WOLLEMI NATIONAL PARK

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               W O L L E M I   F I N D  A N   A B O R I G I N A L   S E A T   O F   T H E   G O D S




A rock platform in the heart of the Wollemi wilderness may be the closest thing Australia has to Mount Olympus, the seat of the gods in Greek mythology. Last spring archaeologists discovered an enormous slab of sandstone, 100 metres long and 50 metres wide, in the 500,000-hectare Wollemi National Park. It was covered in ancient art. The gallery depicted an unprecedented collection of powerful ancestral beings from Aboriginal mythology.

     Last week the archaeologists who found the platform, Dr Matthew Kelleher and Michael Jackson, returned with a rock art expert from Griffith University, Professor Paul Tacon, a Blue Mountains-based archaeologist, Wayne Brennan, and several of their colleagues. For most of the day the engravings are almost invisible. In the low light of dawn and dusk the images are briefly revealed. The team had five days to document 42 figurative motifs, and by the first evening Professor Tacon, Mr Brennan and Dr Kelleher had recognised a gathering of the gods.

     "The site is the Aboriginal equivalent of the palace on Mount Olympus where the Olympians, the 12 immortals of ancient Greece, were believed to have lived," Professor Tacon said. "This is the most amazing rock engraving site in the whole of south-eastern Australia." Even in famous rock art regions in the north it is extremely rare to see big gatherings of ancestral beings depicted together, he said.

     It is almost impossible to imagine how humans could travel through, let alone survive in, the Wollemi. It is dissected by deep canyons and in places almost impassable. And yet the archaeologists have found hundreds of sites in the past five years. It seems almost certain that the engravings are part of a much larger network of songlines and stories, the full meaning of which is all but lost. In many cases the figures seem to point to other important geographical features or major cultural sites, and possibly to patterns in the stars. The team also found evidence of everyday existence, such as rock shelters that still bear signs of their occupants - hand stencils, a partial stone axe head, flakes from stone tools and at the back of a cave timber that could only have been stacked by a person.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald (21 April 2007)

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In the Wollemi National Park, home of the Wollemi Pine, 4000 year old rock paintings have just been uncovered marking the most significant find of Aboriginal art in the state of New South Wales in half a century. Hidden for generations by the Park�s rugged and inhospitable terrain, the drawings and stencils are thought to have been placed on the walls of the remote cave at a time before China was a unified empire, when civilisation in Egypt and Crete was well advanced, and when Stonehenge was being built.

The discovery, which was announced on July 2, 2003, was made by a team from the Australian Museum. Leading the find was the Australian Museum's resident rock art specialist and Principal Research Scientist in Anthropology, Dr Paul Ta�on.

"It is like an ancient world that time forgot. We've never seen anything quite like this combination of rare representations in so many layers. The drawings are dominated by a range of birds, lizards and marsupials. There are life-size delicately drawn eagles, kangaroos and an extremely rare depiction of a wombat. Stencils include hands, boomerangs and axes. The 203 depictions are composed of 12 layers built up over time in various colours such as red, yellow, white and charcoal," said Dr Ta�on.

"We are incredibly excited about what the cave has revealed to us of the long record of visitors to the area. It is amazing to contemplate why people repeatedly travelled great distances through such a rugged landscape to leave their marks on this cave time and again.�

"This find and the discovery of the Wollemi Pine show how valuable our wild places are. They can tell us about the world of plants and animals, in the past and in the present, and how people have had a relationship with these places for tens of thousands of years. It is likely that there were powerful spiritual beliefs associated with this remarkable site," said Dr Ta�on.

The  gallery of rock art, dating back to when Stonehenge was being built and before China was a unified empire. The site is covered in 203 drawings in 12 layers built up over time and, for the most part, the illustrations are 4,000 years old. The superimposed layers are pristine and in various colours of red, yellow, white, charcoal and black.

The site is being documented by a team from the Australian Museum. 

The National Parks and Wildlife Service have chosen to restrict information about the exact location of the site in order to protect it from inadvertent or wilful damage. The decision has the support of local Aboriginal people. However, more details on the find will soon be made available to the public on the Australian Museum's web site, via scientific journals and a documentary that will be released next year.

