List of figures

Figure 1.1: Histories of Australian Rock Art Research Symposium participants, Gold Coast campus, Griffith University, December 2019.

Figure 1.2: Mary Blyth with Paul S.C. Taçon, Ursula K. Frederick, Sally K. May and Jo McDonald, December 2019.

Figure 2.1: ‘Group photograph of the members of the 1948 American–Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, taken on Groote Eylandt.’

Figure 2.2: An example of Mountford’s ‘polychrome X-ray art’ from Injalak Hill.

Figure 2.3: Yingarna, Injalak Hill.

Figure 2.4: Photograph of the adult and baby birds referred to by McCarthy in his field diaries, Injalak Hill.

Figure 2.5: Frederick McCarthy and Frank Setzler excavating Site 1 on Injalak Hill in 1948.

Figure 3.1: Peter and Sheila get their photograph taken on Groote Eylandt.

Figure 3.2: Peter Worsley spearing fish in a billabong on Groote Eylandt 1953.

Figure 3.3: Detail of original pencil drawing of polychromatic rock art painting of ‘Pearling Lugger’ made by Peter Worsley during his fieldwork.

Figure 3.4: Left: Photograph of red ochre paintings on ceiling at Yinumaluwalumanja, 2019. Right: Detail of drawings made by Peter Worsley while visiting Yinumaluwalumanja in 1953.

Figure 4.1: John Clegg and Lesley Maynard at her Masters graduation ceremony in the University of Sydney Quad in 1976.

Figure 4.2: East–west differences in the Sydney Basin can be attributed to environmental factors (top), with a cultural style boundary at the Georges River – north of this boundary kangaroos are depicted with four legs; south with two legs in profile (McMah 1965).

Figure 4.3: Lesley excavating at Newman Rockshelter in 1976; and recording Pilbara rock art with Bruce Wright in 1978.

Figure 4.4: John Clegg tracing rock art on polythene at Little Devils Rock, Old Northern Road, 1972.

Figure 4.5: The Woronora rock-shelter assemblage where the placement of motifs was explored.

Figure 4.6: Knobs and blobs: A neutral geometric way to describe the shape of a motif.

Figure 4.7: An early morphometric approach to striped animal depictions.

Figure 4.8: The Bull Cave Bulls (left) – and mythical creature of similar schemata found in Putty (right) – to the north of the Sydney Basin.

Figure 4.9: The pan-continental sequence (from Maynard 1979:Figure 4.1), and the transitional sequence from nonfigurative to figurative.

Figure 4.10: The Sydney School’s influence on rock art research (including ANU and UWA): The start of a rock art research network map.

Figure 5.1: Andrée Rosenfeld at Early Man Rockshelter, Cape York Peninsula, 1974.

Figure 5.2: Portrait of Andrée Rosenfeld by Robin Wallace-Crabbe and Diane Fogwell.

Figure 5.3: Patricia Vinnicombe tracing uKhahlamba-Drakensberg rock art.

Figure 6.1 (left): Margaret Preston (Australia; England; France, b. 1875, d. 1963), Banksia 1938, oil on canvas, 53.2 × 42.6 cm.

Figure 6.2 (right): Margaret Preston, The brown pot 1940, oil on canvas, 51 × 45.8 cm.

Figure 6.3 (left): Caption reads: ‘Details of the aboriginal rock paintings which Margaret Preston discusses in her article’. Imagine this image in reverse.

Figure 6.4 (right): Margaret Preston, Aboriginal design 1943, woodcut, printed in colour inks, from one Masonite block, 38.4 × 39.6 cm (printed image), 43.1 × 45.4 cm (sheet).

Figure 6.5: Caption reads: ‘Making tracings of rock paintings, Glen Isla Rock Shelter, Victoria Range, Victoria’. Percy Leason on the left.

Figure 6.6 (left): Plate IV caption reads: ‘Nos. 67–9, dead pony; nos. 70, 74, drowned domestic cat; nos. 71, 73, 75, drowned Jersey calf; no. 72 dead Jersey calf, as found; no. 76 dead domestic cat, as found; no. 77 Jersey heifer browsing; no. 78, wild boar’s stance; no. 79, slaughtered pig’.

Figure 6.6 (right): Plate V caption reads: ‘Nos. 111–4, slaughtered pigs with legs in various positions; no. 115–6, Altamira boars showing alternative positions of legs; no. 117, combination of nos. 115–6; no. 118, Altamira boar; no. 119, living boar (tracing of no. 78); no. 120 combination of tracings of nos. 113–4’.

Figure 6.7: Percy Leason, Self-portrait with cave paintings ca. 1956–1957, oil on canvas, 67.0 × 85.1 cm (sight), in frame 77.8 × 95.3 cm.

Figure 6.8: (left) Percy Leason, Mammoth/Elephant H32356; (right) Percy Leason, The ‘galloping’ boar of Altamira H32352, State Library of Victoria.

Figure 7.1: Location of Gariwerd and locations mentioned in the text.

Figure 7.2: Central Gariwerd from the east.

Figure 7.3: Mt Clay tribesmen painted up for Corroboree 1859.

Figure 7.4: Billimina rock-shelter (post-2013 fire).

Figure 7.5: Mathew’s drawing of the art at Billimina as published (above) and as originally drawn by him (below).

Figure 7.6: Section of Lorblanchet’s 1975 detailed recording of the Billimina art panel.

Figure 7.7: Drivers behind Victorian rock art recording.

Figure 7.8: Patterns of site recording 1896–2019.

Figure 8.1: Explorer Ernest Giles’s ‘Aboriginal National Gallery’, Glen Thirsty.

Figure 8.2: Rock paintings recorded by Richard Helms in the Everard Ranges in 1891.

Figure 8.3: Post-contact drawn horse and rider, Watarrka National Park.

