Tasmania's Aboriginal Land Council has taken over the management of a site in the state's west that features Aboriginal rock carvings.

A Hobart doctor found the site more than 18 months ago.

He went public with the discovery in April this year, after the state's Heritage Department did not act on the find.

Land council manager Glenn Shaw says the site will be under its control.

"The first thing we'll be doing is we're going in to see the condition the site is in," he said.

"We'll also undertake a process to talk to community members about taking some community members in to have a look as well.

"From there the cave will be named, we will look at any protection regimes."

Mr Shaw says he is disappointed but not surprised that it took so long for the department to act.

"Quite often when these things get into Government, they tend to be held in-house," he said.

"For reasons known only to those within Government they have undertaken a process of going and looking at the cave, which is not the correct process that should be taken."