Saturday, September 20, 2008

Fascinating Aboriginal art discovered

Aboriginal rock art

You may have seen the latest discovery of Aboriginal rock art in the news lately, researchers have uncovered thousands of drawings depicting all manner of European objects including ships , guns and aircraft , as well as older Maccasan trading vessels.
You can read up on the full story here , and view a slideshow of the drawings here.
The diagrams are being documented as there seems to be mining companies lurking into the area to continue the great tradition of destroying Aboriginal history
The Woy Woy area is also rich in Aboriginal rock art and paintings , sadly most of these are ageing and vandalised by the successive local councils and flannelette wearing bogans , large portions of the Bulgandry site were closed off to the public in the late 70's to preserve it and all reference to other carving and painting sites were slowly removed from new maps of the area.

Aboriginal cave paintings Woy Woy area

The destruction caused by sandstone quarries , road building and general development to Aboriginal sites on the coast is kept hush hush , as the sites aren't well known anymore then no one will know.........
Take the Bora ground at Patonga for example , firstly it had a road blasted through it in the 30's for the new road to Patonga , and now the NPWS and any other local government department use part of it as access to a fire trail , I cannot contain my disgust at seeing large tractor tyre marks scarring the rock surface of this site less than 20 metres from a carving.

Aboriginal carving - Patonga

Because of the road edges being washed off during rain the whole area is being silted up and large parts are now unnaturally vegetated , covering carvings and the unique tessellations.

Sacred meeting place Patonga

I think Gosford Council and the NPWS should wake up and fix this up immediately.

1 comment:

  1. G'Day Mick, I'm doing an AboriginalCultures course at UTS. As part of my first task I have to research my local area, searching for evidence of Aboriginal cultural history. I am calling my report "Getting in touch with my local area, an insight into Aboriginal cultural displacement". I am sad and embarrist at what has happened to the Aboriginal people at the hands of the people who had settled this area and continue to administer it, I am DISGUSTED!

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