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This rock painting depicts the creation spirit Biame. Creator of all things, this particular image is known to the local Wanaruah people as the Keeper of the Valley.

From the wall of the sandstone overhang south of Singleton he looks out through the Milbrodale Gap, over what is now the Putty Road, and into the Upper Hunter Valley. His long arms outstretched embracing the Valley and its people.

For the Wanaruah the large white eyes see all that happens while the white oval shape on the lower abdomen represents the centre of spiritual power. The white lines on the sides of the torso transfer this power to other parts of the body, in particular the arms allowing Biame to fly. The parallel white lines on either side of the body stand for the seven tribal groups of the Wanaruah nation.

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The site of the Biame painting is of great importance to the local people. When the first white man recorded the painting in the early nineteenth century the creek flats immediately in front of the cave were still a huge bora ground surrounded by carved trees. Traditionally Biame is associated with bora ceremonies across much of New South Wales. The bora ground and the trees are now long gone, farming having come to the area shortly after first exploration.

The site is significant in style too, featuring a large (the hand span is approximately 6 metres/18 feet) pictorial representation of Biame in two colours (red and white) and surrounded by white stencils of boomerangs, stone axes, digging sticks, hands and hands and arms. Tantalizingly faint traces of further stencils and paintings also remain on the cave wall and there is the magnificent vista to be seen when following Biame’s gaze.

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The smaller hand stencils represent the young uninitiated girls or boys while the forearm and hand stencils represent the older initiated members of the tribe. During the ceremonies leading to initiation the young people would place their hands onto the stencils thus being introduced to the ancestral being Biame and the world of initiated law. The stencils of objects represent the gifts of the everyday world.

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While the bora ceremonies no longer take place the site is used by the Wanaruah as a cultural teaching site with hundreds of school children and other visitors each year experiencing the importance of the continuity of Aboriginal life and getting a little taste of that life. All who come to this place feel the presence of Biame and sense that he still watches over the people and the Valley.

Information courtesy
National Parks and Wildlife Service NSW,
Wannin Thanbarran - A History of Aboriginal Contact in Muswellbrook and the Upper Hunter Valley by Greg Blyton, Deidre Heitmeyer and John Maynard Muswellbrook Shire Council 2004, Australian Dreaming - 40,000 Years of Aboriginal History ed. by Jennifer Isaacs Landsdowne Press 1980 and thanks to Gle