27,000 year old Aboriginal ochre mines achieve National Heritage Listing

These sites contain sacred law grounds, dreamtime places, thousands of examples of rock art, extensive archaeological material, and the Wilgie Mia red ochre mine

Ancient Ochre Mine Wilgie Mia is thought to be one of the world’s oldest mines, with estimates placing it at about 27,000 years old. The heritage listed area includes the red ochre mine at Wilgie Mia (Thuwarri Thaa), the smaller yet significant ochre mines at Little Wilgie, as well as a yellow ochre mine further to the west.

Ochre from Wilgie Mia has long been prized by Aboriginal Australians as being of exceptionally high quality, and it formed an important part of the Indigenous economy through trade networks before European settlement. Today, as in the past, ochre is important to Indigenous Australians for its use in ceremonies, art, healing practices and its religious significance.

Colin Hamlett, a Wajarri Yamatji man and traditional owner of the Weld Range, said, “Ochre from Wilgie Mia and Little Wilgie Mia is still used all the time… all the people around the region would get their ochre from there. People say it’s the best ochre in Australia.”

Wilgie Mia Creation Story

The creation story of Wilgie Mia and surrounding hills in the Weld Range involves the Red Kangaroo, or Marlu, with the ochre representing the Marlu’s blood. “A Kangaroo was wounded down near the coast. It hopped back through the country and dropped spots of blood along the way. It dropped quite a bit at Little Wilgie Mia, then it died at Wilgie Mia which left a lot of ochre. Then the spirit of the Kangaroo moved from Wilgie Mia to the hill right next-door to it,”

The area around Wilgie Mia has the highest known density of pictographic rock art in Southern Western Australia. Made from the red ochre, there are huge numbers of paintings and hand-prints throughout the network of caves and breakaways around the base of the Weld Range. The area contains numerous sacred sites, signifying ceremony, corroboree and law grounds, to living areas, pictographic art sites, artefact scatters and secret sacred areas.