Mount Banks Aboriginal Grinding Grooves

Summary: Over fifty Aboriginal grinding grooves along Explorers Ridge near Mount Banks, which was described as a major workshop site.

  • Site type: Axe Grinding Groove (AGG)
  • Number of motifs: 55
  • Quality: 4/5
  • Condition of site: Good
  • Year first recorded: 1980

Below Mount Banks is the largest of multiple axe grinding groove sites which are along the ridge. Within a small area are over fifty grinding grooves, around and inside several shallow potholes.

1X3A2787 LR 1 Mount Banks Aboriginal Grinding Grooves

This area was described as a “major workshop site” in the 1980s.

1X3A2780 LR Mount Banks Aboriginal Grinding Grooves
1X3A2781 LR Mount Banks Aboriginal Grinding Grooves
1X3A2783 LR Mount Banks Aboriginal Grinding Grooves

Near the main depression (which has the most grooves) are several more smaller clusters of grooves.

1X3A2784 LR Mount Banks Aboriginal Grinding Grooves
1X3A2789 LR Mount Banks Aboriginal Grinding Grooves
1X3A2791 LR Mount Banks Aboriginal Grinding Grooves

About thirty metres to the south-west is another shallow pothole, which also has many grinding grooves.

1X3A2773 LR Mount Banks Aboriginal Grinding Grooves

These grooves are mostly inside the depression, and covered by water after rain.

1X3A2772 LR Mount Banks Aboriginal Grinding Grooves
1X3A2774 LR Mount Banks Aboriginal Grinding Grooves

The platform just below the grinding grooves is covered with thousands of small stones; although there is no evidence of this being an Aboriginal stone arrangement or stones used to make axes, it’s unlikely that their occurrence is natural.

1X3A2798 LR Mount Banks Aboriginal Grinding Grooves
1X3A2793 LR Mount Banks Aboriginal Grinding Grooves
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