An online article by Vanessa Mills on ABC Kimberley - Changing styles of Kimberley rock art tell a rich story of human life - presents the rich collection of art painted on rock in the Kimberley. The paintings depict traditional spiritual beliefs, plants and animals, daily activities, war and hunting, secrets and stories.

The article describes the different styles of rock art in the Bradshaw, or Gwion, tradition, which show a transition in peoples' artistic inclinations. Peter Veth, the Ian Potter Chairman in Rock Art at the Kimberley Foundation and also a Winthrop Professor in Archaelogy at University of Western Australia, part of the Centre for Rock Art Research, explains how the many rock shelters show layer upon layer of styles. Geological conditions have helped preserve the pigments painted thousands of years ago, revealing the changes in artistic output.

He suggests that 'it is extremely unusual for any artistic traditions anywhere in the world to stay the same for several thousand years. Art styles change radically over time.' The stylistic changes can be attributed to different social configurations, expressions of territorial rights, use of resources, society, and responses to climate change such as aridity or the drowning of coastal plains.

Editor's note: 
The Bradshaw style certainly evolves. There are two main periods - the Archaic Epoch and the Erudite Epoch. Within each category there is a sub-category: for the Archaic, the Pecked Cupule Period and the Irregular Infill Animal Period. And for the Erudite, the Bradshaw Period and the Clothes Peg Period. 

The Bradshaw Period of the Erudite Epoch is perhaps the most interesting of all Kimberley art periods, as it seems to simply appear in its most developed form. There is no evidence of development or transition, and every indication suggests this artistic tradition arrived in the Kimberley in a fully developed form, so radically different in every way that this appearance seems to be in the wake of a period of discontinuity. Some of the finest figurative paintings are associated with the earliest levels of the sequence.

Concerning the statement that 'it is extremely unusual for any artistic traditions anywhere in the world to stay the same for several thousand years', I would, however, suggest that the cave paintings in Europe are considered by archaeologists to represent an overall belief system which persisted with little change for over twenty millennia, ending only when the Ice Age finally drew to a close.

To view the Bradshaw/Gwion paintings:

 http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/bradshaws/introduction.php