Sydney students and Wiradjuri owners recorded six more grinding sites near Lue

Eleven University of Sydney archaeology students spent late September on a property near Lue with Wiradjuri traditional owners, and they came away with six grinding sites that had not been on the map. ABC News reported the work on October 28, 2026.

Gamilaraay archaeologist Wayne Brennan, who has worked in the field for more than 40 years, brought the group together. He said the point was to walk side by side, with Aboriginal people deciding what questions matter, rather than treating a visit as a box to tick. The students looked at axe-grinding grooves and rock art and sieved for artefacts. Brennan said thousands of pieces sit close together. The village name comes from Loowee, a Wiradjuri word for a chain of waterholes, and the creeks and the road toward ceremony in the Great Dividing Range made the valley a stopping place for a very long time.

The traditional owners on the trip chose not to be quoted and agreed that Brennan would speak. Student Clem Dalton, on a first field trip, told the ABC that finding artefacts felt like an adrenaline rush. University researcher Jacob Bongers, who helped organize the day, said a place with this much rock art and grinding grooves is rare for a class, and that any return depends on the community's permission. The six sites are new records. They are not a claim that the valley has been fully surveyed.