Injalak Hill, near Oenpelli, Arnhem Land.

The environment surrounding Oenpelli contains four diverse eco-systems; lagoon and swampland, savannah bushland, floodplains and the 'stone country' comprising this imposing sandstone escarpment.

Journalist Colin Simpson, who spent some time with the Expedition in Oenpelli wrote that Injalak Hill...

"...rears up on the other side of the lagoon. The top of the hill is composed of block formations of sandstone, standing separately when you get among them like huge boulders, up to forty feet high. Through them runs a labyrinth of passageways. (Adam in ochre, p. 17)

The area has a monsoonal climate, with the dry season May to November, and the wet lasting from December to April. It is thought that during this wet season the area's inhabitants would shelter in the caves in and around Injalak Hill, painting their stories and totems - the result, a plethora of rock art galleries.

This rock art was Mountford's main focus during the Expedition's seven-week stay at Oenpelli. He and other party members were in awe of the quantity, variety and beauty of what they saw. To Mountford, the Mimi figures and x-ray art that decorated the cave walls was "more skilfully executed and more varied in design than in any other part of Arnhem Land."

American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, (1948). Records of the American-Australian scientific expedition to Arnhem Land, Melbourne : Melbourne University Press, 1956-1964

Berndt, Ronald M. and Catherine H. Man, land & myth in North Australia : the Gunwinggu people, Sydney : Ure Smith, 1970

Berndt, Ronald M. and Phillips, E. S. (eds). The Australian Aboriginal heritage : an introduction through the arts, 2nd ed, Sydney : Australian Society for Education through the Arts in association with Ure Smith, 1978

Cole, Keith. A history of Oenpelli, Darwin : Nungalinya Publications, 1975

Hamby, Louise (ed). Twined together = kunmadj njalehnjaleken, Gunbalanya, N.T. : Injalak Arts and Crafts, 2005

Lamshed, Max. 'Monty' : the biography of C.P. Mountford, Adelaide : Rigby, 1972

National Geographic Magazine, vol. 96, no. 6, 1949, pp. 745-782, 'Exploring Stone-age Arnhem Land' by Charles P. Mountford.

Simpson, Colin, Adam in ochre : inside Aboriginal Australia, 5th ed, Sydney : Angus & Robertson, 1962