Traditional Owners, Cultural Heritage Advisors, and Rock Art Protection Specialists worked on the removal of chalk and graffiti. Bolt removal, chalk removal and patching work was done by specialist Industrial Rope Access Trade Association (IRATA) certified rope technicians from the climbing community and included detailed daily safety briefings for all workers on site.

Aaron Lowndes, whose company secured the Parks Victoria tender to remove bolts in the Rock Art shelter Cultivation Creek 19 (Millennium Cave), says the rehabilitation work is a chance to improve relationships between climbers and Traditional Owners.

“Climbing has always had a ‘do it first and ask for permission later’ approach. The issue is consent. We did not have consent to go into these areas. A better personal relationship with Traditional Owners is the key.”

“I think a very important message to send out publicly is that members of the climbing community are the ones that will remove these bolts, and that we do so enthusiastically because we recognise and support the right of Traditional Owners to determine for themselves what areas they deem important enough to protect,” Aaron says.

Between 2018-2020 Parks Victoria completed a condition assessment of all Rock Art places in Gariwerd. Detailed information about each place was recorded including updating location accuracy, identifying any human or natural impacts at each place, how extensive these are and if they impact the art.

Of the 103 Rock Art places in Gariwerd (Grampians National Park) listed on the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Register, all had some form of impact. 

Rock Art is one of the most valuable links to our Old People that we have today. A direct link. This is not art as we know art to be. These are libraries full of our communal resources. They inform us of our place on Country. They inform us of our obligations, roles and rights. They give us our law and legitimacy. They instil into us our identity: Who we are.

“If our sovereignty was “written”, it was written here, by our Ancestors. By our law holders and still it is here, embedded into the solid rock that is our home.” John Clarke explains. 

Best Practice: National Gariwerd Rock Art Management Forum

In March this year the Barengi Gadjin Land Council Aboriginal Corporation, Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation and Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation hosted the national Gariwerd Rock Art Management Forum supported by Parks Victoria and the Nulungu Research Institute at the University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA).

More than 150 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rangers and Elders from across Australia gathered on the lands of the Djab Wurrung, Jadawadajali peoples of the Wotjobaluk Nations and Gunditjmara peoples to share knowledge and experiences of Rock Art in the Gariwerd Cultural Landscape.

The forum was an opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land managers to share challenges and discuss opportunities focused on caring for Rock Art and cultural heritage places.

A key outcome of the forum is developing a ‘Practical Guide for Indigenous Rangers in the Management of Rock Art Cultural Landscapes in Australia’.

The practitioners guide will not only address the tangible aspects of Rock Art places but also the intangible cultural values, agency, and authority embedded in Indigenous worldviews. The importance of Indigenous voices leading the conversation on the management of Rock Art cannot be understated and is long overdue.