Axe to Grind Traditional Cache
BigON: Fake rock has been pinched again so this one is gone, clearing the spot in case someone else wants to try.
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Got an axe to grind? This used to be a real good place to come for that. A nice and easy (maybe) little cache. It's a kinder suprise container hidden in a special way. Seeing that it's a fairly open area I needed something different for this one.
Enter the nature park from the 'christian festival' Street. Walk from the sign designating the park towards two eucalyptus trees to find aboriginal artifacts. This southern section of the Tuggeranong Valley contains a large flat area of exposed sandstone rock with some 50 shallow grooves worn into the surface. These were used by the Aborigines to grind stones into sharp edges for use as axes. The water needed to lubricate the grinding process came from Tuggeranong Creek. The creek flows below the site on the other side of the Monaro Highway.
Please don't park on the highway, just use the designated parking spot in the suburb, it's safer. Not that that seems to bother anyone
What are Aboriginal Axe-grinding Grooves?
Axe-grinding grooves are oval-shaped indentations in sandstone outcrops. Aboriginal people made the grooves when they shaped and sharpened stone axes by grinding them against the sandstone. Flat, low outcrops of fine-grained sandstone were used to give stone axe heads a sharp cutting edge.
Axe-grinding grooves are almost always found along the edges of rivers, creeks, lakes and swamps, or near dry or drained water bodies.
Aboriginal people used axe-grinding grooves to finish partly made axes (known as ‘axe blanks’) or sharpen axes that were worn or chipped. Axe blanks are pieces of stone that Aboriginal people chipped into a basic axe shape at stone quarries and are sharpened by rubbing the edges over sandstone. This rubbing action left grooves in the outcrop surface.
Aboriginal people often sprinkled water on the sandstone to make it more abrasive and to reduce dust.
This is why the grooves are usually found on outcrops close to water. Sites of Aboriginal axe-grinding grooves are rare. They provide valuable information about how stone tools were made. They increase our knowledge of past Aboriginal land use and ways of life.
Axe-grinding grooves are an important link for Aboriginal people today with their culture and their past.
Sandstone is a relatively soft stone that is gradually worn by weathering, erosion and trampling by animals such as cows and sheep. Human activities such as mining, road building, damming, clearing, ploughing and construction can also destroy these sites. It also appears that some of the more oval depressions here may have been created while grinding seeds.
Please respect the importance of the site, Thanks
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Uvag1 N tbbq uneq ybbx vf gur xrl gb jurer guvf jvyy or.
Uvag2 Jurer gur pryyhybfr zrrgf gur trbybtl.
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