepean River
- Blue Mountains National Park
- Number of motifs: 7
- Quality: 2/5
- Condition of art: Weathered
- Year first recorded: 1958
A small shelter above New Yard Creek which has a number of different Aboriginal rock motifs, including a human figure, bird track and a snake as well as hand stencils.
- Wollemi National Park
- Number of motifs: 14
- Quality: 3.5/5
- Condition of art: Good
- Year first recorded: 2019
An intiguing Aboriginal rock art site; this shelter along New Yard Creek has multiple parallel lines and a cluster of dots, as well as many hand stencils.
- Wollemi National Park
- Number of motifs: 30
- Quality: 4.5/5
- Condition of art: Good
- Year first recorded: 2019
An interesting and complex Aboriginal rock art site in Colo Heights, which has a prominent "starburst" motif as well as many hand stencils.
- Wollemi National Park
- Number of motifs: 18
- Quality: 4.5/5
- Condition of art: Good
- Year first recorded: 2019
A nice set of Aboriginal axe grinding grooves, along the bed of an unnamed creek north of Little Tootie
- Wollemi National Park
- Number of motifs: 6
- Quality: 4/5
- Condition of art: Good
- Year first recorded: 2023
An Aboriginal rock art site with two charcoal motifs in a shelter north of Little Tootie, in Wollemi National Park.
- Wollemi National Park
- Number of motifs: 2
- Quality: 2/5
- Condition of art: Good
- Year first recorded: 2023
An example of a scarred tree in the Blue Mountains, which has been burnt in the 2019/2020 bushfires.
- Blue Mountains National Park
- Quality: 1/5
- Condition of art: Fire damage
- Unknown recording date
Multiple sets of shallow grinding grooves on a rock platform near the Oaks Trail
- Blue Mountains National Park
- Number of motifs: 10
- Quality: 2.5/5
- Condition of art: Good
- Year first recorded: 2022
Aboriginal rock art site along the Oaks Trail in the Blue Labyrinth area of the Blue Mountains, which has a pair of kangaroo tracks and a few scattered grinding grooves.
- Blue Mountains National Park
- Number of motifs: 2
- Quality: 3/5
- Condition of art: Good
- Year first recorded: 1958
- Originally recorded by: Ian Sim
Aboriginal rock art comprising multiple weathered hand stencils and two white lines in a low shelter.
- Yengo National Park
- Number of motifs: 10
- Quality: 2.5/5
- Condition of art: Weathered
- Year first recorded: 2010
A small Aboriginal engraving site in Faulconbridge, which includes two men and a leaping kangaroo, as well as many axe grinding grooves. It was likely a ceremonial site.
- Blue Mountains National Park
- Number of motifs: 4
- Quality: 3.5/5
- Condition of art: Good, Partially Destroyed
- Year first recorded: 1946
- Originally recorded by: F.D. McCarthy
- View site sketch