Known as Dingo’s Lair (and also referred to by Dr Haydn Washington as “Dingo Dreaming”), this significant Aboriginal rock art site is located deep in the Wollemi wilderness. The shelter has over forty motifs: “There are many dingos and quolls (marsupial ferretlike predators related to Tasmanian devils), as well as other creatures typical of an area low in the landscape. Creatures are animated and naturalistic but are hard to see because of the cave’s darkness.” (Differential Australian cave and rockshelter use during the Pleistocene and Holocene).
The drawings are considered to have been made between 1,600 and 200 years ago – about the same age as Eagle’s Reach, and not quite as old as the Emu Cave). Ten dingos (and another eleven macropods) are depicted at Dingo’s Lair, all in charcoal and many with a white outline – “One of the most impressive sites with dingo imagery is ‘Dingo’s Lair’ in Wollemi National Park with several close to lifesize naturalistic depictions drawn with charcoal” (Who let the dogs in?)
One of the figures is depicted, somewhat unusually, with four legs.
An emu is drawn with a very long neck.
Depictions of quolls are generally found at sites of relatively low elevation (“Aboriginal rock art depictions of fauna“), such as Dingo’s Lair. These are described as spotted quolls
The most striking figures – a man and woman with upraised arms – have been “enhanced” since the site was first documented and photographed in the late 1970s.
Amongst the animal figures are three hands; one is a hand stencil in red ochre, and other two are outlines of hands in black.
The large and deep shelter (photo credit: John Gray) means the paintings are well protected from the elements, and would never receive any direct sunlight.
Just below the shelter is a fairly deep waterhole along a permanent creek.
In the creek bed above Dingos Lair are what appear to be two weathered grinding grooves.
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