The Emblem of the Australian Aboriginal Movement
The Cave of Hands 
In the High Peaks of the Grampians Ranges (12/11/99)

Thankfully, some of them are protected from vandalismPassages deep behind the rock art grottoesOverhangs and rock shelters aboundIt's a long drive up to the very tops of the Buandik Hills overlooking the Serra Valley in the Grampians Ranges and a long walk up to the cave formations. This country was inhabited for scores of thousands of years by indigenous people. They have left pathetically few traces behind them but the rock art galleries of the Buandik Plateau is one place where evidences of their time may still be found. It should be told that their displacement was not a peaceful affair. These ranges were the focus of the Eumeralla War, a conflict that started almost as soon as the first white settlers arrived in about 1840 -1850 and dragged on for the succeeding 40 years. It was characterised by bloodshed and gross atrocity : it is not a chapter of Australian history of which we can be proud. Perhaps it best that we draw a veil over events of that era.

The Rock Art Galleries
These are images which I photographed in the Cave of Hands rock shelter. They feature human hands stencilled in red ochre, vertical lines, images of emu & kangaroo tracks and human stick figures. They are faded and can't be approached closer because of the steel cage erected to protect them. How old are they? It's hard to say. Certainly they date from pre-contact times but are they hundreds or thousands of years old? Erosion cavities have obliterated parts of some images and so these must have formed after the art work was completed. There is also the curious image shown below to consider. Could it be an extinct diprotodontid? If so, the last of them disappeared around 18,000 ybp. What does that say about these works?
Hints of Extinct Megafauna?

When I return from interstate, sometime next week, I'll try putting a full scale BMP file in a clickable image. Time presses and these will have to do for the present.
 
 
 
 
 

The Enhanced Image ... is it a diprotodontid?Then it's time to leaveThe small image is enhanced a little to bring out some detail. The damned thing, whatever it is, looks a bit like the back & hindquarters plus legs of a diprotodontid. The head is missing. OK, maybe I have an active imagination but there are some reconstructions i n Prof Vickers-Rich's books which are mighty like ....  Anyway, for now we have to head for home. But we'll be back.

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