Welcome back to Arkaroo Rock, an ancient treasure in the Flinders Ranges

How to get there

The Arka­roo Rock trail is accessed by road about 17km south of the Wilpe­na Vis­i­tor Cen­tre, via the Hawk­er-Blin­man Road. 

The walk – an easy-to-mod­er­ate hike of around 3km return — takes you uphill to the rock shel­ter towards the top of the Pound ​‘wall’. 

An old wood­en plat­form around the rock has been removed and the view­ing area sen­si­tive­ly remod­elled with seat­ing, inter­pre­tive sig­nage and more nat­ur­al inte­gra­tion into the landscape.

Along the trail, panoram­ic views can be enjoyed, espe­cial­ly around sunset.

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One of the best exam­ples of Adnya­math­anha rock art

The detailed ochre and char­coal paint­ings have been pro­tect­ed for thou­sands of years by the nat­ur­al rock overhang. 

They depict aspects of the Yura Muda (his­to­ry sto­ry) of Ikara (Wilpe­na Pound).

The paint­ings are believed to have been cre­at­ed by Adnya­math­anha men, begin­ning around 6000 years ago and con­tin­u­ing until recent times. 

Coloured ochres were ground and then mixed with ani­mal fat, then applied to the rock by hand or with a brush made from a chewed stick or reed.

New Akur­ra Screen

Around 1966 a pro­tec­tive screen was first erect­ed, and a sec­ond ver­sion was installed in 1987. 

The new screen was designed and fab­ri­cat­ed in South Aus­tralia, and fea­tures a depic­tion of two Akur­ra (giant snakes/​serpents) from the Ikara cre­ation story. 

Views through to the art­work are improved, and the screen is nat­u­ral­ly coloured by a delib­er­ate light sur­face rust, in har­mo­ny with the rock and landscape. 

Clean­ing the artwork

Sur­face dust set­tling in the rock hol­lows has been an ongo­ing issue, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to see parts of the paintings. 

Clean­ing the art­work was entrust­ed to Sophie Park­er, a skilled con­ser­va­tor from Art­Lab Aus­tralia, our state’s own inter­na­tion­al­ly-recog­nised leader in the con­ser­va­tion of cul­tur­al collections.

Sophie spent three days on site, assist­ed by Ranger in Charge and Adnya­math­anha man Alan Har­bour, com­plet­ing this final step of the upgrade.

As well as dust, mud-wasp nests were an issue.

“It’s a love­ly dry space,” said Sophie, ​“and wasps are real­ly keen to put their mud nests on the walls. 

“And those wasps use white muds, brown muds, greys. 

“Some were knocked off in a clean­ing effort in the 1980s and they’ve left a lad­der-like foot­print, which very much looks like art­work at first glance.

“What I orig­i­nal­ly pro­posed was reduc­ing the dust that had set­tled on the art­work, but we end­ed up spend­ing most of our time reduc­ing the foot­prints of the wasp nests.”

A dry brush­ing tech­nique was used to reduce dust buildup, with great care tak­en accord­ing to the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty of the dif­fer­ent ochre pigments.

Park staff will con­tin­ue to vis­it and mon­i­tor the site, in par­tic­u­lar watch­ing out for more wasp nests, and will pass on main­te­nance knowl­edge and cus­to­di­an­ship to younger mem­bers of the Adnya­math­anha community.

A sto­ry in place

The sto­ry of the rock and the art­work belongs to the place and to the Adnya­math­anha people. 

They ask that you do not re-tell the sto­ry, but enjoy it while you’re there. 

Sig­nage on site will help you under­stand the his­to­ry and sig­nif­i­cance of the work, and how it relates to the land­scape that sur­rounds you.

All work on the Arka­roo Rock site has been com­plet­ed in con­sul­ta­tion with the tra­di­tion­al cus­to­di­ans, the Adnya­math­anha peo­ple, and earth-dis­turb­ing works were super­vised by appoint­ed representatives.

If you’re vis­it­ing the Ikara-Flinders Ranges Nation­al Park, don’t miss this must-do expe­ri­ence that cel­e­brates ancient and liv­ing Adnya­math­anha cul­tur­al heritage.

World Her­itage Nom­i­na­tion for Flinders Ranges

South Aus­tralia is edg­ing clos­er to final­is­ing the nom­i­na­tion of fea­tures of the Flinders Ranges for World Her­itage list­ing. You can learn more about what makes this region wor­thy of nom­i­na­tion, the ben­e­fits of a World Her­itage list­ing and more over here: Flinders Ranges World Her­itage nomination.