Why this area needs to be protected

The aboriginal life style is all based on the idea of the Dreamtime, or Dreaming. This is a direct translation of the aboriginal word for it, but Silas Roberts described it as "Aboriginals have a special connection with everything that is natural ... We see thinks natural as part of us. All the things on earth we see as part human". The dreaming is based on the idea that the earth was originally formless, with no land, no light, nothing. Then an old blind women, called Kala, with three children clasped to her breast, rose from the ground. As she wondered around, a sea of water bubbled up behind her. After a while, this water created the island of the Tiwi, now Melville island, and she left the three children there, after declaring that the island should be covered with trees, with animals and spirit children.

This was how the world was first created. Light came from a lighting strike which lit two tree branches. These were discovered by Purupu, the son of Kala, and one burning branch was given to his sister Wuriu, and a smaller one to his friend, Japara. Purupu soon married, but Japara soon became her lover, and one day when Purupu�s wife and Japara were off in the bush, Purupu�s son died in the heat of the day. On hearing this Purupu attacked Japara, beating him savagely, so that Japara, with his smaller torch, rose into the sky to become the moon-man with the scars on his face from his fight with Purupu. Wuriu, with her larger torch, rose into the sky to become the sun-woman. So there was a bright light during the day, and less light from the moon during the night.

The earth around the site was created by Ginga, the giant ancestral crocodile, who made the rocks, which was be seen in the rocky outcrops shaped like a crocodile�s back. The cliffs which the rock painting are located on was made sacred by Namarkon, the lightning man, which actually forms the edge of the Arnhem land Escarpment and Plateau, and so to the Gagudju still contains the power and energy of the Dreamtime.