History, Politics and the Bradshaws of the Kimberley

Historical research sometimes needs enquiries to be made with specialists in other disciplines, and the exchanges that these generate can often be productive (and pleasant), for both parties. While one might expect such interdisciplinary enquiry to be an easy matter here in Australia, that was certainly not my experience six years ago, when I set out to study the so mysterious and so ancient 'Bradshaw' rock paintings of the Kimberley. And this a topic on which, as a professional historian with ancillary qualifications in art and the history of art, I did not consider myself to be straying particularly far outside my own areas of expertise.