A remarkable gallery of cave paintings in eastern New South Wales

Abstract

The rock shelter containing this extraordinarily fine set of drawings and stencils is situated in the Hawkesbury district on Crown land. Because of the need to protect the gallery from vandals its precise locality cannot be disclosed. For this reason, also, the Cumberland County Council has erected a thick wire screen across the entire front of the shelter. The shelter forms part of the vertical face, about 8 ft. high, of an extensive sandstone rock surface which runs across the base of a marsh. A dozen potholes, 3 ft. to 4 ft. in diameter and up to 2 ft. deep, have been formed in the bed of the main flow of water, which runs in rainy weather and is usually seeping over the rock. Beside some of these pools are, in all, several dozen axe-grinding grooves.