A kangaroo is painted on a Kimberley rock shelter ceiling, c. 17,300 years ago
Australia's oldest dated rock painting, timed by the wasp nests that cover it
Quick facts
- Location
- Unghango clan estate, Balanggarra Country, Kimberley, Western Australia
- Estimated age
- 17,500 to 17,100 years, most likely 17,300
- Dating method
- radiocarbon dating of overlying and underlying mud wasp nests
- Lead researcher
- Andy Gleadow, University of Melbourne
What happened
On the Unghango clan estate in Balanggarra Country in the north-east Kimberley, a two-metre naturalistic painting of a kangaroo in red mulberry ochre covers the sloping ceiling of a collapsed rock shelter. Researchers from the Rock Art Dating and Kimberley Visions project, working with Balanggarra Traditional Owners and led by Andy Gleadow of the University of Melbourne, dated three fossilised mud wasp nests built over the painting and three built beneath it. The nest ages bracket the painting to between 17,500 and 17,100 years old, most likely around 17,300 years, making it Australia's oldest known intact rock painting from this naturalistic style.
Why it matters
The date places the painting within the last Ice Age, when sea levels sat roughly 106 metres below today's and the Kimberley coastline lay some 300 kilometres further out than now. It shows a continuous painting tradition stretching from deep Ice Age conditions through to rock art traditions practiced in the same region today, anchored to country that looked nothing like it does now.
How we know
Wasp nests build up in mineral layers that can be dated using radiocarbon methods; because nests were found both overlying and underlying the same painted surface, the true age of the pigment is bracketed between two independently dated points rather than relying on a single estimate.
Sources
- University of Melbourne, Pursuit. Australia's oldest known Aboriginal rock paintings · General sourcebradshawfoundation.com · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Bradshaw Foundation. New dating techniques reveal Australia's oldest known rock painting and it's a kangaroo · General sourcebradshawfoundation.com · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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