Billimina Shelter — Attraction in Glenisla

For the casual day walker, this short hike up a slightly overgrown track from a remote car park doesn't offer any physical challenge, but emotionally it is compelling . After maybe 50 minutes of climbing and avoiding sharp stones and overhanging bushes, through the misty afternoon, appeared Billimena shelter. At first sight, it looks simply like a large cubic rock dropped on the slight slope near the crest. As I approached, water, collected on the top, dripped into the center of a flat open area, protected from the prevailing South Westerlies by the rock itself. A variety of low native plants grew neatly around the edges, and coming to a natural flat stage, I saw rock face covered with drawings, in shades of ochre.

Thousands of finger paintings, men, women, children , some animals, abstract images. Some faded into antiquity, some more recent. It is like stumbling into a well preserved library in an ancient language. I can imagine up to fifty people, a well fed Indigenous tribe, spending nights up at here, watching over the Eastward plains towards the sandy desert.

Before the colonists started sheep on the plains, it was reported that tens of thousands of Native Australians gathered each year to harvest the nutritious daisy Yams - as far as the eye could see, women worked together used sharp sticks to dig out the sweet tubers, and replant the daisies for the following season. This had been the way for tens of thousands of years in the fertile volcanic plains. When the sheep were let loose, they fattened quickly. Within two years the Yams were all gone,...

Just past the Buandik campground is the picnic area and the place to start the easy 1km walk. There are a few steps but nothing too strenuious. There is reasonable tree cove on the walk for hot days. Drop Toilet and a few picnic tables in the car park. The site only has the one rock, that pushing through the undergrowth you can walk round. Art is fenced off but you are close enough to get a good look. Mainly tally marks and a few stick figures. On the walk there is a 100m fork to the Baundik Falls, which were only a dribble when...

Nice hike up to see great rock art under a huge rock overhang. Quite a bit of driving on rough unpaved roads - navigate to Buandik campground and then drive farther till you see the sign for Billamina Shelter and Buandik Falls. It takes about 1.5 hours to hike uphill and back, with some parts through slightly dense brush and the final section to the rock art quite steep and rocky. We were glad we brought...