WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

2001; Nott and Bryant 2003). This event is estimated to have occurred around AD
1690.
Known megatsunami events have been reinterpreted in the light of Indigenous
traditions on the east coast of Australia and in New Zealand (Nott and Bryant 2003).
Investigation and redating of Kimberley tsunami deposits in the context of Indigenous
traditions has the potential to redefine recent geomorphological and climate history as
well as permitting reinterpretation of the traditions as perhaps describing a single
catastrophic event as well as an account of sea level rise over thousands of years. As
noted by Bryant et al. (2007, 213):
* * * *
'The spectacular nature of this cosmic phenomenon has dominated Aboriginal
mythology for the past four centuries. Only by interpreting the proper significance of
this rich oral history and artwork, especially in the Kimberley, can the true origin of
the tsunami be recognised'.
* * * *
Recent research in the Kimberley linking comets and tsunamis to Indigenous oral
histories, painted rock images and stone arrangements provides exciting opportunities
for future collaborative investigations between archaeologists, geologists and
Traditional Owners.
The west Kimberley coast between Cape Londonderry and Cape Leveque has
outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (c) for its potential to
yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the nature and the
effect of mega-tsunami events.
Potential of rock paintings to yield information
The fine graphic detail of the painted motifs in the Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland and
the Balanggarra native title claim area provide invaluable insights into a number of
nationally important areas of research including climate change and species
extinction; early Aboriginal material culture and technology development; and the
interactions between Aboriginal people and outsiders. The exceptional illustrative
nature of the rock paintings has the potential to provide information at a level of
resolution currently absent from the archaeology. Welch (1993, 29) supports this
view, noting that early Kimberley rock art 'gives us an enormous insight into the
material culture of early Australians'. While the rock paintings of Arnhem Land and
the Kakadu region are also highly informative, Morwood (2002) suggests that the
Kimberley region may have greater potential in demonstrating changes in weapons
used, accoutrements and ideology.
Very few actual weapons survive in the archaeological record (Morwood 2002).
Evidence for the antiquity and development of spears and spear throwers in Australia
comes almost exclusively from the painted images in rock shelters in Arnhem Land
and the Kimberley (Walsh and Morwood 1999, Morwood 2002). In both places, the
Mimi and the Gwion Gwion/Girrigirro painted motifs (the latter also known as
Bradshaw figures) show that 'the earliest weapons were boomerangs, clubs, hafted
stone axes and simple, hand-thrown spears; in both areas spear throwers and new
composite spear types subsequently appeared and developed, while boomerangs were
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