Archaeol. Oceania 33 (/998) 28- 31 Pleistocene Aboriginal occupation at Cania Gorge, Central Queensland: preliminary results of fieldwork IAN LILLEY, DEBORAH BRI AN. CHRI S CLARKSON and SEAN ULM Abs tract Recent ellcavat i ons at Can ia Gorge in central Queensland have revealed evidence for Aboriginal occupation da t ing from the late Pleistocene through to the historical period. Th is paper briefly describes the general aims of the project as well as several of the key sites excavated, and reports initial radiocarbon determinations. These ellcavalions were conducted as part of the Gooteng Gooreng Cultural Heritage Project. which is being undertaken in collaboration with the Gurang Land Council Aboriginal Corporation (see Clarkson tt al. in peep.; Jolly 1994; Lilley and Ulm 1995: Litley tt til. 1996; Lilley tt al. in press). Excavations at 8 rockshelte rs in Cania Gorge have revealed an occupational sequence spann ing from the Last Glacial Maximum until the historical period: This research marks the commencement of the inland compo- nent of archaeological investigations conducted as part of the Gooreng Goore ng Cultural He ritage Projec t. Preliminary results of our investigations on the Central QueenSland coast have been reported elsewhere (Lill ey and Ulm 1995; Li ll ey er at. 1996; Lilley et al. in press) . The study region lies between the Central Queensland Hi ghlands and southeast QueenSland, two of th e archae- ologically best-known parts of the country. The project aims to develop an archaeological sequence for both the coast and the in land areas of th is east Centra l Queen sla nd reg ion a nd to compare c ritic ally these sequences and their explanations wi th those proposed for the Cen tral Queensla nd Highlands (Be aton 1977; M orwood 1979; Mulvaney and J oyce J 965) and fo r southeast Queensland (Hall and Hiscock 1988; McNi ven 1990; Morwood 1987; Walters 1992). IL, DB. SU: AbOrigi nal and Torres Strait IsLander Studies Uni t, The University of Queensland, Bri sbane QLD 4072, Austral i a; CC: De partment of Archaeology and Anthropology, The Fuculties, Aus tralian National Un iversity, Canberra ACT 0200. Australia. Submiued 5197, accepted 9197 28 ThG Nai ionaJ Libr8JY supplies copiQS of this article under l icence r rom the Copyright Agency Lknitod (CAL ). Further reproduc ti ons 01 aI1icle can only bo made uncler licence. Cania G orge Cania Gorge is an extensive system of dissected sand. stone escarpments covering an area of approx.imately 500Qha in the upper Burnett River basin, about lOOkm from the coast (Figure 1). Most of th e Gorge lies either in Cania Station or Cania Gorge National Park. or in sur- rou nd ing State Forest. Apart from the recording of two sites by the Queensland Gove rn ment's ArchaeOlogy Branch in th e 19705 and second-hand comments reported by Wa lsh (1984), prior to our s tudies Cania Gorge was unknown archaeologica lJ y despite its proximity to the Central Queensland Highlands and other archaeologi_ call y well -described areas. In July 1995. an initial archaeological survey of Cania Gorge was undertaken, concentrating on the southern end of the gorge system. Surveys were mainly restricted to the base of the sandstone escarpment where weather- ing has led to shelter formation. No open sites were recorded during the survey. In addition to the two previ- ously-recorded shelters, a further six shelters wi th poten - ti al archaeological deposits were located, several con- taining art (Figure I). In January and September-October 1996. field crews returned to Cania to pursue que st i ons concerning the natur e, exte nt and antiquity of subsurface cu ltural re mains and th e age of the rock art observed on the pre- vious field trip. The main objective of this work was to assess the archaeologi cal research potential of the Cania Gorge system through test excavations. Eight rocks helte rs were t est-excavated within a 15km l area at the southern end of the Gorge (Figure 1). No archaeological material was observed during excava- tions at three of the sites (Fem Tree Pool Shelter, Picnic Art Site or Long Gallery), and only relatively sparse material, principally flaked stone, was found in two other sites (Bushranger's Cave and Bo ulder 1). The three remaining si tes, Roof Fa ll Cave, Big Foot Art Si te and Road Cave I, on the other ha nd, yielded abundant cultural remains to the base of excavati o ns . At the ti mc of writing, initial sorting and description of the exca- va ted material from these three sites was well advanced and detailed results wi ll be presented elsewhere. These three sites and Boulder I have radiocarbon determina- ti ons ava il able and bri ef su mmaries of each of these excavatio ns nre presented below. Roof Fall Cave Roof Fall Cave is a large sandsto ne shelter located approximately 80m south of the recorded Bi g Foot Art Site on Cedar Creek 1). The walls of the shelter exhi bi t a nu mber of pai nt ed motifs and the floor, which covers an area of approxi mately 40m 1 , is dominated by blocks of rapidly-weathering sa ndstone detached from the ceil ing of the shelt er. A si ngle 50cm x 50cm test pit was excavated close to the centre of the chamber to a mallimum depth of about 80cm into culturally-sterile