Lost World of the Kimberly by Ian Wilson[2005]

[Robert Henvell]

 The pictures of Bradshaw rock art and the descriptions are well worth the $35.00 A.
Some of Ian Wilson's theories are tad "far out".The inhabitants of Arnhem Land,,where the broadly coeval Dynamic rock art was painted,contend that the great mother figure came from the north.This happened after a long drought,when the sea level was rising, and the lakes and water holes were refilling.She had a dilly bag around her neck with yams in it.They are not native to Australia,but are and were common in Indoesia.The great mother taught the native inhabitants to plant yams,cook them and introduced the totem to the locals.
 The people,who created the Bradshaw  and Dynamic art probably came from the Indonesia Archapeligo by boat [there are 5 paintings of boats with high sterns and prows] sometime after the last glacial maximum or possibly after the Younger Dryas,which had far less impact on northern Australia than NW Europe,but was a time of drought  downunder.There are only two equivocal dates for the Bradshaw art:--AMS -4KA and TL 17,5 Ka.To the east in Arnhem Land minerals that have bonded to the Dynamic rock art iyielded a date ca 10Ka or older.Ian Wilson contends that the artists arrived in Australia a long time ago.The scribe favours a more recent arrival as per the native folk lore,which was reasonably reliable prior to the intoduction of land rights.The book is worth a read,if one is interested in rock art.

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

The pictures of Bradshaw rock art and the descriptions are well worth the $35.00 A.
Some of Ian Wilson's theories are tad "far out".The inhabitants of Arnhem Land,,where the broadly coeval Dynamic rock art was painted,contend that the great mother figure came from the north.This happened after a long drought,when the sea level was rising, and the lakes and water holes were refilling.She had a dilly bag around her neck with yams in it.They are not native to Australia,but are and were common in Indoesia.The great mother taught the native inhabitants to plant yams,cook them and introduced the totem to the locals.
 The people,who created the Bradshaw  and Dynamic art probably came from the Indonesia Archapeligo by boat [there are 5 paintings of boats with high sterns and prows] sometime after the last glacial maximum or possibly after the Younger Dryas,which had far less impact on northern Australia than NW Europe,but was a time of drought  downunder.There are only two equivocal dates for the Bradshaw art:--AMS -4KA and TL 17,5 Ka.To the east in Arnhem Land minerals that have bonded to the Dynamic rock art iyielded a date ca 10Ka or older.Ian Wilson contends that the artists arrived in Australia a long time ago.The scribe favours a more recent arrival as per the native folk lore,which was reasonably reliable prior to the intoduction of land rights.The book is worth a read,if one is interested in rock art.

Bob,

Thanks for bringing this up, but don’t you think that an exact reference to Wilson’s book would have been “de mise”?

Also, for the record, I must note that the Bradshaw Foundation site has been repeatedly mentioned on the Forum. A quick search should be of help. More specifically, if one wants to know a bit more about the magnificent Bradshaw paintings, one should click HERE. Last time I had a look at the site, it didn’t show “boats”.

Jacques