National Museum of Australia

Flinders Ranges

Warning: This exhibition and website contain some images of nudity and people in distressing circumstances. Visitors should also be aware that the exhibition and website include names and images of deceased people that may cause sadness or distress to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Surveys of the Flinders Ranges, 1905 to about 1913

Herbert Basedow carried out six field trips to the Flinders Ranges region of South Australia between 1905 and about 1913.

His initial visits were primarily geological investigations on behalf of the South Australian Mines Department. Later trips may have been to continue his investigations of Aboriginal rock engravings that he had seen in the region.

Basedow was convinced the engravings were of some antiquity. However, as with all scientists and researchers of his time, he was hampered by the lack of direct dating techniques.

In 1914 he published an article describing the Flinders Ranges engravings. This was the first time these 'relics of the unique type of aboriginal art', as he called them, had been brought to the attention of the scientific world.

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Map outlining the expedition through the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. The sylised map shows the land mass in an ochre yellow colour and sea areas in dark brown. Four inland lakes are indicated on the map by blue shapes. There is no information in regard to other surface features such as contours and transport. Locations such as Adelaide, Port Augusta, Marree, Leigh Creek and the Flinders Ranges are indicated on the map. The eastern South Australian border is visible at the far right of the map. The intersection of the South Australian, New South Wales and Victorian borders is just visible in the bottom right corner of the map. A small white map of Australia is in the upper left hand corner, showing the expedition area as a small vertical rectangle.

Map outlining expeditions through the Flinders Ranges region in South Australia between 1905 and about 1913

Rock engravings, Balparana, South Australia, 1905

photograph by Herbert Basedow
reproduced from glass plate negative
National Museum of Australia

Herbert Basedow with horses and a wagon on the plains east of Lyndhurst, South Australia 1907. He stands at the front of a horse-drawn wagon, facing the camera. The wagon faces to the right of the image, as do the two horses harnessed to it. Basedow wears trousers, shoes, a long-sleeved shirt and a hat. He rests his right hand upon some expedition equipment on the buggy. The gound around him and the wagon is covered in patchy grass and rocks. A flat, featureless plain extends away behind Basedow all the way to the horizon. The sky takes up about the top third of the image.

Herbert Basedow on the plains east of Lyndhurst, South Australia, 1907

unknown photographer
reproduced from lantern slide
National Museum of Australia

$Rock engravings, Deception Creek, Flinders Ranges, South Australia 1905 to about 1913. Several Aboriginal customary engravings can be seen on a fractured rock face. The engravings possibly represent spirit figures and animals. Three large vertical fractures and three oblique fractures are visible on the rock face. There are other rock faces above and below the engravings. The point of view of the photograph suggests that it was taken from below the engravings, looking up at the rock face. Deep fissures and overhangs create shadows on all of the rock faces in the photograph.$

Rock engravings, Deception Creek, Flinders Ranges, South Australia, 1905 to about 1913

photograph by Herbert Basedow
reproduced from glass plate negative
National Museum of Australia

Rock engravings, Deception Creek, Flinders Ranges, South Australia, 1905 to about 1913

photograph by Herbert Basedow
reproduced from glass plate negative
National Museum of Australia

Red Gorge, South Australia, 1905 to about 1913

photograph by Herbert Basedow
reproduced from glass plate negative
National Museum of Australia