Dr June Ross

Adjunct Professor , Archaeology - Faculty of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Education; School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

June Ross

Biography

Trained as a designer, my early career included periods teaching at secondary level, working as Education/Public Programs Officer at the New England Regional Art Museum and lecturing in Arts Education at the University of New England (UNE). After completing a degree in Aboriginal Studies and Archaeology at UNE, I undertook postgraduate studies focused on rock art in northwest Queensland. Always drawn to remote areas of Australia, I completed my PhD in Central Australia researching rock art and its role in ritual.

More recently, along with colleagues, I have been Chief Investigator on three Australian Research Council projects; Change and Continuity: Archaeology, Chronology and Art in the Northwest Kimberley, PicturingChange: Contact Rock Art and Alive with the Dreaming: Songlines of the Western Desert.The latter culminated in the recent Seven Sisters exhibition at the National Museum of Australia. During the last two decades I have taught into courses at UNE on Rock Art, Art and Society and Australian Archaeology, supervised postgraduate students, produced rock art management and conservation plans for government agencies, and worked with Indigenous communities in Central Australia and the New England.

Qualifications

Graduate Shillito School of Design

Batchelor of Arts (Honours 1st Class)

PhD (Rock Art and Ritual)

Awards

  • Best Student Paper AAA 1994
  • Best Alumni Paper (equal) 2004

Primary Research Area/s

Rock Art; Arid Zone Archaeology; Australian Aboriginal Art

Research Interests

  • Alive with the Dreaming: Songlines of the Western Desert LP 110200742
  • Rock Art of the Arid Zone

Research Supervision Experience

  • Five Masters Students
  • Four PhD Students

Publications

1991 Education Kit, Aboriginal Art at the 1990 Venice Biennale: Rover Thomas – Trevor Nicholls. Australian Exhibition Touring Agency, Melbourne.

1992 Education Kit, Friendly Country, Friendly People: Aboriginal Art Works from the Peoples of the Tanami and Great  Sandy Deserts. Australian Exhibition Touring Agency, Melbourne.

1993 Selwyns, Past and Present. Insight, Vol 35, New England Regional  Art Museum.

1997 Review of the 1997 Fulbright Symposium, Darwin. Australian Archaeology 45:33.

1997 Painted Relationships: an archaeological analysis of a distinctive anthropomorphic rock art motif in northwest central Queensland. Unpublished BA (Hons) thesis, Department of Archaeology and Palaeoanthropology, University of New England, Armidale.

2002 Rocking the Boundaries, Scratching the Surface: an Analysis of the Relationship between Paintings and Engravings in the Central Australian Arid Zone. In (eds.) S. Ulm, C. Westcott, J. Reid, A. Ross, I. Lilly, J. Prangnell and L. Kirkwood, Barriers, Borders, Boundaries, Proceedings of the 2001 Australian Archaeological Association Annual Conference Tempus 7, pp. 83-91, University of Queensland, Brisbane.

2002 Rock art, Ritual and Relationships: an archaeological analysis of rock art from the central Australian arid zone. Unpublished PhD thesis, School of Human and Environmental Studies, University of New England, Armidale.

2004 (with L. Abbott) ‘These things take time’: central Australian rock art in context. Australian Aboriginal Studies 1:69-78.

2005 Rock Art of the Red Centre In (eds) M. Smith & P Hesse, 23◦ South: Archaeology and Environmental History of the Southern Deserts. National Museum of Australia Press, Canberra, pp 217-230.

2005 (with I. Davidson, N. Cook, M. Fischer, M. Ridges & S. Sutton) Archaeology in another country: exchange and symbols in north-west central Queensland. In (eds.) I. Macfarlane, M-J Mountain & R. Paton, Many Exchanges: archaeology, history, community and the work of Isabel McBryde, Aboriginal History Monograph 11, Canberra, pp.103-130.

2006 Seeing Red: Rock Art in New England. In (eds.) A. Atkinson, I. Davidson, A. Piper & J. Ryan, High Lean Country. University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, pp. 173-178.

2006 (with I. Davidson) Rock Art and Ritual. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. December 2006, Vol.13(4):305-341.

2006(with Mike Smith) A Reinvestigation of the Archaeology of Geosurveys Hill, Northern Simpson Desert. Australian Archaeology, No 64, June, pp.50-53.

