‘In keeping with the spirit of Reconciliation, we acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land. We recognize indigenous people, their elders – past and present.’

Another landholder in the Strathbogie district has a collection of stone artifacts, found over the years on the property, with the most recent finds only about 12 months ago. I’ve included pics of just a few items, including the most beautiful and sharp stone axe, found below ground-level, exposed in a small erosion gully, and embedded within in a soil layer dominated by charcoal.

The local granitic rock is not suitable for making stone tools, so all these stone artifacts were sourced elsewhere and brought up here into the hills. From their appearance some may well have been river stones, perhaps collected from the Upper Goulburn River catchment. Given the size and weight of some of these artifacts, once brought up here, they probably remained here, at camp sites, to be used whenever the camp was occupied. Here are a few pics.

The oldest ground stone axe in the world was recently found in Arnhem Land, NT (see an ABC video here). It was 35,000 yo!! Axes like the exceptional specimen above, must have been highly prized belongings. Who knows how long it took to get such smooth surfaces and that precision edge, on that piece of, probably, river-stone? Its quite amazing.

The grind-stone is usually a large slab of hard, fine-grained rock (some flickr photos and information, here & more here), where water (to lubricate the stones) is available. I understand there are known grinding grooves in parts of the Strathbogies, though there is little publicly available information.