Rock Art
Rock art and engraved surfaces as physical objects: the Murujuga petroglyphs on the Burrup, inscribed as World Heritage in 2025, Gwion Gwion and Wandjina figures in the Kimberley, Mulka's Cave, Walga Rock. What can be shown here is limited by protocol rather than by searching. Restricted and ceremonial material is excluded, unsignposted site locations are not published, and Wandjina images appear only where the custodians published them.
Part of Western Australia
64 moments in this segment.
- - Rock engraving of human form - NMA-11812. Engraved rock surfaces are the most durable record of Aboriginal presence on this continent, and at Murujuga they are dated to 45,000 years and more.
- - "Our Art" Interview with Christine Yukenbari, Warlayirti Artists. An interview with the Warlayirti artist Christine Yukenbari at Balgo. The recording is part of a series in which artists describe their own careers and working practice. Warlayirti Artists is community owned.
- - "Our Art" Inteview with Ms Hapke & Agnes Armstrong, Waringarri Aboriginal Arts. Agnes Armstrong of Waringarri Aboriginal Arts at Kununurra speaks about the centre's work. Waringarri is one of the oldest Aboriginal-owned art centres in the Kimberley. Its artists work on Miriuwung Gajerrong Country.
- - "Our Art" Interview with Gabriel Nodea, Warmun Art Centre. Gabriel Nodea of Warmun Art Centre in the east Kimberley describes the centre's work. Warmun is the community at Turkey Creek and its painters work largely in natural ochres from the surrounding Country. The centre is owned and directed by Gija people.
- - Aboriginal Guided Tour - Yiwarra Kuju. An Aboriginal-guided tour of the Yiwarra Kuju exhibition of Canning Stock Route paintings. The works were made by artists from the desert communities the route crosses. Guiding the exhibition themselves is part of how the collection was intended to be shown.
- - Yiwarra Kuju - The Canning Stock Route Exhibition
- - Characters of the Kimberley - Meet Donny Woolagoodja. A profile of the Worrorra artist Donny Woolagoodja, published by Australia's North West. Woolagoodja is among the artists authorised by his community to depict the Wandjina, and he created the Wandjina projected onto the Sydney Opera House in 2016. Authorisation by community, rather than copyright clearance alone, is what governs this imagery.
- - Burrup Rock Art. Aboriginal rock art from the Murujuga / Burrup PeninsulaPhotographers Description: Older than the Iliad. They're actually carved, or scraped might be the better word, into the rock, rather than painted. Between 1963 and 2006 an estimated 900 sites, about 24.4 percent of them, were destroyed for industrial development. The state government disputed that figure.
- - Kimberley Rock Art ABC 7.30 Report Kimberley Foundation Australia. An ABC 7.30 report on Kimberley rock art, published by what was then the Kimberley Foundation Australia. The organisation later operated as Rock Art Australia. Galleries in the Kimberley sit on Ngarinyin, Wunambal and Worrorra Country.
- - Canning Stock Route Collection - Copyright and Licensing. The Arts Law Centre of Australia on copyright and licensing in the Canning Stock Route collection. The collection was made by artists from communities along a route cut through their Country for moving cattle. Licensing terms were negotiated with the artists rather than assumed.
- - Canning Stock Route Collection: Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property + Moral Rights. The Arts Law Centre of Australia discusses Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property and moral rights in relation to the Canning Stock Route collection. Copyright and cultural rights are different systems, and clearing one does not clear the other. That distinction governs how this archive treats every Aboriginal cultural image.
- - Hyden- Mulka's Cave 1. Mulka's Cave near Hyden is a signposted, publicly accessible painted site on Ballardong Noongar Country, with hundreds of hand stencils on its granite walls.
- - Dreaming of the Wandjina by Billard Boyz. Dreaming of the Wandjina, by the Billard Boyz, published on indigiTUBE, the Aboriginal community media platform. Wandjina paintings are traditionally repainted, in some cases carrying more than forty layers of paint, which makes them maintained objects rather than static artefacts. That reframes what conservation of such a site means.
- - Warlayirti: The Art of Balgo | RMIT University. Warlayirti: The Art of Balgo, produced with RMIT University. Warlayirti Artists is the art centre at Balgo, or Wirrimanu, in the south east Kimberley. The centre is governed by the artists of the community.
- - Conservation of rock art in Western Australia. The Western Australian Museum on the conservation of rock art in Western Australia. Conservation of a painted site is complicated by the fact that some traditions require repainting, so the object is maintained rather than frozen. The lecture runs to the length of a full seminar.
- - Rock art confirms existence of prehistoric beast in the Kimberley. NITV reports on Kimberley rock art that appears to depict an animal no longer living in the region. Depictions of species now extinct on the mainland, including the thylacine at Murujuga, function as chronological markers inside the imagery. NITV is the National Indigenous Television service.
