Aboriginal Cave Paintings and Rock Engravings

I started this blog in September just after we got back from our trip to the Flinders Ranges but life got in the way, as it tends to do, and it is only during the Christmas break that I have found the time to finish it off.  So, my apologies for being tardy with the blog and best wishes to you all for the Christmas and New Year period!

Across the duration of our visit to the Flinders Ranges we took the time to stop at four locations where aboriginal rock paintings and/or rock engravings were accessible to the public.

Without a Rosetta Stone of sorts it would be pretty much impossible to decipher the meaning of the images and patterns seen on the rock walls found in the region.  Fortunately, information boards have been located fairly adjacent to each site to help the viewer to understand what they are looking at.  Unfortunately for you, the blog reader, you are likely to be unable to read the descriptions of the symbols on the photo of the information board - you are just going to have to trust me on this when I tell you what appears to have been going on at one of the ceremonies described by the engravings on the walls at Mt. Chambers Gorge!

Information boards assist viewers in their interpretation of the symbols seen engraved into the rock walls

The easiest to get to were the rock engravings found in 'Sacred Canyon' near Wilpena Pound.  These are just a couple of hundred metres easy walk up a normally dry creek bed from a parking lot at the end of a 12km access road.  In the photos below you can see the smooth polished rocks in the creek bed and given how infrequent the rain is in these parts it must really whoosh through the canyon when it does flow!

Heather making her way into Sacred Canyon

Deep within the walls of Sacred Canyon!

Next as far as degree of difficulty of access is concerned were the rock paintings at Arkaroo Rock.  A 1.5 km hike along a well marked trail climbs about 100m up from the trailhead to the rock paintings located under the overhang of a rock face.  A 1.5km descent trail delivers you back to your starting point.

Nice scenery along the way to the Arkaroo Rock paintings

Three examples of rock painting are located at Yourambulla Peak situated 12km north of Hawker or 50km south of our campsite.  Easy highway access but when we got there we found very little by way of trail markings.  Add to this the fact that it was pouring with rain made this art gallery quite difficult to get to.  Once we got there, although soaked to the skin, we felt it had been worth the trouble to find them.

If you click on the picture it will enlarge and hopefully you can read the sign!

Most difficult to get to, primarily due to their remoteness from our base camp, were the rock engravings found at Chambers Gorge.  These were by far the most expansive and impressive to look at.  I think the combination of the sheer number of engravings, the smooth red rock of the gorge walls that were used as the 'canvas' for ancient story telling and the stillness of the dry creek bed on the day we were there made this location our favourite.

Just one of the rock walls at Chambers Gorge used to record important events of times long ago

This place had all sorts of engravings that described communal meetings, locations of food and water sources, initiation ceremonies, match-making and good old fashioned gossip!

There were documented stories (literally carved in stone) of old men hoping to be paired up with young women, old women helping make the young ladies pretty before their big night out (by making them walk through the smoke from plum grass fires!) and telling the young girls what to expect, and of young men lurking in the shadows of these proceedings given 'ceremonial' beatings by the older men - one friend of ours has commented that this is remarkably similar to some of the parties he used to go to as a younger man!  In addition to the stories of these 'parties to end all parties', was general information exchange about where to go to get good bush tucker (food) and where to find permanent water in the district.

We found it very interesting to see the rock art and engraving examples up close - the photos don't really do these places justice but we thought them worthwhile to share.

If you are interested, the link below will take you to a 6 minute video on YouTube made by Heather about some of the rock art and engravings we saw.  The video contains more details and better pictures than I was able to provide here.  It also tells you about a steep hike we took to get to the top of Rawnsley Bluff at Wilpena Pound.

https://youtu.be/qJawMIh3qKs

That's all for this installment of WTF? - Where are The Farrows?  Hope you liked it.