Ngarrabullgan

About

Ngarrabullgan (also Njrrabulgan, Nurrabullgan, Ngarrabullgin, or Nguddaboolgan), officially named Mount Mulligan by the State, is a large tabletop mountain (18 km by 6.5 km) located 100 kilometres west of Cairns in the north of Queensland (Australia). The tabletop mountain is a monolith bounded by high cliffs (or escarpments) that fall 200 to 400 m to the surrounding Hodgkinson Basin, making it an impressive natural monument which is regarded by the local Djungan Aboriginal peoples to be a sacred 'Dreaming' place (see Dreamtime), and features in the mythological legends and beliefs of other Aboriginal groups for hundreds of kilometres around. On the tabletop itself are found the two oldest-known Aboriginal sites in Queensland: Nonda Rock and Ngarrabullgan Cave. Here Aboriginal cultural deposits have been radiocarbon dated, and dated by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), back to 40,000+ years ago. Other ancient Aboriginal rockshelter sites on the mountain have been dated to the end of the last ice age, and, together, the many 'archaeological' caves and rockshelters found in and around Ngarrabullgan constitutes Queensland's greatest density of known sites dating back more than...

The mountain was originally formed in a narrow faulted rift (running in a general south-east to north-west direction) within the deformed and folded metamorphic rock ( arenite ) of the Hodgkinson Basin. Successive layers of sediment were deposited into this rift filling it first with Permian coal (at its base), then Permian conglomerates, with Triassic sandstones above. With tectonic uplift the original arenite surrounding the deposits eroded away leaving Ngarrabullgan as a free-standing conglomerate and sandstone massif.

The vegetation on the Ngarrabullgan tabletop (plateau) has been described as wet sclerophyll forests, mainly of a bloodwood species of Eucalyptus, with a well-developed understory. These tabletop forests contrast, noticeably, with the open sclerophyll woodland of the surrounding hills and plains below.

Studies of both Ngarrabullgan's eucalypt forests and its surrounding woodlands identified 13 distinct land units supporting:

Flora: 10 plant species that are considered either rare or threatened, including 8 plant species that are found nowhere else.

Fauna: 8 frog species, 55 reptile species, 99 bird species and 20 mammal species; 22 of which are species of special conservation significance under either the Queensland or Australian biodiversity conservation statutory regimes.

The Australian Heritage Commission included Ngarrabullgan on its register of the National Estate on 24 June 1997, describing it as a place that holds:

(a) important evidence enhancing the Australian communities' knowledge of Aboriginal occupation of Pleistocene into the Holocene ;

(b) large diversity of well-preserved (intact) archaeological sites and features, some of which are directly associated with locally known initiation sites and places still sacred to the local Aboriginal peoples (both on top of the mountain and around the mountain's base);

(c) strong potential to yield new and important information about Aboriginal occupation, use, beliefs and lifestyles from the Pleistocene down to the present (especially as new archaeological techniques are developed and combined with further, ongoing research and study);

(d) excellent examples of the rock art and resource use of those Aboriginal peoples who have occupied and used the area for many generations and still, to this day, view the mountain as a major spiritual site at the heart of their country;

(e) considerable aesthetic impact combining an impressive physical presence as a large natural monument, together with natural and cultural features valuable to the Djungan peoples, other Aboriginal peoples, the people of Mareeba Shire, the North Queensland region more generally, and Australia as a whole.

Queensland Register of Aboriginal Heritage

For similar reasons the Queensland Government formally registered Ngarrabullgan as "The Mount Mulligan Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Area" under its Aboriginal heritage legislation ( Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2003 (Qld)) in 2006.

The Australian Heritage Commission included Ngarrabullgan on its register of the National Estate on 24 June 1997, describing it as a place that holds:

(a) important evidence enhancing the Australian communities' knowledge of Aboriginal occupation of Pleistocene into the Holocene ;

(b) large diversity of well-preserved (intact) archaeological sites and features, some of which are directly associated with locally known initiation sites and places still sacred to the local Aboriginal peoples (both on top of the mountain and around the mountain's base);

(c) strong potential to yield new and important information about Aboriginal occupation, use, beliefs and lifestyles from the Pleistocene down to the present (especially as new archaeological techniques are developed and combined with further, ongoing research and study);

(d) excellent examples of the rock art and resource use of those Aboriginal peoples who have occupied and used the area for many generations and still, to this day, view the mountain as a major spiritual site at the heart of their country;

(e) considerable aesthetic impact combining an impressive physical presence as a large natural monument, together with natural and cultural features valuable to the Djungan peoples, other Aboriginal peoples, the people of Mareeba Shire, the North Queensland region more generally, and Australia as a whole.