- - Rock Art Dating Story on ABC's 7.30 Report November 2015. An ABC 7.30 report from November 2015 on the science of dating Kimberley rock art, republished by Rock Art Australia. The programme follows researchers attempting to put numerical ages on painted surfaces. Estimates for Gwion Gwion figures have ranged from about 3,000 to about 12,000 years depending on method.
- - AHOTW Symposium - Dr. Sven Ouzman - Stories in Stone. Dr Sven Ouzman presents Stories in Stone at a Western Australian Museum symposium. The talk treats engraved and painted surfaces as physical objects with histories of making, weathering and reuse. It was recorded at the museum's Art of the Heritage of the World programme.
- - AHOTW Symposium - Peter Veth and Jo McDonald - The recursive nature of Aboriginal rock art. Peter Veth and Jo McDonald present on the recursive nature of Aboriginal rock art at a Western Australian Museum symposium. McDonald co-authored the 2018 redating of Karnatukul / Serpent's Glen on Martu Country to approximately 47,830 cal BP. That work was carried out at the request of the native title holders.
- - Sandalwood in Ballardong Noongar Boodjar. Mulkas Cave region Wheatbelt Western Australia. Mulkas Cave region Wheatbelt Western Australia. Mulka's Cave near Hyden is a signposted, publicly accessible painted site on Ballardong Noongar Country, with hundreds of hand stencils on its granite walls.
- - Indigenous art from the desert - The Bidyadanga Art movement. The Bidyadanga art movement, from the community south of Broome on the Kimberley coast. Bidyadanga is home to people from several desert language groups who moved to the coast in the twentieth century. Their painting records the inland Country they came from.
- - Ancient and Modern 4,000 years. Murujuga National Park The modern Ammonia plant sits side by side with ancient rock art. Murujuga carries an estimated one million petroglyphs, an order-of-magnitude figure rather than a count, some of them dated to 45,000 years and more.
- - Future Man. Murujuga National Park The contrast between rock art from thousands of years ago against the modern LNG plant of the North West Shelf. UNESCO inscribed Murujuga in, July 2025 at the 47th session in Paris, on criteria (i), (iii) and (v). It is Australia's 21st World Heritage site.
- - Aboriginal Rock Art meets Art of the Engineer. Murujuga National Park Turtle and Man carving on the rock face. NW Shelf LNG flame tower in the back ground. Five nations, the Yaburara, Ngarluma, Mardudhunera, Yindjibarndi and Wong-Goo-Tt-Oo, are represented here by the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation.
- - Murujuga Nat Park banner. Murujuga National Park The modern Ammonia plant sits side by side with ancient rock art. UNESCO inscribed Murujuga in July 2025 at the 47th session in Paris, on criteria (i), (iii) and (v). It is Australia's 21st World Heritage site.
- - Leah Umbagai - Worrorra. Leah Umbagai speaks about the Worrorra language for First Languages Australia. The Worrorra are one of the peoples of the Wanjina Wunggurr cultural bloc, whose communities hold authority over Wandjina imagery. Language and image authority sit together in the same custodial structure.
- - YABURARA FLYING FOAM MASSACRE 150 YEARS ON 2018. Ngaarda Media marks 150 years since the Flying Foam massacre of Yaburara people in 1868, on and around the Murujuga / Burrup Peninsula. The Yaburara are among the five nations whose Country the peninsula's engravings sit on. Massacre casualty figures for the WA frontier vary widely by estimator and this archive gives ranges rather than single numbers.
- - Desert River Sea: Portraits of the Kimberley at the Art Gallery of WA. A longer look at Desert River Sea: Portraits of the Kimberley at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. The exhibition presented Kimberley artists through their own art centres. Buying and showing work the artists chose to make is a different act from reproducing a restricted image.
- - Desert River Sea: Portraits of the Kimberley Community TV. Desert River Sea: Portraits of the Kimberley, filmed for community television at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. The project worked with Kimberley art centres rather than collecting from a distance. Contemporary work made and sold by the artists themselves is the licensable, custodian-sanctioned end of this material.
- - Maywokka Chapman | Pujiman Artist Profile. A profile of the Martu artist Maywokka Chapman, published by Martumili Artists. Martumili represents artists from the Martu communities of the Western Desert, including Parnngurr, Punmu and Jigalong. The Martu are the native title holders who requested the redating of Karnatukul / Serpent's Glen.
- - Nancy Chapman | Pujiman Artist Profile. A profile of the Martu artist Nancy Chapman, published by Martumili Artists, the Martu-governed art centre based at Newman. Pujiman is the Martu word for the desert-born generation who lived on Country before contact. The art centre publishes its artists' own accounts of their work.
