THYLACINE DESIGNS IN ARNHEM LAND ROCK PAINTINGS

Abstract

ΠΗΗE thylacine (Tasmanian or marsupial wolf or tiger) is recorded in historic -*· times only from Tasmania, and perhaps still persists there. Fossil remains have been found in many mainland localities, and in New Guinea (Ride, 1964 ; Partridge, 1967). Paramanov (1967) and many newspaper correspondents in various parts of Australia have reported sightings of striped dog-like animals, but these have not been backed by material evidence or clear photographs, so far as I am aware, and have not been accepted generally. This report and the accompanying report by B. J. Wright discuss paintings and rock engravings made by Aborigines in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory and in the Pilbara region, Western Australia, respectively, apparently representing thylacines. In the following, paintings from five locations around the western Arnhem Land plateau (see map, Figure 1) are discussed. Based on considerations of style, some remarks on the age of the designs are made. Figures 2-7 were produced by inking photographic enlargements of the designs, which were then bleached and rephotographed. Figure 8 is a photograph of a 1 : 1 scale tracing of the design on to a polythene sheet.

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