Overview
Aboriginal peoples have created hundreds of thousands of engravings, paintings and markings in rock shelters and surfaces across Australia, the land they have occupied and for which they have cared for more than 60,000 years. These creations constitute a significant group of the world’s oldest surviving human art form, which non-Indigenous people call “rock art”.
Rock art describes both paintings (pictographs) and carvings (petroglyphs) on stone, as well as rocks laid out in patterns or sculpted rock reliefs. Pictographs are made by applying pigments to rock – yellow and red ochres, diatomaceous earth (powdery fossilised algae), white clay or chalk, black charcoal or manganese oxide. These may be mixed with water, blood, plant juices or egg white, and applied with fingers, brushes of animal hair, feathers or sticks.
The Kimberley region of Western Australia is one of the world’s richest rock art sites, a dynamic cultural landscape situated within steep mountain ranges, sandstone and limestone gorges, waterfalls, pristine rivers and a rugged coastline that gives way to islands and coral reefs.
This stamp issue features art from the north Kimberley language and cultural groups of the Wanjina Wunggurr community.
Technical specifications
- Issue date
- 20 September 2022
- Issue withdrawal date
- 31 March 2023
- Denomination
- $1.10 x 2
- Stamp design
- Sonia Young, Australia Post Design Studio
- Product design
- Sonia Young, Australia Post Design Studio
- Paper: gummed
- Tullis Russell 104gsm Red Phos.
- Printer
- RA Printing
- Printing process
- Offset lithography
- Stamp size (mm)
- 50 x 30
- Minisheet size (mm)
- 170 x 80
- Perforations
- 14.4 x 14
- Sheet layout
- Module of 25
- FDI Postmark
- Derby WA 6728
- FDI withdrawal date
- 18 October 2022
Shop our stamp collectables
Set of stamps:
Set of Rock Art of the Kimberley Gummed Stamps
This set of stamps contains all two stamps from the Rock Art of the Kimberley stamp issue.
Stamp pack:
Rock Art of the Kimberley Stamp Pack
The Rock Art of the Kimberley stamp pack contains all two stamps and minisheet from the stamp issue presented in a high-quality folder.
Minisheet:
Rock Art of the Kimberley Minisheet
The Rock Art of the Kimberley minisheet consists of the two stamps from the issue incorporated into a miniature stamp sheet.
Maxicard set:
Set of Rock Art of the Kimberley Maxicards
This maxicard set contains the two maxicards from the Rock Art of the Kimberley stamp issue.
- Set of stamps
- Stamp pack
- Minisheet
- Maxicard set
Additional collectables:
- Gutter Strip of 10x $1.10 Crocodiles Stamps
- Gutter Strip of 10x $1.10 Gwion Gwion figures Stamps
- Pictorial Envelope for the Rock Art of the Kimberley Stamp Issue
- Rock Art of the Kimberley First Day Cover (Gummed Stamps)
- Rock Art of the Kimberley First Day Cover (Minisheet)
This content was produced at the time of the stamp issue release date and will not be updated.