2007 (with Mike Smith) A Late Pleistocene site on Watarrka Plateau, Central Australia. Australian Aboriginal Studies 1:138-143.

2008 (with Mike Smith) Glen Thirsty: The History and Archaeology of a Desert Well. Australian Archaeology. Vol 66:45-54.

2008 (with Mike Smith) What Happened at 1000-1500 BP in Central Australia: Timing, Impact and Archaeological Signatures. Holocene, 18(3):387-396.

2008 (with Daniela Valenzuela, Marisabel Hernandez-Lhosa, Luis Briones & Calogero M. Santoro) More than the Motifs: the archaeological analysis of rock art in arid regions of the Southern Hemisphere, Revista Chungara, Chile Vol 40, pp.273-294.

2009 (With Mike Smith & Alan Watchman) Direct dating indicates mid-Holocene age for archaic rock engravings in arid Central Australia. Geoarchaeology. Vol 24(20:191-203.

2009 (with Mike Smith) Engraved ‘archaic faces’ in northwest Queensland: a short report. Australian Archaeology, No 69, pp. 68-70.

2010 (with Mike Smith and Isabel McBryde) The economics of grindstone production at Narcoonowie quarry, Strzelecki Desert. Australian Aboriginal Studies.

2012 (June Ross) Towards a chronology of engraved rock art from the Central Australian arid zone. In (ed.) Jean Clottes, Prehistoire, Art et Societe: L’Art Pleistocene Dans Le Mode, Proceeding of the IFROA Conference, Ariege-Pyrenees 2010. pp. 178-180.

2012 Picturing Change and Changing Pictures (Paul Taçon, Alistair Paterson, June Ross & Sally May) in (eds.) J. McDonald & Peter Veth, Companion to Rock Art, pp. 420-436.  Wiley Blackwell, Malden, USA.

2012 (June Ross) A continent of nations: the emergence of New Regionally Distinct Rock Art Styles across Australia. Quaternary International 285.

2013 (June Ross) Oceania, Archaeology of Art, in (ed.) Christine Hausssmann, Encylaeopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York.

2013 (June Ross and Meg Travers). ‘Ancient Mariners’ in Northwest Kimberley Rock Art: an analysis of watercraft and crew depictions. The Great Circle Vol. 35, No. 2, pp.55-82.

2013 (Jillian Huntley, Maxime Aubert, June RossandMichael Morwood) 2013. One Colour, Two Minerals: A study of Mulberry Rock Art Pigment and a Mulberry Pigment ‘Quarry’ from the Kimberley, Northern Australia. Archaeometry, doi: 10.1111\arcm.12073.

2014 Rock Art: a Tangible Expression of the Dreaming, In (eds.) Diana James and Elizabeth Tregenza, Ngintaka. Wakefield Press, Kent Town pp 142-147.

2015 (Meg Travers & June Ross) The shifting function of artefacts in Australia’s northwest Kimberley rock art assemblage. The Artefact, Pacific Rim Archaeology. Vol.38:8-26.

2016 (Jillian Huntley, Kira E. Westaway, Damian B. Gore, Maxime Aubert, JuneRoss, and Michael J. Morwood) Non-Destructive or Non-Invasive? The potential effect of X-ray fluorescence spectrometers on luminescence age estimates of archaeological samples. Geoarchaeology, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292134763_Non-Destructive_or_Noninvasive_The_Potential_Effect_of_X-Ray_Fluorescence_Spectrometers_on_Luminescence_Age_Estimates_of_Archaeological_Samples

2016 (Deb Holt and June Ross) Sex and Gender in Wanjina Rock Art, Kimberley Australia. Expression, No. 11, March 2016. pp 39-47.

2016 (June Ross, Kira Westaway, Meg Travers, Michael J. Morwood, John Hayward). Into the Past: A Step towards a Robust Kimberley Rock Art Chronology PLOS ONE http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161726

2016 (Meg Travers & June Ross) 2016. Continuity and change in the anthropomorphic figures of Australia’s northwest Kimberley, Australian Archaeology, 82:2, 148-167, DOI: 10.1080/03122417.2016.1210757http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03122417.2016.1210757

2017 Kungkarangkalpa and the art of Walinynga in (ed.) Margot Neale, Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters. National Museum of Australia, pp 78-81.

