Quinkan Rock Art at Laura

We stayed the night at the camp ground at Laura and booked a tour of the Quinkan Galleries. Johnny took us in the cultural centre landcruiser on the 20km or so track that was sometimes very rocky.

This kangaroo is the totem for the person who painted it - the 2 lines through the body indicate this. Only someone whose totem is the kangaroo is allowed to paint it

Similarly for the dingo

And for the possum

 A lungfish

 Our guide Johnny

 Local ironwood - leaves are used to make smoke for funerals, sap is used for binding tools and the wood is used for spears because its so strong

This person is dead because he's horizontal and because he is covered in dots

 The large yam

A petroglyph showing the direction that water can be found. A circle is the symbol for water

This shows an emu and emu chicks with their heads down, indicating that they're dead. ON the right is a bad spirit with big eyes and knobbly arms

A white ibis

The rainbow serpent runs through this photo

More animals with their heads down indicating they've been killed

A grass bag in the middle and a stick used to carry 4 fish after a fishing event. In the middle and to the right is a vertical stick which was used by women to do many things including fight each other (often over men)

This woman's husband has been killed - the dots indicate death

 A 3 pronged spear

 Flying foxes are still eaten by local people - they're easy to catch and are steamed with paperbark and other leaves for flavour

A crocodile with a dead man below indicating the man is dead

A petroglyph of a 3 pronged spear

 

A large kangaroo and emu from the time of the mega fauna (apparently). Large painted animals indicated that the people were afraid of these large animals

Good quinkan spirits - Tamara is the largest one

These people were born with damaged limbs. Johnny then told us that young women won't eat large fish because of the teratogenic effect of mercury in large fish.

The caves were all beneath this rocky landscape - you'd never find them unless you knew to look for them.