Figure 8.4: One of 17 engraved archaic faces at Alalya, Cleland Hills.

Figure 8.5: Engraved archaic face with body, Alalya, Cleland Hills.

Figure 8.6: Painted pole designs at Back Canyon, Watarrka National Park.

Figure 8.7: Engraved circles covered in calcium oxalate crust sampled for dating, Wanga East, Watarrka National Park.

Figure 8.8: Pounded figurative motifs among the most recent art at Rainbow Valley.

Figure 9.1: Map showing the Dampier Archipelago with the location of places mentioned in the text.

Figure 9.2: Landscape of Murujuga, a 50,000-year-old cultural wonderland that is often mistaken for a mining-created landscape of mullock heaps.

Figure 9.3: Enso Virili (in hat) with Traditional Custodian Coppen Dale and others at Gum Tree Valley.

Figure 9.4: Herbert Parker and Algie Paterson, senior Pilbara lawmen and active in the National Aboriginal Conference, with whom Lorblanchet consulted.

Figure 9.5: Pat Vinnicombe, flies and all, taking photograph of petroglyph during the 1980 Dampier Archaeological Project, Burrup Peninsula.

Figure 9.6: Ken Mulvaney, Bill Arthur and Peter Veth having a morning cuppa while sheltering from the cold wind and noise of machinery, Withnell Bay 1981.

Figure 9.7: Traditional Owner Wilfred Hicks addressing visitors on the FARA tour of 2015.

Figure 9.8: Part of the FARA ‘Stand Up for the Burrup’ action, Hearson Cove 2007, a campaign that has gone international.

Figure 9.9: University students under the tutelage of Ben Gunn recording rock art at a site within the Hamersley Iron lease, Burrup Peninsula, during the 2010 field school.

Figure 10.1: Australia’s Kimberley, showing places mentioned.

Figure 10.2: Grey’s documentations of rock art during his 1838 trip to west Kimberley.

Figure 10.3: Examples of Bradshaw’s documentation of Gwion Gwion rock art from his visit to Kimberley in 1891.

Figure 10.4: Photograph from Elkin’s fieldwork in the late 1950s.

Figure 10.5: Helmut Petri during fieldwork at the Munja Government Station in 1938.

Figure 10.6: Kimberley rock art publications 1841–2020 according to authorship.

Figure 10.7: A 1993 version of Welch’s rock art chronology for the Kimberley.

Figure 11.1: Namuluda, Goulburn Island in 1925.

Figure 11.2: One of the earliest ‘tourist’ photos of Arnhem Land rock art, 1922, Oenpelli area.

Figure 11.3: Allan Stewart with Djimongurr (Old Nym) and ‘Roy’ at Nanguluwurr, Kakadu National Park, 1959.

Figure 11.4: George Chaloupka in the field in 1988.

Figure 11.5: Nipper Kapirigi and David Canari at Yuwenjgayay, Kakadu National Park in 1986.

Figure 11.6: Sally K. May (far left) with Josie Maralngurra (fourth from the left) and PhD candidate Emily Miller (far right) and others at Nanguluwur, Kakadu in 2019.

Figure 11.7: From left to right, Christopher Chippindale, Sue McPherson, Paul S.C. Taçon and Peter Sullivan recording rock paintings at the key sequence site of Kungurrul in Kakadu National Park, 1991 (see Chippindale and Taçon 1993).

Figure 12.1: Anbangbang (Nourlangie) in 2019.

Figure 12.2: Photograph (a) and diagram (b) of materials used in Koongarra trial.

Figure 12.3: Nourlangie Restoration Project in 1989: (a) The Park note provided to visitors at the time and (b) Conservators at work during the project.

Figure 12.4: CORLAB trial at Nanguluwurr in (a) 1987 and (b) 2017, highlighting further deterioration despite treatment.

Figure 12.5: Koongarra trial in (a) 1988 evaluation and (b) 2019 evaluation.

Figure 13.1: The Laura Sandstone Basin showing Laura River and Little Laura River precincts (1 and 2).

Figure 13.2: Dr George Musgrave (left) and Dr Tommy George (right) at Mushroom Rock c. 1995.

Figure 13.3: Chart indicating selectivity of figurative motifs in Laura valleys (LR=Laura River; LLR=Little Laura River); excludes human and track motifs and hand stencils.

Figure 13.4: Rock painting of Anurra Quinkan at Sandy Creek.

Figure 13.5: Examples of headdresses and head forms painted in the study area.

Figure 13.6: Scrub turkey (a), composite beings (b and c) and dingo (d) motifs.

Figure 13.7: Rock-shelter at Brady Creek with rock paintings of fish.

Figure 14.1: Flowchart using PRISMA (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses) statement for the systematic review.

Figure 14.2: Distribution of rock art research output by year. Each dot is one output.

Figure 14.3: Geographical distribution of rock art research by 2017 (inner circle) and 2020 (outer circle).

Figure 14.4: Methods used in Southeast Asian and Micronesian rock art research by 2017 and 2020.

Figure 14.5: Author affiliations for rock art research done in Southeast Asia and Micronesia by 2017 and 2020.

Figure 14.6: Geographic distribution of rock art research outputs in Southeast Asia and Micronesia proportioned between Australia-affiliated and not affiliated with Australia. The bigger the circle, the more research outputs mention the area.

Figure 14.7: Publications from Southeast Asia and Micronesia rock art traced back to the Australia-affiliated authors’ institutions.

Figure 14.8: Word cloud of Australia-affiliated rock art authors. The larger the size of the name, the more outputs.

Figure 14.9: Distribution of collaboration for Australia-affiliated publications.

Figure 14.10: Distribution of first authorship between Australia-affiliated researchers and locals by 2017 and 2020.