- - Martumili Artists | 2019. Martumili Artists present their work for 2019. The centre is governed by Martu people and covers communities across the Western Desert in the East Pilbara. Painting is one of the ways Country is recorded and held.
- - MURUJUGA DNA. / Burrup Peninsula include depictions of the thylacine, extinct on the mainland, which is a chronological marker inside the imagery itself. Custodian-published material is the archive's preferred source for any rock art subject.
- - Murujuga. A short introduction to Murujuga / Burrup Peninsula published by the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, the custodial body. The peninsula carries approximately one million petroglyphs, a figure that is an estimate rather than a count. It is also the site of a major industrial gas precinct, and both things are true of the same ground.
- - Mulka's Cave, Western Australia, October 2020. Mulka's Cave near Hyden is a signposted, publicly accessible painted site on Ballardong Noongar Country, with hundreds of hand stencils on its granite walls.
- - Boola Bardip – ‘many stories’. Boola Bardip, meaning many stories, is the Noongar name of the Western Australian Museum in Perth. The naming reflects an agreement about whose stories the building holds. The clip is published by the Foundation for Indigenous Sustainable Health.
- - Ngarlum Mia - Devils Lair, Archaeology and Culture. The Undalup Association presents Ngarlum Mia, on the archaeology and culture of Devil's Lair in the Leeuwin-Naturaliste region. Devil's Lair should be described as occupied for at least about 31,000 years, with charcoal evidence extending toward 48,000 years, because the stone tool record supports the later figure and the earliest charcoal may not represent occupation. The site produced ground bone beads and a stone pendant among the oldest ornaments in Australia.
- - Mowanjum Art and Culture Centre - A place of cultural connection. The Mowanjum Art and Culture Centre near Derby, presented as a place of cultural connection. Mowanjum is the principal custodial community for Wandjina imagery and brings together Worrorra, Ngarinyin and Wunambal people. Wandjina reproduction is restricted by the Wanjina Wunggurr communities to authorised artists, so custodian-published material of this kind is the only appropriate source.
- - What Now? The Next Generation of Martumili Artists. FORM hosts a discussion on the next generation of Martumili Artists. The centre works with Martu communities across the East Pilbara. Younger artists inherit both the painting practice and the responsibility for the Country it records.
- - Wajarri Yamaji Walga Rock On-country workshop Aug 2021. Wajarri Communications records an on-Country workshop at Walga Rock in August 2021. Walga Rock is a painted site on Wajarri Yamaji Country in the Murchison. The workshop was run by the community on its own Country.
- - Tracks We Share: Jatarr Lily Long (Martumili Artists). The Martu artist Jatarr Lily Long speaks in the Tracks We Share series with Martumili Artists. The work maps Country that the artist's family walked before and after contact. This is the custodian-sanctioned end of the material, made and sold by the artists themselves.
- - Tracks We Share: Corban Clause Williams (Martumili Artists). The Martu artist Corban Clause Williams speaks in the Tracks We Share series, produced with Martumili Artists. The series accompanied an exhibition of contemporary Pilbara Aboriginal art. Artists describe their own work in their own terms.
- - Putikutu Ananyi: Bush Trip – Milpa Collective | Spinifex Arts Project | Tjuntjuntjara WA. A bush trip filmed with the Milpa Collective of the Spinifex Arts Project at Tjuntjuntjara in the Great Victoria Desert. Painting and travel on Country are part of the same practice for the Spinifex artists. The material is published by Desart, the peak body for Central Australian Aboriginal art centres.
- - Milpa Movie - Milpa Collective | Spinifex Arts Project | Tjuntjuntjara WA. The Milpa Collective of the Spinifex Arts Project at Tjuntjuntjara, published by Desart. The Spinifex people were displaced from their Country by the British atomic testing programme at Maralinga and later used painting as evidence in their native title claim. The art centre is owned by the artists.
- - Visit Murujuga
- - Federal government formally nominates Burrup peninsula for UN world heritage listing ABC News. ABC News reports the federal government formally nominating the Murujuga / Burrup Peninsula for World Heritage listing in February 2023. The nomination was made with the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation. Inscription followed in July 2025.
- - In our own words: World Heritage nomination for the Murujuga Cultural Landscape. The Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation states the case for World Heritage listing of the Murujuga / Burrup Peninsula cultural landscape in its own words. MAC represents five nations: Yaburara, Ngarluma, Mardudhunera, Yindjibarndi and Wong-Goo-Tt-Oo. The nomination succeeded in July 2025.
- - World Heritage bid for Murujuga World Heritage. Parks and Wildlife Service Western Australia on the World Heritage bid for Murujuga / Burrup Peninsula. The estate is jointly managed with the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation. The bid succeeded in July 2025.
