Aboriginal Rock painting

Indigenous art includes a range of styles of rock painting:

The cross-hatch or X-ray art from the Arnhem Land and Kakadu regions of the Northern Territory, in which the skeletons and viscera of the animals and humans portrayed are drawn inside the outline, as if by cross section.

Dot-painting where intricate patterns, totems and/or stories are created using dots; and

Stencil art, particularly using the motif of a hand print. 
 
More simple designs of straight lines, circles and spirals, are also common, and in many cases are thought to be the origins of some forms of contemporary Aboriginal Art.

A particular type of Aboriginal painting, known as the Bradshaws, appears on caves in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. They are named after the European pastoralist, Joseph Bradshaw, who first reported them in 1891. To Aboriginal people of the region they are known as Gwion Gwion. Traditional Aboriginal art is composed of organic colours and materials, but modern artists often use synthetic paints when creating aboriginal styles.

Aboriginal rock art has been created for a long period of time, with the oldest examples, in West Australia’s Pilbara region, and the Olary district of South Australia, estimated to be up to around 40,000 years old. Rock art gives us descriptive information about social activities, material culture, economy, environmental change, myth and religion.

Source: Indigenous Australian art - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia