Best viewed in Original size.

In the Flinders Ranges, a few hours drive north of the city of Adelaide in South Australia, the area
around what is known as the Yourambulla Caves site is one of the ancestral homes to an aboriginal
society known as Adnyamathanha (roughly, the 'hills people'). As with all Aboriginals, the life of
these 'hills people' was in harmony with the environment and many specially chosen locations held
great spiritual significance. At Yourambulla, the paintings only date back about 6000 years, although
the rock engravings are thought to be much older, perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 years.

From my discussions with aboriginal elders when I worked in that area, I gathered that the drawings are
apparently diverse in meaning - some quite spiritual, some recounting significant history, some showing
the routes to other water holes, and some a crude family history.

It is a very special experience to be around these caves and overhangs after nightfall,
when the gentle desert breezes sigh in the low and wiry native pines, the dingos yap
and howl in the distance, and the incredible desert star-brightness of the Milky Way
lowers a soft mantle of light over this ancient land - the oldest surface formation on earth.