The figures are painted high on the rock overhang. Too high for anyone to have reached them, so they must have been painted by spirits.
Thus goes the Aboriginal legend to explain how the rock art got so high. No-one had any ladders or any way to get up that high. The figures are in the crude style with unadorned colours. Presumably they were the earliest.
There is another possibility. They were painted so long ago that the ground was closer to them, less than a man’s height, perhaps.
Evidence points to occupation at Ubirr rock, for example, 23,000 years ago. There can be a lot of erosion in that time, especially during the dramatic wet seasons.
In the same crude style a painting of a thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) can be found. It, too, is very high up. Too high for someone to reach. Unless, of course, the ground level then was a mere man’s height from the painting and in the ensuing thousands of years got eroded away.
It is thought that the thylacines became extinct about 4000 years ago, when the dingoes came were brought to Australia.
Some of the art is estimated to be 20,000 years old, making them some of the oldest known human works. Some is much more recent.
There was some splendid repainting done at Nourlangie rock in 1964. The original work underneath is undated, but must have been of the more recent x-ray style. This is the Anbangbang gallery.
It shows Namandjolg, top centre, who broke the incest law with his sister and turned into Ginah the saltwater crocodile. Namarrgon the lightning man, top right, married Barrginj, mid-left, and had children called Aljurr the insects that white men call Liechhardt’s grasshopper that comes before the rain. Below are the men an women on their way to a ceremony. And the sarratoga fish shows there will be plenty if traditional culture is observed.
A very early painting of unadorned white and red ochre shows the hunting of what must have been a huge kangaroo, bigger than the man and therefore of a size not seen in Kakadu or anywhere else in Australia today. Unless, of course, the hunter was exaggerating.
The more sophisticated x-ray style shows internal as well as external features of the animals painted.
At Ubirr a painting tells of the story of a young girl who broke a taboo by eating barramundi at the wrong time. She was punished too severely and a battle between two clans broke out.
Often the act of painting is more important than the depiction because the same place is painted over several times. This is particularly true at Ubirr.
Now, there will be no over-painting, at least not at Ubirr and Nourlangie. They are frozen.
The paintings are done with several colours of ochre, charcoal and resin and painted on with a stick. They depict stories, legends and everyday life.
We owe much of the knowledge about these paintings to Bill Neidjie of the Bunitj people traditional owners of Kakadu who generously leased the land to the Commonwealth so the area could be preserved and managed for all to enjoy.
Of course, black and white pictures cannot do the art justice, especially as a lot of it is red or orange on sandstone.
The rock art sites are easy to get to, but usually not at the height of the Wet: December to February. There are many tours from Darwin to Kakadu. Oddly enough, one of the best times to go is October-November in the build up to the Wet. The humidity and heat is at its worst. But it means fewer people and cheaper travel and accommodation.
Perhaps it would be better if the art were more inaccessible. It would be greater appreciated if people had to walk long and hard to get to and it would be safer from vandals who tend not to be people willing to walk very far from car to inflict damage.
Conversely, if the paintings are being constantly looked at by lots of people the chance for vandalism is lower, and the more people who pay their $10 to get into the park, the more money there is to patrol and take other conservation measures.