2017 (Mike Smith, Alan N. Williams & June Ross) Puntutjarpa rockshelter revisited: a chronological and stratigraphic reappraisal of a key archaeological sequence for the Western Desert, Australia, Australian Archaeology, DOI: 10.1080/03122417.2017.1351673

2018 Shifting Worlds: Post-Contact Rock Art in Central Australia. Australian Archaeology DOI: 10.1080/03122417 2018.1547949

2018 Goodingoo Rocks, In (ed.) Tania Hudson Minderoo est.1878. Chapter 7:225-30.

2020 (Mark W. Moore, Kira Westaway, June Ross, Kim Newman, Yinika Perston, Jillian Huntley, Samantha Keats, Kandiwal Aboriginal Corporation, Michael J. Morwood) Archaeology and art in context: Excavations at the Gunu Site Complex, Northwest Kimberley, Western Australia. PLOS ONE http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226628 Feb,5th 2020.

2020 (M A Smith, J Ross and R G Kimber) Robert Edwards and the history of Australian rock art research. Historical Records of Australian Science https://doi.org/10.1071/HR20011.

2021 Making a Scene: An Analysis of Rock Art Panels from the Northwest Kimberley and Central Desert, Australia. In I. Davidson & A. Nowell (eds.), Making Scenes: global perspectives on scenes in rock art. New York: Berghahn Books.

In press (June Ross & Mike Smith) Rock Art of Australia’s Deserts. (eds. Paul Tacon, Sally K May and Ursula Fredericks) Terra Australis, Australian National University.

Reports and Catalogues

1986 National Trust Catalogue. Unpublished catalogue and photographic record of Saumarez Homestead, Armidale. pConrad  Martens: Bush Trails and Squatters’ Runs. Exhibition catalogue, New England Regional Art Museum

1995 (with C. Lovell-Jones), Rose Hill Archaeological Survey. Unpublished archaeological report for the Hamilton family

1995 (with J. Balme, L. Dagg, M. David, I. Davidson), Rouse Hill Archaeological Survey. Unpublished report for the Rouse Hill Infastructure (Stage 1) Development

1996 Yetman Rock Art. Unpublished report for AIATSIS under Rock Art Protection Program, Canberra.

1997 Plain English Report: Rock art in northwest central Queensland. Unpublished report for the Kalkadoon Tribal Council, Mt Isa.

1998 Information Brochure, Armidale Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Keeping Place, Armidale.

1999 (with Wendy Beck) Macintyre Valley Rock Art, Management Plan for Yetman rock art sites and visitors information sheets. Unpublished report for AIATSIS and TALC under Rock Art Protection Program, Canberra.

1999 Site Condition Report, Rock Art – Emily Gap. Unpublished report prepared for the Traditional Owners and NTPWS

2004 Rock Art of Glen Thirsty. Unpublished report for the Ukaka Community, Northern Territory.

2007 (with Mike Smith) Archaeology of Owen Springs. Unpublished report for Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife Service, Alice Springs.

2009 The Archaeology of Watarrka National Park. Unpublished report for Parks and Wildlife Service, Northern Territory, Alice Springs.

2012 Rock Art on Angas Downs, Northern Territory. Unpublished report prepared for Australian Wildlife Services, Canberra.

2014 (with Alan Williams and Mike Smith) Archaeological Report: Puntutjarpa Rockshelter. Unpublished report prepared for Ngaanyatjarra Council.

2016 (with Kim Newman) Walinynga (Cave Hill) Rock Art Site. Unpublished report prepared for the Traditional Owners, APY Lands, Amata.

2018 (June Ross & Mike Smith) Goodingoo Rocks, Minderoo Station, Onslow Western Australia. Unpublished report prepared for Minderoo Pastoral Company.

2019 Warman Rocks/Yankuntjanya Archaeological Survey. Unpublished report prepared for the Central Land Council, Alice Springs and the Kintore Aboriginal Community.

2020 (Mark Moore, June Ross & Steven Ahoy) Damage to the Hunter Rock Art Sites, Rockview Road Fire, December 2019. Unpublished field report prepared for John Hunter, the Anaiwan Community and the Office of Environment and Heritage, NSW.

Memberships

  • Australian Archaeological Association
  • New England Regional Art Museum

Consultancy Interests

  • Documentation, conservation and management of rock art
  • Aboriginal art especially Western Desert acrylic paintings

Community and Advocacy Organisation Collaborations

New England Regional Art Museum, guest  curator, research and advice on collection acquisitions.

Armidale Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Keeping Place, advice on collections.

External Profiles