Summary: This sacred cave depicts generations of markings and drawings, with 857 motifs (mainly handprints) – the largest assemblage of motifs of any currently known sites.

Swinton’s Cave (or Swintons Shelter) is a long cave, which has hundred of hand stencils, many super-imposed on top of each other, along the walls and ceiling. Additional motifs include a red horned anthropomorph and pink and bichrome stencils of boomerangs at the northern end of the cave.

img 3560 lr Swinton’s Cave

The average shelter art site in NSW contains 26.4 motifs; Swintons Cave contains 857 motifs, which is the largest known assemblage – and also the the highest number of identifiable motifs (653).

Swintons Cave handprints

The site is also significant due to the extensive evidence of pigment art production, and the use of two colours in a single stencil (bichrome technique), which is very rare.

Above the cave are a number of grinding grooves.

img 3582 lr Swinton’s Cave

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 1,205 other subscribers

1 Comment

McPherson State Forest loop | Hiking the World · August 28, 2021 at 10:48 pm

[…] It’s hard to find much information on McPherson State Forest, which is near Mangrove Mountain in the Central Coast to the north of Sydney. While listed on the NSW Forestry Corporation’s full list of forests, it has no dedicated recreation areas (it appears that the network of trails which cross the forest are not recognised as bushwalking trails). In 2018 a portion of the McPherson State Forest adjoining Yengo National Park was transferred to the care of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (although the NPWS web site has no information on this area either)… one of the reasons for the transfer of part of the forest was to protect its significant Aboriginal cultural heritage. Within McPherson State Forest is the Warre Warren Aboriginal Area, which contains hundreds of significant Aboriginal heritage sites, including Swintons Cave. […]

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.
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.
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.