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                               A NEW AUSTRALIAN ROCK-ART AREA BORDERING SYDNEY




                         

In Australia it was recently believed that all major rockart areas had been identified some time ago (e.g. Flood 1997, Layton 1992, Morwood 2002), although a number new sites are regularly found across the continent. Australia has more sites than any other country with at 100,000 (Flood 1997) and perhaps as many as 125,000. It will likely be several decades before an accurate account is available, given the size of Australia, the nature of the terrain and the currently limited amount of rockart research. Recent research has added much detail some poorly documented areas, such as the Torres (Brady et al. 2004), the Keep River region (Taçon
2003), between Darwin and the Daly River, Northern Territory (Gunn 2003) and parts of central Australia 2005) but the discoveries of large new rock-art areas exceedingly rare. However, recent work by McDonald (2005) and others near the Canning Stock Route in westcentral Australia has not only fleshed out our knowledge poorly known art for this region but also revealed localities of previously unknown art and links to several other areas, including the Pilbara. Our own research revealed something similar, a new area of rock-art links to other art bodies in several directions.

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The Landscape of Blue Mountains Rock-Art Project



Since 2001 we have been working in the rugged, wild Wollemi National Park, an area northwest of Sydney considered by many to be the last remaining large area of wilderness in New South Wales. Wollemi lies within the recently declared Blue Mountains World Heritage Area and is situated immediately north of the Blue Mountains National Park. It is well known for its plant biodiversity and there are rare plant species, such as the Pagoda daisy (Leucochrysum graminifolium) and the ancient Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis), in hidden gorges. Many have only recently been discovered, such as the pine in 1994. Our field area is approximately 60 kms by 90 kms, about 5,400 square kilometres.

When we began very little was known about the cultural heritage of the Wollemi and because of its rugged, and at times impenetrable nature, we were told not to expect to find much at all. However, there are clusters of sites around its edge and bushwalkers (hikers) had found a large site in late 1995. We began by visiting sites close to the Wollemi in order to observe variation and the types of sites we might expect. We then documented, reported or registered sites around the edges, providing greater detail to earlier records. Finally, in 2003, we got to the central Wollemi site reported by the bushwalkers, now known as Eagle’s Reach. Since then our investigations have revealed hundreds of previously undocumented archaeological sites, many with spectacular rock-art.




   
Map: Location of
Wollemi national Park, in Australia. 
     

We work closely with various parts of the Wiradjeri, Darug, Darkingjung and other relevant Aboriginal communities on all aspects of the project, including field work. Aboriginal people are partners in research but also provide information, advice and skills crucial to the success of the project. We also work closely with the bushwalking (hiking) community, with members of several clubs either being team members who specialise in survey and site location or providing reports to us when they encounter sites during their regular expeditions and activities.

During the pilot phase of our research (2001-2003) we set out to record a broad range of Aboriginal sites in the Wollemi in order to get a feel for its potential cultural heritage. The initial focus was on rock-art and grinding groove sites because of the large range of information they contain. However, we also noted the location of artefact scatters, unadorned shelters with artefacts and other archaeological sites. Twenty-eight individual sites were scientifically recorded in detail, from several localities across the Wollemi. Eleven of these sites were previously unknown, as were a further 29 sites found by our team in survey. These sites lie within traditional Wiradjeri, Darug and Darkinjung country. Over 1,200 individual rock marking motifs were fully recorded, consisting of stencils, grinding grooves, dry pigment drawings, paintings, vertical engravings and horizontal engravings (eg. see Taçon 2003a, Taçon 2003b; Taçon, Brennan et al. 2003; Taçon, Brennan et al. in press).

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                                           S I G N I F I C A N T    P H A S E    I    R E S U L T S










a) the documentation and assessment of ‘Eagle’s Reach’ (Fig. 1-2), a site now known to be one of the most outstanding in the greater Sydney region in terms of drawings and stencils and the subject of much recent international attention.   Fine charcoal drawings at Eagle’s Reach lying under a white club stencil and white outline drawings are thought to be as much as 1600 years of age. At Eagle’s Reach there are a number of therianthropes,
human-bird or human-macropod combinations.






b) the discovery of a previously unreported platform engraving site in the heart of the southern Wollemi, the first in that area (Fig. 3)  Platform engravings are uncommon in Wollemi, being more
typical of coastal sites to the east. These outline animals have had red
wool placed in the grooves in order to temporarily better define their features.   
 
