After the fires: Maiyingu Marragu

We called in on the Maiyingu Marragu Aboriginal Area the other day, mainly to see how it had fared during the recent bushfires. It's a protected area within the larger Gardens of Stone region north of Lithgow. Most of the area is not currently protected, and should be all combined within a new national park. Not that anything would have protected it from the ferocity of those bushfires, of course.

The Gardens of Stone provides some of the finest bushwalking locations in Australia, and the prospect of not going back there could not be countenanced. Looks like we will be able to go back there, but will have to be ready to get very black and sooty.

There's a very special collection of aboriginal hand stencils on one of the rock faces. Maiyingu Marragu means 'Blackfellows Hands', which is the alternative name for the place. They're looking fine.

And there is a certain new visual drama to the scenery. I'll be back there soon.




Here's my post on our visit of three years ago:
December 2016 visit

The emu in the sky

We've had some very nice clear sky nights recently, so I took the opportunity to get out and photograph the emu. This is the Aboriginal constellation formed out of the dark patches in the Milky Way.

The emu head is the Coalsack - right next to the Southern Cross. The body stretches down from that, a fair way across the sky.

The Guringai people carved an engraving of this on a rock platform in the now Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. When the emu in the sky lined up with the one on the rock, it was time to harvest emu eggs.




Our own traditional astronomy makes its constellations by drawing lines between stars. Here are the Cross, the Pointers, and Scorpius.



Below: a visitor posing in front of the Ku-ring-gai Chase engraving.



There's a nice little video on the emu in the sky, as understood by the Kamilaroi people, courtesy of the NSW Government. Go to this link and click on the video link.
http://lrrpublic.cli.det.nsw.edu.au/lrrSecure/Sites/LRRView/14145/14145_02.htm

The Marramarra

Once more unto the breach, as in into the Marramarra National Park. It's one of the 15 or more national parks within an hour and a half's drive from Sydney, yet hardly anyone's even heard of it.







It's a great place for off-track bush-bashing, and there are very few other bushwalkers. Unfortunately quite a lot of off-road motor bike riders know about it, and they noisily and illegally navigate the fire trails. They don't penetrate the wilder bits though. You tend to be the only people within kilometres, which is wonderful.







The Marramarra Park has lots of fine examples of Aboriginal rock art, like this one.