quinkan galleries rock art

We did this sight seeing venture by ourselves. $5 per person via honesty box.300 mtr walk/climb, quite steep steps, uneven in size, some areas have metal handrail. Unsuitable for any one with mobility issues.Great ancient aboriginal art, some have been painted over by consecutive aboriginal groups over time.Toilets and picnic table available and a couple care taking, who have a stall selling items of clothing etc.Take bottle water as it can get quite hot.No printed literature on site.

After reading reviews, we thought this would be a must-do experience. We decided to drive straight to the Cultural Centre in Laura - to enquire about tours. The Cultural Centre itself is fantastic - lots of displays outlining the heritage and culture of the region.We enquired about tours and found the response very unhelpful: a) The guide was booked to go on a bus tour and wouldn't be back for 2 hours or sob) When he did come back we would have to drive him in the 4WD provided as he couldn't drive and the driver had gone walkaboutc) The tours would cost $100 for 1 hour $160 for 2 hoursd) No information was provided re the location of the rock art - we asked about Split Rock and we were told yes, we could do a self-guided tour - but no information givenWhen we got to Split Rock ($5 pp which was reasonable), we found the examples of Rock Art fair - especially in comparison with what we have seen in Kakadu (the only fee there being the Park entrance).We found later that there is more rock art at Mushroom Rock if you can find it!To sum up - it's worth going but hopefully you'll have better luck than us re a guided tour!

About 12 km south of Laura is a remarkable open air gallery of accent wall art. Its a short and somewhat steep walk (around 300m) to see a number of separate painting displays of aboriginal art dating back as far as 1300 years based on the information at the site, the sites are well marked and paintings are displayed. A really worthwhile visit, there is a guided tour as well that can be arranged through the Quinkan Laura centre.

I can see why the Quinkan rock art sites have world heritage listing and are considered to be in the top 10 art sites in the world. They are incredible! We started at the Cultural Centre in Laura (excellent, very well presented information on the history and people of the district), then did a tour with an Aboriginal guide, Trevor, who showed us 3 galleries featuring layer upon layer of wonderful art work dating back tens of thousands of years. Yes, it was pretty expensive ($160 each for a 2 hour trip), but worth it. We then did the Split Rock galleries on our own. There were 3 of them, and they too were fantastic. It's a pretty steep climb up to them, but well worth the effort. How lucky we are to have access to such world class sites. Magic.

We went as a 500km round trip in one day from Port Douglas. Due to several mountain passes it can be a slow drive - but worth it! Arrived at the Laura Cultural Centre (well presented with lots of good information we lacked time for) and we were driven in by 4-wheel drive plus a guide. This is very special art. Somewhat like that from the Kimberley but in a unique style. Apparently along the escarpments are hundreds of sites with more being found occasionally. Our way was expensive and we don't regret a cent.

This is some of the best aboriginal rock art we have seen. We first visited the Laura Heritage Centre and then did the self guided tour to Split Rock. A great site. Also go to the other sites a little further up the track. We didn't go on the guided tour to other sites as we thought it was a little expensive, however probably worth consideration.