Drone-borne LiDAR uncovers three new Aboriginal rock shelters in Blue Mountains

Digital archaeologist Jacob Bongers and his team from the University of Sydney deployed a LiDAR-fitted drone to strip away the canopy over a 4.16-square-kilometre section of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage landscape, uncovering three previously undocumented Aboriginal rock shelters. The sites contain red hand stencils and tuff stone artefacts, evidence of continuous Indigenous use over thousands of years. Archaeologists Wayne Brennan and Amy Mosig Way ground-truthed the detections, noting the method could reveal an additional 30 to 50 shelters in the pilot zone alone.

The discovery strengthens arguments to broaden the UNESCO listing to formally recognise Indigenous cultural heritage alongside the region’s biodiversity. The research project, named Gulumada, shows that LiDAR mapping can be applied to other rugged terrains worldwide, echoing Bongers’ earlier work mapping ancient sites in the Peruvian Andes.