Audrey and Eli spent the week with their auntie in Darwin. It was the first break I had had in (literally) years and so I took the opportunity to visit the beautiful Namadgi national park.
I was particularly keen to see the aboriginal rock art at Rendezvous Creek.
There's several (I think seven) locations in the Namadgi where aboriginal rock art can be found. The most 'famous' is the artwork at Yankee Hat. The Morrison bushfires of 2019/20 engulfed the area of the park where that particular rocky overhang is found but the ACT government and national park successfully saved it. The fires did however damage the area around it and the long boardwalk which used to allow access has now been removed. There are plans to re-open the rock art site (and archaeological site underneath) within a year.
The aboriginal community have not given specific approval for Rendezvous Creek and Nursery Swamp where other rock art is located to have official trails or be officially advertised. They are however 'open' and starved of the ability to visit Yankee Hat I decided to head out and see if I could locate them.
I'd researched the approximate area of the Rendezvous Creek artwork. It was a decent hike of about 14km return. I left around mid-morning and drove to the car park area.
More recently the national park has introduced a circular walk in Rendezvous Creek. It's a nice walk down by the creek and is a short circular walk of around 3 or 4km.
It had rained for a fair bit of the week leading up to my trip and so the ground was really wet underfoot. I initially wore trainers but quickly changed into my Bogs (my prized wellies/gumboots).
The walk by the creek is pretty, you pass over a small iron foot bridge and then by a picnic area. As I began to turn to head to my destination the weather grew worse and the ground below got steadily boggier.
I took a bit of a wrong turn at one point and found myself on the 'wrong' side of the creek. As the water level was so high it would have been impossible to jump it and despite my (now) more suitable footwear I didn't fancy trying my chances wading through. I couldn't see the bottom of the water so I figured it was unwise.
Having back-tracked a bit (make sure you have the river on your right). I headed out across the fields.
There's huge mobs of kangaroos around. Some of the bigger males (boomers!) are pretty resolute and eye you down. Several were much taller than me and so I gave them a wide berth. They're skittish animals and I'd be more worried about being jumped on by accident than deliberately attacked.
After a short while I found the 4x4 trail. It was so muddy in places, but actually walking along the trail was easier than trying to negotiate the large grass tussocks.
Eventually I reached the hill where the rock art is located and headed into the trees. Much of the Namadgi national park is typified by large granite boulders (formed over 400 million years ago). The hills on the valley are covered with outcrops of massive boulders and with no clue as to which one housed the rock art it was a bit like a treasure hunt (on a big scale).
At one point I stumbled on a cave and peering in I couldn't see any sign of rock art. I'd seen some photos before setting out and it didn't look right so I continued my quest.
The area is quite heavily overgrown and I literally walked through a couple of bushes at one point. I searched the area for about 30 minutes and when I was about to give up I spotted an information sign and knew the 'right' rock must be near.
Sure enough, a little scramble upwards and I found the cave. The rock art is staggering. A lot larger than I thought it would be and in truth more significant that Yankee Hat.
The dating of this art is tricky. I believe that prior to colonisation artwork would be 'refreshed' so artwork might be as old as 15,000 years but could have been 'touched up' as recently as 200 years ago.
It's kind of irrelevant in this context though as the art is so beautiful. I entered the cave both respectfully and slowly (I'd read articles that one of the greatest risks to rock art is he dust caused by visitors.
Afterwards I scrambled down the muddy bank that had lead to the site and walked back to my car.
It rained again and I was muddy, tired but (very) satisfied when I finally reached the car and headed for home.
