Australian Rock Art Gallery

Aboriginal cave paintings in rock shelter - Gwion Gwion rock art

Aboriginal cave paintings in rock shelter - Gwion Gwion rock art (formerly called Bradshaw). These dynamic line figures wearing ornaments and headdresses and carrying boomerangs and other weapons are believed to be the oldest figurative art in Australia. Some of the rock art in north-western Australia has yielded a minimum age in excess of 20 000 years. It is by far the oldest human art in the southern hemisphere and may be among the most ancient in the world. In this category are ant-like charcoal paintings now known as Gwion Gwion figures, like this one sealed by a silica desert varnish into the walls of a rock shelter. Modern Aborigines disclaim authorship of such art and say that it was done by Dreamtime spirits. Manning Gorge, Kimberley region, Western Australia

© Reg Morrison/AUSCAPE All rights reserved

Rock art in Thaaklatjika overhang or Wrights Cave

Rock art in Thaaklatjika overhang or Wrights Cave, with initials of a 19th century visitor in a blue triangle overlying the much older work of the Malyankapa and Pandjikali Aboriginal people. That visitor, William Wright, was the leader of the back-up party for the Burke and Wills expedition. Mutawintji National Park, land of Malyankapa and Pandjikali Aboriginal people, western New South Wales, Australia

© Jaime Plaza Van Roon/AUSCAPE All rights reserved

Rock art: at the top, Namondjok, a creation ancestor who with his sister broke kinship

Rock art: at the top, Namondjok, a creation ancestor who with his sister broke kinship laws; later he became Ginga, the estuarine crocodile. Below: Barrginj, wife of Namarrgon the Lightning Man, and other X-ray style figures. He later became Ginga, the estuarine crocodile. Anbangbang, Nourlangie, Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia