George Chaloupka, Czech-born Australian historian of indigenous art, died he was 79.

George Jiří Chaloupka OAM, FAHA was an expert on Indigenous Australian rock art.^[1]

(6 September 1932 – 18 October 2011)

Early life

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^[2] 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.

Employment

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.^[3] 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". ^[4] Chaloupka joined the Northern Territory Museum in 1973, and subsequently documented more than 3500 rock sites.^[5]
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."^[6][7] Chaloupka died in Darwin.

Academic career

Higly regarded in academia, with a long list of academic 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. ^[8]

Selected bibliography

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 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 & 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


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