- - The pollution affecting Indigenous rock art at Murujuga | Art Works. ABC Arts examines the pollution affecting the rock art at Murujuga / Burrup Peninsula. The peninsula holds both one of the largest bodies of engraved rock art in the world and a major gas processing precinct. The question of what industrial emissions do to the engraved surfaces was unresolved when this was made.
- - The push for World Heritage listing for Pilbara rock art | ABC News. ABC News on the push for World Heritage listing of the Pilbara rock art at Murujuga / Burrup Peninsula, reported in August 2023. Between 1963 and 2006 approximately 900 sites, about 24.4 percent, were destroyed for industrial development, a figure the WA state government disputed. Both the claim and the dispute belong in the record.
- - Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Program - A Ranger Perspective. A ranger's account of the Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Program, published by the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation. The program measures the condition of the engravings against the industrial emissions of the surrounding gas precinct. Monitoring is carried out by the custodians themselves rather than only by outside researchers.
- - Petroglyph. Murujuga / Burrup Peninsula, Western Australia. The thylacine appears in the engravings here, which fixes a date in the imagery itself: it has been gone from the mainland for thousands of years.
- - Kangaroo Petroglyph. Murujuga / Burrup Peninsula, Western Australia. The Flying Foam killings of February to, May 1868 happened on this peninsula, where estimates of Jaburara dead run from 15 to 150 because no official count was ever made.
- - Quoll Petroglyph. Murujuga / Burrup Peninsula, Western Australia. The gas trains and the engravings share the same ground, and any honest picture of this place holds both.
- - WA Museum Boola Bardip | Nyumbi. Nyumbi at the Western Australian Museum Boola Bardip. Boola Bardip means many stories in Noongar, and the museum was renamed when it reopened in Perth in 2020. The museum works with Aboriginal communities on how their material is displayed.
- - Rock Art and Cultural Tour at Nganjarli, Murujuga National Park.. A ranger-guided rock art and cultural tour at Nganjarli in Murujuga National Park, published by the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation. Nganjarli, also called Deep Gorge, is one of the publicly signposted and open parts of the estate. The archive shows only sites that custodians have already opened to visitors.
- - Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Program Year 2. Year two of the Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Program, published by the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation. A 2024 monitoring report found air quality good to very good, a conclusion that Professor Ben Smith publicly disputed and that statistician Adrian Baddeley said rested on altered graphs. The scientific dispute was live at the time of this recording.
- - WA’s Murujuga landscape granted UNESCO World Heritage status | ABC NEWS. ABC News reports the UNESCO World Heritage inscription of the Murujuga / Burrup Peninsula cultural landscape. The inscription came in July 2025 at the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris, under criteria one, three and five. It is Australia's 21st World Heritage site.
- - Ancient Indigenous rock art collection in Australia's Pilbara region listed as a World Heritage Site. SBS News reports the World Heritage listing of the Pilbara rock art at Murujuga / Burrup Peninsula in July 2025. The estimate of approximately one million petroglyphs is widely reported and should be treated as an order of magnitude rather than a count. The traditional owners are five nations represented by the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation.
- - Murujuga rock art granted World Heritage status | ABC NEWS. ABC News on the moment the Murujuga rock art received World Heritage status in July 2025. The listing followed years of campaigning by the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation and came alongside an unresolved argument about industrial emissions on the same peninsula. Both belong in any account of the site.
- - UNESCO Grants Murujuga Rock Art Heritage Listing - Behind the News. Behind the News explains the UNESCO inscription of Murujuga / Burrup Peninsula for a school audience. The listing was granted in July 2025 under criteria one, three and five. The program is produced by the ABC.
- - Murujuga traditional custodian Raelene Cooper on the campaign to protect her sacred rock art. Murujuga traditional custodian Raelene Cooper describes the campaign to protect the rock art of her Country. Cooper has been among the most visible custodian voices in the argument over the gas precinct on the peninsula. The recording was published by Friends of Australian Rock Art.
- - The Endangered Rock Art of Murujuga - Can it Survive? FARA Public Lecture, State Library of Victoria. A Friends of Australian Rock Art public lecture at the State Library of Victoria asking whether the endangered rock art of Murujuga can survive. The peninsula was inscribed on the World Heritage list in July 2025 while the industrial precinct beside it continued to operate. The lecture runs the full length of a public evening session.
- - Dr John L Black demonstrates how industrial emissions are degrading the Murujuga rock art. Dr John L Black presents evidence to Friends of Australian Rock Art on how industrial emissions degrade the Murujuga engravings. A 2024 monitoring programme report found air quality good to very good; Professor Ben Smith rejected that reading of the findings and statistician Adrian Baddeley said early warning thresholds had been removed from the graphs. The dispute is scientific and was live when this lecture was given.