These figures can be either simple outlines or more complex constructions. The second creates figurative forms, such as painted or engraved silhouettes of humans or animals. The first uses engraved geometric forms, such as circles, concentric circles, arcs, dots or animal tracks. Sometimes stencils are created by blowing the colour from the mouth over an outline.īroadly speaking, rock art in Australia employs two main design types. Paintings use wet pigments made from minerals, which are applied by finger or with brushes made from chewed sticks or hair. Drawings use dry colours, such as charcoal, clay, chalk and ochre (which can be anything from pale yellow to dark reddish brown). Pictographs are made by applying pigments to the rock. Petroglyphs are created by removing rock through pecking, hammering or abrading in order to leave a negative impression. It can take two main forms: engravings (petroglyphs) and paintings or drawings (pictographs). Rock art consists of paintings, drawings, engravings, stencils, bas-relief carvings and figures made of beeswax in rock shelters and caves. For First Nations peoples in Australia, rock art sites are records of their ongoing history since time immemorial. ‘We don’t have the art but we’ve found the tools that were used to make the art … close to 50,000 years ago,’ says Dr Bruno David, an anthropological archaeologist from Monash University.Īll cultures use imagery to tell stories, so it is likely that, from the time of their first arrival in Australia, First Nations peoples were using artworks in sacred and public sites to give form to their narratives. Australian rock art has been dated to around 30,000 years ago, although there are possibly much older sites on the continent. The first humans arrived in Australia between 65,000 and 80,000 years ago. More than 5,000 are located in the Northern Territory’s Kakadu National Park alone. Researchers estimate that there are more than 100,000 significant rock art sites around Australia. Petroglyphs (rock engravings) and pictographs (drawings) are a key component of rock art. Across Australia rock art is an integral part of First Nations life and customs, dating back to the earliest times of human settlement on the continent. Rock art is the oldest surviving human art form.