The delicate task of returning the ancient rock carvings has presented a range of logistical challenges for authorities, including whether to use helicopters or large trucks to transport and position them on the other side of the state.

TMAG and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery - which also possesses Preminghana petroglyphs in crates - agreed to their repatriation last year after lobbying by the Aboriginal community.

They were carved away from rocks in the 1950s and 60s and taken to the museums without consultation with the Aboriginal community.

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Their return is expected in late August, to be accompanied by cultural events at both ends of the journey.

Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania chair Michael Mansell said it appeared that the community was in favour of removing the cement from the back of the petroglyphs stored in Hobart before their return.

"One of the big slabs was in two or three pieces after they removed them, so they put them back together by cementing the back of it," he said. "The cement backing weighs a lot more than the carvings.

"Because of the concrete, it's very cumbersome and much, much heavier."

Once that decision was made, there was then the task of positioning them in their original home.

Mr Mansell said it was impossible to replicate how they once were, but just having them in their rightful location was an important symbolic gesture.

"At the finish, it's not going to be perfect. We can just do the best that we can, and the community understands that," he said.

"Where they were cut away from, because the sand and the salt spray has eroded the back of those rocks that they were removed from, you could never set it back perfectly on a shelf.

"The whole thing is a jigsaw puzzle, or a mosaic, that they are a part of."

TMAG and the Royal Society apologised to the Tasmanian Aboriginal community in February in recognition of past wrongs, while City of Launceston mayor Albert van Zetten also apologised for times the council had "got it wrong" in regards to Aboriginal issues.

There is unlikely to be any signage at the site to explain the process of removal and repatriation. Mr Mansell said it would not be right to elevate any of the petroglyphs as more important than any of the others.

The 14,000-year-old petroglyphs form part of a 20-kilometre network of rock carvings that give insight into stories, totems, warriors, camps and roads.