The Materiality of the Cloggs Cave Rockshelter's Painting, GunaiKurnai Country (East Gipplsland), Southeastern Australia

The materiality of the white pigment motif at the Cloggs Cave rockshelter, near Buchan in GunaiKurnai Country (southeastern Australia), contains details about the cultural and environmental contexts in which the art was created and preserved. Here, we (1) present physicochemical analyses of the pigment composition; (2) explore implications for the relative chronology of the painting; and (3) assess factors influencing the painting's long‐term preservation. Portable X‐ray fluorescence, scanning electron microscopy with energy‐dispersive spectroscopy and synchrotron X‐ray powder diffraction revealed the pigment's composition to be natural Earth minerals, primarily a mixture of clay‐mica–quartz, consistent with other white rock art pigments described across Australia. The absence of diagnostic element peaks and mineral phases associated with commercially manufactured paints, limewash or calcimine, including titanium, lead, zinc, rutile, portlandite and high‐temperature clay transformation products indicates that the pigment is neither industrial nor lime based. Instead, the pigment is consistent with a locally derived material. Thin surface accretions of whewellite, weddellite and gypsum, together with evidence of ongoing weathering, suggest a relatively recent formation history, indicating that the rock painting is likely to predate the mid‐20th century and may be up to a few hundred years old.