Colonial and Aboriginal History in the Blue Ranges

Blue Range holds special significance to the Nukunu people of the Flinders ranges and houses special sites of these people. The property contains Guardian figures of the dreaming, caves with petro glyphs and paintings, camp and ceremony sites, native wells and springs, water cairns and much other evidence of long time occupation and use of this area for tens of thousands of years.

 

Visitors are requested to respect these sites and unique history by not interfering or removing them or items in those areas, but are welcome to respect and view them if they come across them. Blue Range also has a rich history of early colonial exploration from Edward John Eyre beginning his explorations North and West from here. To the shepherds and their huts running sheep and conflicting with the Nukunu people, who after a time culminated in the early settlement of Dunbar as the centre of a small village and the start of the district.

But seasons were to change, with all that’s left, now in ruins with all that’s left of the school, church, blacksmith and coach house and stables, dairy’s and other buildings just a remnant of a future never fulfilled. Which stand as a broken monument to the dreams and promises of a new people invading and settling a country very foreign to their experiences and knowledge in a time when South Australia was first colonized?