Conserving rock art
Rock art is extremely important to the Aboriginal owners of Kakadu. Some old people remember watching their relatives paint while telling stories about their country. Rock paintings are generally found in sheltered areas away from the direct effects of the elements, but even the most protected sites can be damaged by the actions of water, animals, insects, plants and people. Park management has researched the causes of rock art deterioration, the chemical composition of the pigments, and the nature of the bonds between the rock surface and the pigments
Water flowing over or seeping through the rocks is a common problem. Apart from the water's dissolving action, salts deposited on the rock surface can cover some of the art. An effective management solution is to install silicon drip lines to divert the water away from the paintings. Drip lines can be seen at the Ubirr, Nourlangie and Nanguluwur art sites.
Feral animals such as buffalo and pigs like to camp in the shade of ground-level shelters and often rub themselves against rock faces. The reduction in the number of these animals has helped limit their damage to rock art. Wasps and termites also damage rock art by building nests and tunnels over it.
Where practical, park staff carefully remove old nests and tunnels.
People pose a serious threat to rock art, especially at much-visited sites such as Ubirr and Nourlangie. Generally, the damage is unintentional, caused by raising dust or touching the paintings. An individual visitor might not pose a problem, but the presence of thousands of people each week can cause serious damage very quickly. Boardwalks have been installed to minimise the amount of dust settling on the paintings and to prevent visitors from touching the art.
Major rock art restoration work in the Park is uncommon, during the 1990s the deteriorating layer of white paint used in the X-ray figures at the Lightning Man art site was cleaned and consolidated.
See also
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