Rock art is at least 40,000 years old. Australia contains many distinctive examples. Much of the Australian rock art is in remote places, including deserts. Several thousand sites have been found, such as Kimberley in Western Australia.

Rock art is made by:

• painting on rock, especially in areas where people lived or held ceremonies
• engraving or cutting into the rock
• making images on the rock using beeswax and resin
• making marks on stone
• arranging stones on the landscape in symbolic ways

The paint used for rock art is made mainly from natural ocher. The ocher bonds with the sandstone. The paint can last tens of thousands of years.

Rock art is important for Australia’s traditional peoples, who have the old living culture on Earth. Their culture does not have a traditional written language, so the rock art preserves its history, beliefs, thoughts, symbols, and changes over time.

Many styles and media of rock art have been found, and more may be discovered in the future. Among the types are:

• Rock Markings: durable images carved, engraved, incised, scraped, or otherwise made on rock
• Gwion Gwion: paintings of human figures, often with objects such as headdresses and bags
• Static Polychrome: Multicolored thin human images
• Painted Hands: often decorated and located near images of humans or animals
• Wandinja: beings that are believed to control natural phenomena and human behavior

Source: Aboriginal Rock Art of the Kimberley: An Overview
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