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‘Mind-blowing’: inside the highest human-occupied ice age site found in Australia
Jun 17, 2025
The Dargan cave, in the upper reaches of the Blue Mountains, was previously believed too hostile for human habitation
When Erin Wilkins first stood inside the cavernous Dargan shelter, she was awestruck.
“You don’t understand how big it is until you step inside and you’re this tiny little thing inside this massive bowl,” she says. “You just had to sit and take it in.”
The Darug and Wiradjuri woman’s instincts told her that this yawning cave, on a Darug songline in the upper reaches of the Blue Mountains, held ancient stories.
She was right.
New scientific evidence has revealed people lived in the shelter during the last ice age 20,000 years ago, when the high country was treeless, frozen and – until now – believed to be too hostile for human habitation.
Archaeologists say the huge rock hollow was a camping spot “kind of like the Hyatt of the mountains”, occupied continuously until about 400 years ago.
At an elevation of 1,073 metres, it is the highest human-occupied ice age site found in Australia. It also aligns the continent for the first time with global findings that icy climates did not prevent humans from travelling at high altitudes in ancient times.
The groundbreaking study was a collaboration between archaeologists and Aboriginal custodians who have spent six years mapping rock shelters across the greater Blue Mountains area, spanning 1m hectares of mostly untouched wilderness west of Sydney.
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