Australian Sacred Sites


Sacred sites within the landscape are an essential part of Aboriginal people's very different kind of religious beliefs.

Aboriginal spirituality is based on creation stories describing the way the Ancestors left their marks on the land. Particular stories are manifest in particular landscapes, so that, in the words of the Social Justice Commissioner, 'Access to the culture entails access to the places of its source and practice'. Some country, as a result of its mythological associations, is more important than other country, but all country is of some importance. This local perspective put Aboriginal groups at a great disadvantage when they came up against a people whose religion was based on more abstract universal principles.

Different land-holding groups are the custodians of different stories. But knowledge is not distributed equally within a group. It depends on a person's age, or status, personal relationship with a site, or sex. In many areas there are separate spheres of men's and women's stories. Knowledge of the law and of the Dreaming stories is acquired progressively as people proceed through life. Ceremonies, such as initiation ceremonies, are avenues for the passing on of knowledge.

Knowledge of sacred sites is, by definition, not public knowledge. This is why the existence of many sites might not be broadcast to the wider world until they are threatened. This is also why, when places are threatened, we may not want to reveal a great deal of information about the site, because to do so would be against our tradition.

The secret-sacred aspects of Aboriginal religion have put us at a grave disadvantage in 'proving' our claims. Though some of the stories have been recorded by anthropologists or told in various land-claim hearings, access to the information is restricted and the living tradition is primarily an oral one. This does not mean that the body of knowledge is unchangeable quite the reverse. It is a living and adapting tradition, but grounded in a system which sees the knowledge as reaffirming immutable truths.

Religious sites are not the only ones we are now anxious to protect. Because of the destruction of traditional life over areas of intense European settlement, sites indicating Aboriginal people's past presence in the landscape have acquired a special significance. These include art sites and stone arrangements, old camp sites and technological sites such as axe-grinding grooves, stone or ochre quarries or 'canoe trees'. Burial sites and skeletal remains are particularly revered.

Contact sites, occupied by Aboriginal people after European settlement, are also important. They include missions, reserves, cemeteries, the sites of battles or massacres, or locations associated with political events or movements.

The importance of certain sites to Aboriginal people has been acknowledged for many years now in State and Territory heritage acts. The States and Territories have primary responsibility for land use and heritage matters, and maintain the various registers of Aboriginal sites.

In 1984 the Commonwealth enacted the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act to provide a last resort for people or groups wanting to protect places or property where State or Territory processes had failed.

Since the passage of this legislation around 200 applications have been lodged under the Act.

there have been eight declarations relating to the protection of objects of significance to Aboriginal people; emergency (i.e. temporary) declarations relating to five significant Aboriginal places have been made; and there have been five long-term declarations for the protection of significant areas. Only two remain, however, one protecting significant sites under threat from a flood mitigation dam in the Northern Territory and another (with effect from July 2000) protecting Boobera Lagoon in northern New South Wales.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 has been under review for some time. New legislation is expected to be enacted in 1999. As currently drafted, the legislation would allow the Commonwealth to accredit State/Territory legislation and limit its own involvement to applications involving the 'national interest'. This would effectively remove the Commonwealth's obligation to provide 'last resort' protection.

The Australian continent is criss-crossed with the tracks of the Dreamings: walking, slithering, crawling, flying, chasing, hunting, weeping, dying, giving birth. Performing rituals, distributing the plants, making the landforms and water, establishing things in their places, making the relationships between one place and another. Leaving parts or essences of themselves.

Where they travelled, where they stopped, where they lived the events of their lives, all these places are sources and sites of Law. These tracks and sites, and the Dreamings associated with them, make up the sacred geography of Australia; they are visible in paintings and engravings; they are sung in the songs, depicted in body painting - they form the basis of a major dimension of the land tenure system for most Aboriginal people.

To know the country is to know the story of how it came into being, and that story also carries the knowledge of how the human owners of that country came into being.


Perhaps the most well-known sacred site in Australia is Uluru. Located in the center of Australia, southwest of Alice Springs, the first European explorers dubbed it Ayers Rock. It is a colossal outcropping of sandstone about six miles in circumference with an intense red colour. At sunset it is particularly magic as its colour changes from red to purple.

The caves inside the rock are covered with Aboriginal paintings. In 1985 the federal government of Australia returned Uluru to its traditional owners, the Aborigines. According to Cyril Havecker in his book Understanding Aboriginal Culture, in Aboriginal mythology Uluru is the Intelligent Snake from the higher spirit realms of the universe who brought forth a great rainbow. From this rainbow a huge spirit snake slithered down to earth. This was Uluru, the Great Rainbow Serpent. Uluru is depicted by Aborigines as a symbol of fertility. It is shaped like a horseshoe lying on its side, the open end to the left. The lower part of the "U" undulates and is filled with eggs. Thus the figure symbolizes both male and female and is considered to be the father and mother of all forms of life.

Aborigines also revere the area around Lake Narran hundreds of kilometers northwest of Sydney. According to legend 10,000 years ago the Creator decided to manifest on earth (Tya) as a man. He sent a message by telepathy to all living things to gather at Moon Lake (Lake Narran) to wait for him to appear. When he asked them to clear the ground and there he made a circle representing his body, out of which all life comes. This circle would become an important part of Aboriginal life, as it is the place where initiation takes place. He told them the creation myth and why they had been placed on the earth. He instructed them to hold initiations for their youth. At the time of initiation a wise woman or man was to tell them the laws of living and how they were to fulfill the great plan for life, the things he was explaining to them at this first initiation. The circle was called a Bora and Boras have been drawn and used all over Australia for thousands of years. Access to these sacred sites (most of which are secret) is extremely important to Aboriginal life. All Bora sites are high-energy, sacred places.


In Central NSW extensive megalithic stone alignments and other astronomical structures dating back 10 000 to 15 000 years and which suggests the former presence in Australia of a highly advanced civilisation of unknown origin. These structures include standing stones weighing 20 tons and carved stone heads.

In Western NSW 3 large human heads have been found carved out of granite boulders. The heads were found near mysterious stone alignment and other formations.


The Lost Caves of the Blue Mountains

The beautiful Blue Mountains rise to the mists west of Sydney and have been a source of mystery ever since early settlers struggled to find a way through them to the other side. These mountains were under the ocean 400 million years ago and coral reefs eventually formed limestone on the ocean floor. Successive layers built up and then about 200 million years ago, the mountains raised up, taking the limestone with them. When underground water ran through the limestone, it dissolved, creating huge caverns beneath the surface of the earth. According to Rex Gilroy, the Dharuk Aborigines knew of a cave so large they called it an underground world. It was entered by a great slit in the side of a cliff and plunged deep into the earth. Today we have no idea of where it is. Other Aborigines were reputed to be able to walk through the mountains underground, but no one knows how or where these caves might be.

In 1931 a Mr. Taylor came from England to explore caves in the Blue Mountains. He won over an Aboriginal man who led him to an immense cave called Binoomea in a gully deep in the Jenolan Range. He explored the cave for a week, returning each night. He followed passage after passage until eventually they led to a cavern of such huge proportions that it was hard for him to take it all in. This cavern was covered by a large lake and the walls glowed with phosphorescence. This cave is only one of the hundreds of caves that have been discovered and described by explorers. Most of them have never been found after their initial exploration.




IMAGES FROM SACRED SITES
JOURNEY INTO THE DREAMTIME
AUSTRALIA INDEX ANCIENT AND LOST CIVILIZATIONS ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF ALL FILES CRYSTALINKS MAIN PAGE