George Chaloupka

George Jiří Chaloupka OAM, FAHA (6 September 1932 – 18 October 2011) was an expert on Indigenous Australian rock art. He identified and documented thousands of rock art sites. As a result of Chaloupka's work on the sites, a new "definitive chronological sequence to these paintings was developed". Providing evidence that Indigenous people had occupied the land for much longer than what was previously accepted by the academic community.

Chaloupka was born in Týniště nad Orlicí, Czechoslovakia. At the age of 17 he left the country, fleeing the communist regime. Arriving in Australia in 1950 as a refugee, he stayed for a number of years in Perth. In 1956, with his older brother, Chaloupka headed for the Melbourne Olympics, travelling via Darwin. It only took one night for Chaloupka to be enchanted by the land and its people.

Deciding to stay in the Territory, he found employment with the Water Resources Department. Working for the government as a hydrologist, he travelled widely across the Top End. It was in 1958 that he found the rock art galleries in the east of the territory. Chaloupka gazed at the ceiling of a cave covered with art "and his heart was lost".

Chaloupka joined the Northern Territory Museum in 1973, to begin his life's work as a rock art researcher. He worked at the Museum, the main museum in the Northern Territory, for over two decades. He developed his career to become a well known rock art historian and finally Curator Emeritus at the Museum.

In 1986, Chaloupka was a recipient of a grant from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies of which he was a member. He examined the protection and conservation of rock art of the Wardaman people at a site at Malgawo, East Arnhem Land.

In 2008 the George Chaloupka Fellowship was established "to promote and support research and conservation of Aboriginal rock art located in Arnhem Land Plateau region in the Northern Territory of Australia."

Highly regarded in academia, with a long list of papers credited to his name, Chaloupka was the first President of the Australian Rock Art Research Association. As well as a visiting fellow at the Department of Prehistory in the Research School of Pacific Studies at the Australian National University.

Chaloupka died in Royal Darwin Hospital. A state funeral was held on 4 November 2011. A Smoking ceremony was held as part of the funeral.

Chaloupka, George Burrunguy : Nourlangie rock. Northart, [S.l.]

Chaloupka, George 1985, Chronological sequence of Arnhem Land Plateau rock art. In: Jones, R. Archaeological research in Kakadu National Park. Canberra : Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service, 269-80

Chaloupka, George & Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences 1984, From palaeoart to casual paintings : the chronological sequence of Arnhem Land Plateau rock art, Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences, Darwin

Chaloupka, George 1993, Journey in time : the worlds longest continuing art tradition : the 50,000 year story of the Australian Aboriginal rock art of Arnhem Land, Reed, Chatswood, N.S.W

Chaloupka, George 1987, Report on acquital [sic] of 1986 grants, Rock Art Protection Programme, Darwin , 1987

Chaloupka, George & Ash, R 1973, Report on flooding of the Magela Creek in March 1973, Water Resources Branch, Dept. of the Northern Territory, Darwin

Chaloupka, George 1992, Retouch events. In: Retouch: maintenance and conservation of Aboriginal rock imagery / edited by Graeme K. Ward. Melbourne : Archaeological Publications , 1992; p. 12–16;

Chaloupka, George 1988, 'Rock art of the Northern Territory' The Inspired Dream: Life as Art in Aboriginal Australia, no. 1988, pp. 12–19,110.

Gillespie, D. (Dan) & Chaloupka, George & Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service 1983, The Rock art sites of Kakadu National Park : some preliminary research findings for their conservation and management, Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service, Canberra