Conserving rock art
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Rock art is extremely important to the Aboriginal owners of Kakadu. It is also an important historic and scientific record of human occupation of the region. Rock paintings are generally found in sheltered areas away from the direct effects of the elements, but even the most protected sites can be damaged by the actions of water, animals, insects, plants and people.
Rangers do what they can to remove or redirect damaging processes. Boardwalks and handrails prevent both people and animals from touching and rubbing the paintings. Boardwalks also prevent dust from being stirred up and coating the paintings.
Pruning, clearing and controlled burning help reduce risks from wildfire and plants rubbing against the rocks.
Rangers regularly remove nests and tunnels made by wasps and other insects. They put silicon drip lines around paintings to redirect water flow away from paintings. This also reduces lichen and mould growth over the paintings and chemical rock weathering processes.
Major rock art restoration work in the park is uncommon but during the 1990s the deteriorating layer of white paint used in the X-ray figures at the Lightning Man art site was cleaned and consolidated.
