Split Rock Gallery

Top choice in Cairns & Far North Queensland


About 12km south of Laura look out for the badly signposted turn-off to the Split Rock Gallery, the only rock-art site open to the public without a guide. The sandstone escarpments here are covered with paintings thought to date back 14,000 years. If there are no tour groups around, it can be quite a surreal experience to walk the path up the hillside in silence, solitude and isolation, before coming upon the various other-worldly 'galleries' in the rock faces.

There's a real sense of the sacred at Split Rock: it's both eerie and breathtaking.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Cairns & Far North Queensland attractions

1. Quinkan & Regional Cultural Centre

3.09 MILES

This cultural centre and museum has displays on the Indigenous and gold-mining history of the region. Highly recommended tours of Quinkan Country rock-art…