Mutilated hands or signal stencils? A consideration of irregular hand stencils from Central Queensland

Stencil art, although widespread throughout the rock art regions of Australia, has been largely overlooked by rock art researchers who have tended to specialise in engraving and freehand painting. Nonetheless, most students of Aboriginal art would be only too familiar with the nearly ubiquitous 'hand stencils'. Among the many galleries of the central Queensland sandstone belt, where stencils dominate the motifs, an interesting variation of the common hand stencil is encountered. This variation consists of stencils of both left and right hands, contorted to form unusual patterns, some appearing to have missing, partly missing, or distorted fingers