Hands2

This is a shot of hand paintings at a rock overhang 24km north of Lithgow, called Black Fellow's Hands (for obvious reasons). Originally the rock walls featured not only hand prints of Koori people from several tribes but images of various weapons and hunting implements as well. The images however are fading and the hands are all that remain. The hand print stencils were made by spraying a mouth full of red or white ochre (or a charcoal mixture for black) onto a hand which was pressed against the wall. The outlines were then either left alone or filled with another colour by brushing. It's a shame that a lot of sites such as this one are fading away so rapidly, being the victim of countless visitors feeling the need to press their own hands against the artworks. The only protection for the works that are more than likely many thousands of years old are two log barriers to stop the visitors feet, placed 12 inches from the wall.