Wednesday Walk: Birrigai rock shelter in Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, Canberra

The Birrigai rock shelter walk in Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), near Canberra, has a history of 25,000 years.

It is the oldest human occupation site in the ACT and one of the oldest in the Southern Highlands. The site is now heritage listed and protected by ACT legislation.

The Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve is a 40 minute drive from Canberra. The walk to the rock shelter along the Birrigai Time Trail loop is a short, but interesting 3 kilometres across the grasslands to the Birrigai rock shelter.

Birrigai is the land of the Ngunnawal people. The word ‘birrigai’ means laughter in the Ngunnawal language.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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