Having arrived earlier in the morning, the men began chipping away at the wasp nests that had started to cover the rock art.<\/p>\n
A unique set of tools<\/p>\n
Taking turns at removing the nests, the rangers use chopsticks, small hammers and brushes to delicately chip away and brush off the wasps’ nests.<\/p>\n
They also spray down the nests with turpentine; slowly but surely, the artwork is cleaned of them.<\/p>\n
Lead ranger Keith Gorey said that the difference after the work is complete is stark.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, it’s a lot clearer after we knock the swallows and wasps nests,” Mr Gorey said.<\/p>\n
“I think they usually clear off the paintings and (block them).”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
One of the Ltyentye Apurte Rangers removing wasp nests from rock art in Trephina Gorge. (ABC Rural: Charles Geary)<\/p>\n
Culturally important and a tourism highlight<\/p>\n
Joining the rangers was a traditional owner of the rock art site, Jeremy Williams.<\/p>\n
The rock art is culturally important for the traditional owners, and Mr Williams was glad to have the rangers help protect it.<\/p>\n
“I am very happy for them to work here, do some work here. Cleaning, doing some work.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jeremy Williams in front of some of the freshly cleaned rock art. (ABC Rural: Charles Geary)<\/p>\n
For visitors, the rock art is also a highlight of the various walks that can be done at the gorge. The rangers also see their work as important in keeping these artworks accessible to the public.<\/p>\n
“It’s for tourists who come along from wherever to see the old paintings. What old people left,” Mr Gorey said.<\/p>\n
One of many tasks<\/p>\n
Mr Gorey has been a Ltyentye Apurte Ranger for over five years. Though he was new to the process of rock art cleaning, his work involves protecting and caring for Central Australian country in many ways.<\/p>\n
The work is a process of working alongside traditional owners, to identify what needs to be done and where.<\/p>\n
“We just usually work on the land, follow what TOs want us to do on the land,” Mr Gorey said.<\/p>\n
“Just usually maintaining springs, animal control and managing the land\u2026we do a lot of travelling to different places.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The rock art which can be found along Trephina Gorge. (ABC Rural: Charles Geary)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the base of the red rock faces of a winding outback gorge, a group of men is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[30892,64,63,126176,126177,44,3919,84368,117815,74008],"class_list":["post-202370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-arrernte","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-central-australia","tag-ltyentye-apurte","tag-news","tag-rangers","tag-remote-communities","tag-rock-art","tag-traditional-owners"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}