Split Rock
From the Ozi masterfile |
Along the Split Rock tour (61K) |
These sandstone cliffs surfacing from a dense bush amid the outback of Cape York Peninsula host one of the widest collection of Aboriginal rock art in Australia. It is a living site; many galleries are in fact very relevant for the cultural and religious life of the local Aboriginal community since they are related to the myths of the "Age of Dreaming". |
Split Rock Location
About 20 Km south of Laura
|
Mr. Quinkan |
From the time of Australia discovery, about 40-30.000 years ago, to the time of British arrival (1788), the Aboriginal people expressed his spiritual and artistic feelings by painting and engraving on rock surfaces. The extraordinary duration and continuity of this cultural tradition has been definitely proven by very sophisticated radiochronometric techniques.
Laura Rock art belongs to a special stylistic tradition very different from the famous "X-rays" one prevailing in central Australia. Laura Rock art is representative of the so-called Quinkan style named after the portraits of mythic figures named Quinkans. Considering the living oral tradition, its extremely rich and elaborated symbolism, it is nearly impossible to interpret the Aboriginal rock art employing European conceptual categories.
|
| Rock art sites are widespread in Australia and many are top targets for tourists. The Laura galleries, in Queensland, are not so famous as the Ulurulu Rock galleries (Ayers Rock ) but certainly are not less important. The galleries open to the public, Split Rock and Guguyalangi, are still a very quiet place, not yet involved in the big ecotourism business, a place where the beauty is just lying aside the beaten track. |
The very rich Gallery of Guguyalangi
|
 Stencil Hands (52K) |
Stencil hands are an almost obsessive presence at Guguyalangi Gallery. Hundreds of hands and also some stencil feet and stencil weapons (axes) are on display. One wonders if they were connected to some unknown elaborate rite or they could be an equivalent of travelers' graffiti, which only mean: "I visited this place".
|
Mr. Quinkan and his turkeys |
It seems that also naturalistic representations of animals are misleading since they could be like computer icons, i.e. shortcuts to long histories. The same consideration probably applies also to the ancient prehistoric cultures of Europe and Sahara. Anyway it is the ability to stylize animals and humans that we most appreciate trough ages and cultures. It is the ability that distinguishes the artist among common people. Try the Thumbnail Viewer on this page if you want a straightforward confirmation of this fact. |
A painted Brush Turkey (59K)
Do you want to see the living model?
Just click on the portrait!
|
Split Rock (8K) |
The trek connecting Split Rock to Turtle Rock to Guguyalangi is 4.8 Km long. The total length of the tour has been exactly calculated by using the
TrackMaker software which output is represented in the figure. The tour start at the Split Rock Car Park aside the Cape York Developmental Road, 20 Km south of Laura. The coordinates of the Car Park waypoint are (in the WGS system) Lat: -15 38' 46,41536'' Long:144 30' 32,84268''.
(Home-->>)
|
|
|
)
)
)
)