strongCopyright - All Rights Reserved - Black Diamond Images/strongbr/br/Baloon Cave at Carnarvon Gorge was named from the aboriginal word 'baloon' meaning stone axe. At this site 3 distinctive stencils of a stone axe have been blown with orange ochre. The stone axe head was bound to a sapwood handle.br/To create a stencil painting the artist sprayed pigment from his mouth over and around a selected object held against the sandstone surface. Sometimes overspray occurred as can be seen around the reddish hand stencil in the lower right panel.br/The red, thin, curved stencil low in the panel represents a hand signal, recorded as meaning 'dive' or 'diving bird'. Such stencils are an identifiable record of aboriginal sign language used when hunting.br/Details of aboriginal tools are often recorded in stenciled images. Two handle tips are easily visible in the stone axe stencil on the top left of the panel. This indicates that a single piece of sapwood was bent around the edge-ground stone head to form a handle. It was then fastened with resin and string.br/Aboriginal artists may have gathered stenciling pigments from materials naturally occurring in this Clematis sandstone formation. Eroding bands of red and yellow materials may be seen in the lower left of the art panel.br/All details above taken from the interpretive signage at Baloon Cave.