 
   







c) the discovery of a rock-art shelter with a wooden artefact, a 49 cm long fire stick placed on a rock ledge at least 150 years ago (Fig. 4);
This rare wooden firestick, perhaps 150-250 years of age, was found lying on a well-protected shelf at the back of a rediscovered shelter with white outline drawings. 
   


d) the documenting of 57 Aboriginal archaeological sites, most with rock-art;

e) the discovery of 29 sites near Eagle’s Reach on an 18 square kilometre plateau surrounded by deep gorges.





f) the first direct date for rock-art in the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, with a vertical engraved bird track (Fig. 5) revealed to have a minimum age of 2,000 years.

  
   

The major aim of the pilot phase was achieved in that we have demonstrated Wollemi National Park has a rich and varied cultural heritage. However, we realized we had only just scratched the surface, and that there is enormous potential for further significant discoveries. This was borne out in Phase 2 (January 2004 to June 2005). Results are about to be analysed in detail but over one hundred additional sites were located, about half with rock-art. Some sites have dozens of drawings and stencils and a few are remarkably well preserved. Importantly, several areas of concentration have been identified and travel routes between them have also been mapped. Furthermore, additional rock-art forms and techniques were discovered and influences from several different cultural groups, near and far, were documented.     
 
Fig. 5 A minimum age of 2000 years was obtained from a crust overlying this engraved bird track. The panel it is part of is more typical of designs found far to the northwest in central Australia and its actual age may be in the order of several thousand years. 
   

Indeed, although Wollemi National Park is a rugged, wild place, it now seems Aboriginal people visited it from several directions, at the same time and at different times. Their individual and group marks of identity were left behind in the process and at some sites there was a great accumulation of imagery.

During Phase 3 (July 2005 to June 2008) we plan to expand our survey base and to initiate excavation at a few key locations. The objectives of Phase 3 are (a) to develop a predicative model for locating rock-art and other Aboriginal sites in the Wollemi; (b) to document traditional travel routes and Dreaming tracks; (c) to finish survey in key areas; (d) to record as much of the rockart as possible in detail and before sites deteriorate from natural processes and increasing tourist pressure; (d) to excavate a number (at least five) of significant rock shelters with art in order to better determine age of occupation and associated activities; (e) to contribute to a management and preservation plan to be developed for the area; and finally (f) to make a documentary film on the rock-art, the documentation process and the Aboriginal community members involved.

The picture of Wollemi cultural heritage that has emerged over the past few years is one of much greater complexity than expected. There are hundreds, probably thousands of sites, scattered throughout its rugged, often almost impassable, landscape. Wollemi is a wild place with many endangered plants and animals but our research is showing it also has a long cultural history. Influences can be seen from several directions, near and far. Wollemi rock-art is different from that of the Sydney Basin although much of it has strong links with that rock-art ‘province’. It also has links to other rock-art areas as well as its own unique features. We argue it should properly be considered a new rock-art area in this sense but that it is best studied as a ‘cross roads’ area that has always been used by many different groups of people. Contemporary Aboriginal opinion is that many of the rock-art sites were teaching places and that the Wollemi was long recognised as a very special place.



Acknowledgments

Phase 1 of the project was funded by the Australian Museum. During Phase 2 research was sponsored by National Geographic. Both are thanked for making our journeys through the Wollemi possible. We especially thank the greater Blue Mountains Aboriginal Community, the greater Blue Mountains bushwalking community and the many people who participated in field trips and otherwise supported this research. We also thank the New South Wales Department of Environment and Conservation, the Australian Museum, Griffith University, the Blue Mountains World Heritage Research Institute and the University of New England for support.

Paul S. C. TAÇON 1, Wayne BRENNAN 2, Shaun HOOPER 3,
Matthew KELLEHER 4 & Dave PROSS 5

1 Griffith University, Gold Coast campus.
2 University of New England, Armidale.
3 Blue Mountains World Heritage


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