Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

Flinders Island, Bass Strait

On Flinders Island there is also evidence of aboriginal occupation, but the later history became difficult after the Tasmanian government shipped what they believed were the remaining Tasmanian Aboriginal People to it. The island population eventually died out or were blackbirded by whalers. On Hunter Island, off Tasmania's northrwestern tip, evidence has been found in Cave Bay Cave that Aboriginal People inhabited the island between 23,000 and 19,000 years ago. During that period the cave was inland and was used as a temporary shelter for people who hunted brush wallabies, bandicoots and tiger cats (quolls). In the bone deposits of the cave, the bones of these animals make up 80 % of the total. Between 15,500 and 7,000 years ago the cave was used intermittently. Over that period it was gradually becoming a coastal cave where the Aboriginal People had an encampment.

Sources & Further reading

1. Flood, Josephine, 2004, Archaeology of the Dreamtime, JB Publications.

Glacial Maximum in Australia