Why go
This account changes the frame for visiting Australia: Aboriginal peoples' histories long predate written colonial records. It also explains why today's shorelines are a poor guide to ancient movement, and why Tasmania's separation and the Torres Strait belong to a changing landscape rather than fixed geography.
The full story
Archaeological evidence places people in Australia at least 40,000 years ago, though the timing and routes of first arrival remain debated. During the last ice age, lower sea levels joined Australia with New Guinea and Tasmania. Water still lay between this larger landmass and islands to the north, so arrival involved a sea journey. As the ice age ended, rising seas flooded the links around the Torres Strait and between Victoria and Tasmania. The coastlines that early communities knew were different from those on a modern map. Evidence from Arnhem Land, the upper Swan River region and Tasmania shows the breadth of early habitation, while the submerged former coast makes exact first landfalls hard to establish. Communities developed different ways of living across those environments. The material describes semi-permanent settlements in fertile areas and fish and grain practices in the Murray Basin. Those examples are a reminder to look beyond a single account of hunting and gathering: this was a long, diverse history before the arrival of British colonists.