I thought I would share some thoughts and ideas on a
rockhole I came across a few years ago. This
rockhole is north of the
Alfred and Marie Range. I briefly touched on this in one of my
blogs however this is a more detailed account.
Upon first glance it would appear to be just like a number of other water sources found in the interior; one
rockhole impressive by its extreme singularity. If you went 100 metres in any direction you would be hard pressed to know it was there.
However, this
rockhole had water in it, and the small birds in the area were swarming around it.
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This was an interesting find; the last
rockhole we saw with water in it was at the
well known as
Mulgan Rockhole off the Gary Highway about 60 kilometres away as the crow flies.
I had a look around and in the near distance saw what looked like a white
termite mound. What I found was a large white
rock embedded in the ground (monolith).
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This was amazing if only by the fact that there were no similar rocks in the vicinity, if not for hundreds of kilometres. And yet this
rock was sitting here; embedded into the ground. It had what appear to be small rocks and mulga branches wrapped around its base.
Nearby to
the monolith was an etching in the ground shaped like an incomplete "U", such as you would get by dragging a
flat rock across the surface removing and displacing vegetation and small rocks. There was a strategically place single mulga branch place at the end of the etching. Judging by disturbance of the cleared surface I would imagine this etching would have been made or renewed in the last year.
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It was about at this point that my traveling companion for whatever reason decided that he didn't want to be here, and sat himself in the passenger
seat ready for an early departure. I can imagine this slight intrusion into aboriginal culture could be quite disturbing for some, however I wasn't finished here yet.
Upon closer inspection of
the monolith I discovered something quite exciting. There were 4 or 5 aboriginal rain making boards hidden in the mulga branches encircling the base of
the monolith.
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I had never seen anything like this before. These were meticulously carved boards, and they would have taken some time and effort to create. These ones looked antique. I have read that they are extremely rare and only found every 300 kilometres or so and are the most sacred objects that the aboriginal people possess.
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Nearby, seemingly just discarded I found another artefact. I am not sure whether this was a Ceremonial Stick or a Message Stick. The end of it was a bit damaged, as if a
Dingo was chewing it.
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Also found seemingly discarded, was a straight carved stick, perhaps some sort of weapon.
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So what does all this mean? Not being an anthropologist I can only offer my amateur hypothesis.
This configuration would be set up like this with the sole intention of asking the gods for water to fill up the
rockhole.
The rain making boards are some sort of focal point. I believe the etching would be a two dimensional representation of
the monolith, visible from the air. It there is rain at
the monolith then the
rockhole will fill as
well.
I left everything as I found it, though I would imagine unscrupulous types would love to get their hands on it, which is why I will not disclose the location.
Has anyone else come across anything like this?
Cheers
Alan