| Ngarrabullgan (Mount Mulligan) | |
|---|---|
 View of Ngarrabullgan escarpment from the east | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 400 m (1,300 ft)above surrounding hills and plains |
| Geography | |
 | |
| Location | Hodgkinson River, 100 km west of Cairns, Queensland, Australia |
| Parent range | Featherbed Ranges, between Mitchell & Walsh Rivers |
| Geology | |
| Mountain type | 18 km long, 6.5 km wide sandstone conglomerate tabletop mountain |
Ngarrabullgan (also Njrrabulgan, Nurrabullgan, Ngarrabullgin, or Nguddaboolgan), officially named Mount Mulligan by the State,[1] 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.[2]
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.[3][4]
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 4,000 years BP.[2]
The combination of impressive natural feature, Aboriginal beliefs and mythologies, and archaeological sites of such antiquity make Ngarrabullgan the oldest known and dated cultural landscape in Queensland, and a place of state, national and international interest and scientific significance.[5]
- ^ "Mount Mulligan – mountain (entry 39750)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government. Retrieved 22 June 2017.
- ^ a b David, Bruno (2002), Landscapes, rock-art, and the dreaming : an archaeology of preunderstanding, Leicester University Press, ISBN 978-0-7185-0243-0
- ^ David, Bruno; Roberts, Richard G; Tuniz, C. (Claudio); Jones, Rhys, 1941-2001; Head, John (1997), "New optical and radiocarbon dates from Ngarrabullgan Cave, a Pleistocene archaeological site in Australia : implications for the comparability of time clocks and for human colonization of Australia", Antiquity, vol. 71, pp. 183–188, retrieved 17 October 2019
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ DAVID, B.; ROBERTS, R.G.; MAGEE, J.; MIALANES, J.; TURNEY, C.; BIRD, M.; WHITE, C.; FIFIELD, L.K. & TIBBY, J. (2007) Sediment Mixing at Nonda Rock: Investigations of Stratigraphic Integrity at an Early Archaeological Site in Northern Australia and Implications for the Human Colonisation of the Continent. Journal of Quaternary Science Volume 22. pp. 449–479.
- ^ "Place ID 100267". Australian Heritage Database. Australian Government. Retrieved 29 October 2007.