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Located on the extreme western border of the Upper Hunter Valley region at Ulan, Hands on Rock is a spectacular sandstone over hang situated on the edge of a dry creek basin of great spiritual significance.

The site is located on the traditional boundary of the Wiradjuri and Wanaruah nations and was a meeting place where ceremonies and trading were conducted between these nations and the Kamilaroi and coastal nations from what is now the Lower Hunter, such as the Worimi.

Stone, ochre, songs, ceremonies and dances were typical of the items exchanged at the site and indicative of the total integration of the cultural and commercial life of Aboriginal people. There was not the compartmentalization of activities that we see in modern Anglo based cultures.

The corroborees held here could number hundreds of people and depending on the occasion might include people from hundreds of kilometres around.

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The hand and animal feet stencils which proliferate over the rock face are in red ochre and of unknown age. Currently some of the paintings are deteriorating causing much concern for the caretakers of the site, the local Aboriginal community of Mudgee.

Hands on Rock also features a number of sandstone rock formations of the pagoda type, the faces of which act as sentinels or watchers over the ceremonial area. There is a powerful feeling of presence at the site.

A number of carved trees once stood at an associated site approximately ten kilometres to the south of Hands on Rock. Four of these were removed when the coal mine at Ulan was established and the preserved trunks are now kept in the Gulgong Pioneer Museum at Gulgong.

Hands on Rock shelter

Painting on rock surfaces requires a suitable stable type of rock. The paints were made from pigments (colours) derived from many naturally occurring substances, such as ochre (red and yellow), gypsum (white and cream) and charcoal (black). These materials were either found locally or traded from elsewhere.
The pigments were usually ground and mixed with a base (water, blood or sap) to make a paste. The paint was then applied using brushes of chewed twigs or with the fingers and hand or blowing from the mouth. In some examples the pigments have been applied dry and direct by rubbing or drawing onto the rock.

Hands on Rock is a typical example of the stencil style of rock painting were by the image is created by blowing wet paint from the mouth either directly or through a tube over and around an object held against the rock face. Most often, like with Hands on Rock, the human hand although the technique was also used to depict many other things such as animal feet (also at Hands on Rock) and skins, boomerangs, axes, woomeras, pipes, baskets and shields.

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Information courtesy National Parks and Wildlife Service NSW.