Mulka's Cave Aboriginal rock art site: its context and content

Abstract

-The Mulka's Cave Aboriginal site, within "The Humps" Nature Reserve near Hyden, Western Australia, was recorded in detail prior to an overall tourist-orientated development of the Reserve. The site features 452 motifs, an extremely high number for the region where most sites have fewer than 30 motifs. The artwork is dominated by 275 handstencils, with 40 sprayed areas, 23 handprints, 23 paintings, 3 drawings and a single object stencil produced with a wide range of colours. The high diversity of art attributes is unusual in a region where the rock art is dominated by red handstencils. The site appears to have been of considerable importance to the Noongar people in the past and remains significant to them today. Its significance to the broader Western Australian community is evidenced by the high number of tourists it currently receives.

How was Mulka's Cave, an Aboriginal rock art site near Hyden, in southcentral Western Australia, used by the people who decorated its walls, when the present entrance was much smaller?

“…In other words, the ground was probably at the 1950s' level. What Gunn (2006a) understandably described as the rear entrance, because it faces The Humps and is filled with rock tumble, we now think may have been the main entrance in antiquity. This entrance is easily accessed by scrambling among the boulders that surround Mulka's Cave up to a shoulder of The Humps.…”

“…IJue to its proximity to Hyden, Mulka's Cave is now visited by most of the approximately 80,000 tourists who visit vVave Rock each year; particularly those on commercial tours. This level of visitation, 200 people a day on average, is extremely high for a spatially restricted site whose rock art Gunn (2006a) considered fairly 'ordinary', because handstencils predominate; as they do throughout south-western Australia (Davidson 1952).…”

“…We first visited the cave in April 2004, when Gunn (2006a) recorded the artwork in detail. We returned in April-May 2006, to monitor installation of an elevated walkway with a viewing platform and new sign age ( Figure 2); part of site management improvements undertaken by tourist organisations in I-lyden, with the support of the Mulka's Cave Aboriginal Steering Committee and the consent of the Minister of Indigenous Affairs.…”

“…This entrance is easily accessed by scrambling among the boulders that surround Mulka's Cave up to a shoulder of The Humps. We think this entrance has changed little over the last 3,000-4,000 years, the period during which Gunn (2006a) thought the artwork was made, partly because the bedrock is Archaean and has been weathering in situ for millions of years, partly because many of the boulders that fill it are too large and heavy to move easily. Certainly, this entrance has not changed noticeably since it was recorded by Serventy (1952).…”

Hand Traces: Technical Aspects of Positive and Negative Hand-Marking in Rock Art

“…The choice of "framing" niches, like the famous one enclosing a single black hand at Gargas or other rock features conducive to display, is not uncommon (Figures 13-15). Surface preparation has been identified by Gunn [42] at Mulka's Cave, Western Australia. Such a method is seen as "a feature" of the site, where 35 stencils-white-on-red negative images which, because of subsequent weathering, look like positives-were made on a pre-pigmented surface.…”