Ghungalu Art Site on the Goon Goon Dhina Trail

Summary: A signposted Aboriginal rock art site in Blackdown National Park, the Ghungalu Art Site is along the Goon Goon Dhina Trail. It has mostly hand stencils in red ochre.

  • Art type/s: Stencil - Hand, Stencil - Other
  • Number of motifs: 20
  • Motif/s: Club, Hand
  • Quality: 4/5
  • Condition of site: Good

The signposted Ghungalu Art Site is the only publicly accessible indigenous rock art in Blackdown National Park. The Ghungalu people (also written as Gangulu, Kangulu, Kanolu and Kaangooloo) are the traditional owners of the land.

Ghungalu Art Site

The site consists of numerous hand stencils in red ochre, on the ceiling and wall of the long shelter.

028A8020 LR Ghungalu Art Site on the Goon Goon Dhina Trail
028A8024 LR Ghungalu Art Site on the Goon Goon Dhina Trail

There’s also two stencils depicting what appear to be clubs.

028A8036 LR Ghungalu Art Site on the Goon Goon Dhina Trail
028A8026 LR yrd 1 Ghungalu Art Site on the Goon Goon Dhina Trail

Scattered around the shelter are more individual hand stencils.

028A8031 LR Ghungalu Art Site on the Goon Goon Dhina Trail
028A8033 LR Ghungalu Art Site on the Goon Goon Dhina Trail
028A8034 LR Ghungalu Art Site on the Goon Goon Dhina Trail
028A8025 LR Ghungalu Art Site on the Goon Goon Dhina Trail

Getting to the Ghungalu Art Site

The site is reached via the Goon Goon Dhina bushwalk – the site is roughly in the middle of the 2.4km loop. The start of the bushwalk is at the far end of the Munall Camping Area, which is along the main road into the Blackdown Tableland National Park. The national park is located approximately 2.5 hours west of Rockhampton and 2 hours east of Emerald along the Capricorn Highway.

Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to Hiking the World, and receive notifications of new posts by email. (A hike is added every 1-2 weeks, on average.)

Join 1,225 other subscribers

0 Comments

Leave a Reply

Aboriginal Sites by National Park

Photographing Aboriginal rock art
A review of different techniques for photographing Aboriginal rock art. This includdes oblique flash, chain and planar mosaic imaging which combines hundreds of overlapping photos.
Aboriginal Rock Art in the Greater Blue Mountains
The Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area protects over 3,000 known Aboriginal heritage sites, and many more which are yet to be recorded. This area includes the Blue Mountains National Park, Gardens of Stone, Wollemi National Park and Yengo National Park.
Aboriginal Rock Art – Blue Mountains National Park
Red Hands Cave, Glenbrook (Blue Mountains)
The Blue Mountains National Park (and surrounding areas along the Great Western Highway) is thought to have over a thousand indigenous heritage sites, although much of the park has not been comprehensively surveyed. The Aboriginal rock sites in the Blue Mountains include grinding grooves, stensils, drawing and rock carvings.