#koonalda cave

[ancientstuff]

Absolutely horrific.

[ammg-old2]

In Southern Australia, vandals have broken into Koonalda Cave and destroyed 30,000 year-old sacred Indigenous rock art. The vandals forced their way past barbed wire and dug under a steel gate to get into the Koonalda Caves, where they etched graffiti into the limestone wall over the ancient Nullarbor Plain drawings. The cave is considered sacred by its owners, the Aboriginal Mirning people.

“This is quite frankly shocking,” South Australia attorney general and Aboriginal affairs minister Kyam Maher told Australia’s ABC Radio. “These caves are some of the earliest evidence of Aboriginal occupation of that part of the country.”

Authorities have yet to find the vandals, but the suspects could face a $10,000 fine or up to six months in prison for writing “Don’t look now, but this is a death cave,” over the ancient geometric patterns carved into the rock.

“The vandals caused a huge amount of damage. The art is not recoverable,” Keryn Walshe, an archaeologist of ancient Aboriginal sites, told the Guardian’s Mostafa Rachwani. “The surface of the cave is very soft. It is not possible to remove the graffiti without destroying the art underneath. It’s a massive, tragic loss to have it defaced to this degree.”

Koonalda Cave, which has been on Australia’s National Heritage list since 2014, plays an important role in the country’s, and human, history. It had long been believed that humans first arrived on the continent some 8,700 years ago, but archaeologists upended that misconception when they found that the cave's drawings date back at least 30,000 years. The findings “transformed the scientific community and publics’ understanding of Australian and World prehistory,” according to the Australian National Hertiage Places registry.

The Mirning peoples had been in talks with the Australian government over needed changes to the site’s maintenance, asking for increased security and better access for the tribe to the caves. Currently, the tribe needs to request a key from the local environmental department to access the site, making it difficult for tribe members to visit and for the Mirning to protect the site. Trespassers have been entering the caves for years and carving their names into the soft limestone rock with their fingers.

“The failure to build an effective gate, or to make use of modern security services, such as wildlife monitoring cameras that operate 24/7, has in many ways allowed this vandalism to occur,” Clare Buswell, chair of the Australian Speleological Federation’s Conservation Commission, wrote to Aboriginal lands parliamentary standing committee in July, according to the Guardian.

Rock art, like the drawings destroyed in Koonalda Cave, is the oldest known form of early human art. In many Indigenous cultures, the drawings are a part of their cultural heritage and oral histories. Visiting the Nullarbor Plain art was part of a Mirning Elders ritual in communing with ancestors. 

“Me and my Mirning Elders are very sad, disturbed and hurt by what has happened,” Mirning Elder Uncle Bunna Lawrie tells Hyperallergic’s Elaine Veile. “Koonalda is our most important, sacred place.”

He tells Hyperallergic that it’s likely the destruction was “premeditated”: the drawings are deep within the tunnels of the dark caves, and Koonalda is miles away from civilization.

“It is not coming back,” says Lawrie of the ruined drawings. “It is one of the oldest cave art in the world and it is now damaged. It is so wrong.”

[maswartz]

*sigh*

[msamba]

Vandals Destroy 30,000-Year-Old Indigenous Rock Art in Australia | Hyperallergic

Vandals Destroy 30,000-Year-Old Indigenous Rock Art in Australia | Hyperallergic

Elaine Velie December 21, 2022 Murrawijinie Cave on the Nullarbor Plain (image via Wikimedia Commons) The drawings, which experts say are irrecoverable, are of particular significance to the Mirning People.   In Southern Australia, vandals forced their way into the sacred Koonalda Cave and permanently destroyed part of the 30,000-year-old Nullarbor Plain drawings, some of the country’s oldest…

[ausetkmt]

CNN: Vandals destroy 22,000-year-old sacred cave art in Australia, horrifying indigenous community

CNN: Vandals destroy 22,000-year-old sacred cave art in Australia, horrifying indigenous community.

[morosestferret]

CNN: Vandals destroy 22,000-year-old sacred cave art in Australia, horrifying indigenous community

CNN: Vandals destroy 22,000-year-old sacred cave art in Australia, horrifying indigenous community.

[foxspirit1928]

Miss Fisher Australia Tour (59)

The confession scene at the end of S2E4 Deadweight is still a tear-jerker for me even after rewatching the episode dozens of times. Mrs. Biggs was kneeing in front of the poster of Jimmy, the Black Belter, trying to wipe off the white paint when Miss Fisher and Jack walked into the tent to arrest her. The tender caress of the image continued as she recounted fondly how Jimmy told her that she was like his mum. “Me, barren as the Nullarbor, like somebody's mum”, she sobbed, and my heart ached for her.

The Nullarbor Plain is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, occupying an area of about 200,000 square kilometres (77,000 square miles). According to Wikipedia, "Crossing the Nullarbor", for many Australians, is a quintessential experience of the Australian Outback for the challenge to conquer the vast rough terrain in the harsh desert climate. While most adventurers and adventuresses explore the area via automobiles, I was surprised to learn that some brave few did succeed in crossing it on a bicycle (Arthur Charles Jeston Richardson in 1896) or on foot (Henri Gilbert in 1898).

In addition to the Nullarbor National Park, there are a number of natural wonders in the area – Koonalda Cave, Murrawijinie Cave, Bunda Cliffs, Koonalda Homestead, Great Australian Bight Marine Park, etc. Because of its long distance from Melbourne, 1972 km (1225 miles) northwest, I won’t even attempt to include it in my itinerary this time. However, I would like the chance to visit the plain someday and pay homage to Mrs. Biggs.

(Posted 24-Apr-2019)