Summary: A series of four shelters along the same cliff-line with over 300 Aboriginal rock art motifs. The figures include bullroarers, hand stencils and the tail feathers of a bird.

A series of shelters with Aboriginal rock art is located along a cliff-line deep in the Kings Tableland, this complex of sites is known for its unusual stencilled bullroarers. There are over 300 motifs in charcoal, red ochre and white ochre and over 30 axe grinding grooves.

Shelter 1: Charcoal Drawings

The first, shallow overhang consists of a single (indeterminate) charcoal motif.

Shelter 2: Stencils and Drawings

The second of four shelters containing Aboriginal art has a number of interesting motifs: one of these has the appearance of a fern, but could represent the feathered tail of a lyrebird. Behind this charcoal motif are seven bird tracks in red ochre.

1X3A7635 Kings Tableland Bullroarer and Stencils Shelter1X3A7635 yre Kings Tableland Bullroarer and Stencils Shelter

Below the bird prints or tracks is what appears to be the legs or lower torso of a human figure.

These two red ochre bird prints in a small alcove are much clearer.

Another three bird prints are also fairly distinct, but image enhancement reveals multiple hand stencils (also in red ochre).

There are more red ochre lines that are hard to see, and are often superimposed on charcoal figures.

This larger alcove on the back wall of the shelter has one full hand stencil in red ochre and two partial hand stencils, as well as the charcoal outline of a hand and forearm, which is unusual. There’s also an indeterminate motif in white ochre.

There are many more, mostly indeterminate, charcoal drawings.

At the western end of the shelter on the ceiling and upper wall there are at least fifteen stencils, mostly hand stencils, in red ochre.

1X3A7672 Kings Tableland Bullroarer and Stencils Shelter1X3A7672 yre Kings Tableland Bullroarer and Stencils Shelter

Among the hand stencils are three oval-shaped bullroarers: “Bullroarers are specially crafted Aboriginal wooden implements designed to make sound when swung rapidly on the end of a piece of string. The sound made by a bullroarer can be hauntingly dramatic in the right circumstances and may have been designed to imitate the noise of spirits (Stockton & Merriman).

Situated along the dripline of the shelter are over twenty grinding grooves; one large boulder is covered in deep grooves.

Several more grooves are at along base of the main rock platform.

Shelter 3: Hand Stencils

The third shelter consists predominantly of hand stencils in red ochre, which are clustered around one end of the relatively shallow overhang.

One of the most distinctive motifs is that of two connected forearms.

There are over 30 hand stencils, including some which appear to be children’s hands.

One motif may be an bird track (or part of an bird track).

There is just one, weathered hand stencil at the eastern end of the overhang.

Shelter 4: White Lines

The last shelter is a very shallow and exposed overhang – it’s more of a smooth panel in the cliff-line than a shelter.

There are two figures in white ochre, which seem to represent human figures but are either incomplete, or subject to exfoliation. The shape of the left-hand lower torso has some similarities to the white human figures in the Golden Boomerang Cave.

1X3A7746 Kings Tableland Bullroarer and Stencils Shelter1X3A7747 yye Kings Tableland Bullroarer and Stencils Shelter
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 1,267 other subscribers

0 Comments

Leave a Reply

Aboriginal Sites by National Park

Yengo National Park was an important spiritual and cultural place for the Darkinjung and Wonnarua People for thousands of years, and 640 Aboriginal cultural sites are recorded in the park and nearby areas.
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.
Over 40 sites have been recorded within the park; many were located along the river bank and were flooded by the building of the weir in 1938.
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.