Aborigines Gallery

Aboriginal cave paintings in rock shelter, Gwion Gwion rock art (formerly called Bradshaw)

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, Western Australia

© Reg Morrison/AUSCAPE All rights reserved

Lightning man, Namarrgun, maker of storms; head and elbow attachments are stone axes for thunder

Lightning man, Namarrgun, maker of storms; head and elbow attachments are stone axes for thunder, Burrunggui, formerly Nourlangie Rock, Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia

© Reg Morrison/AUSCAPE All rights reserved

Aboriginal Culture, Aboriginal Rock Art, Aborigines, Ancient Art, Australian Aboriginal Art, Caves, Depictions, Drawings, Dreamtime, Figures, Historical, Indigenous Australians, Mythology, Myths, Ochre, Overhang, Paintings, Pictures, Pigment, Shelter, Stories, Symbolism, Symbols, Traditional

The Art Gallery with paintings and stencils

The Art Gallery with paintings and stencils, Rock art paintings were executed using natural mineral pigments found in sandstone sediments. Art styles found in Carnarvon Gorge are freehand, stencil and engraved, and have been dated to about 3500 years ago. Carnarvon Gorge section, Carnarvon National Park, Queensland, Australia

© Jaime Plaza Van Roon/AUSCAPE All rights reserved