3.4 An Amazing Journey

7SE JWO 2014

Coming to Australia

• Ice Age in the Pleistocene period ended 10000 years ago

• Northern Hemisphere – water frozen into ice sheets and icebergs and glaciers

• Sea levels 100m lower than today• More land visible

– Islands and continents now separated by wide seas were connected or only separated by much narrower body of waters

Source 1

Source 2 “The reason why scientists believe in

an overseas origin for Australia’s first people in there is nothing in the Australian fauna, past or present, from which humans could have evolved. There are no anthropoid or pongid (ape-like) ancestors in Australia from whom they could be independently descended.”

- Josephine Flood ‘The Riches of Ancient Australia’ 1990

Source 3

When did people first come to Australia?

• Arrival at least 50 000 years ago

• Possibly 60 000 years ago

• Traces of human life found across Australia provide evidence for this

Evidence

• Rock shelters in Kakadu National Park, NT• Stone tools found at Lake Mungo • Upper Swan, WA 36000 BCE• Lake Mungo burial and cremation site

Mystery?

• Theory does not explain WHY people migrated to Australia

» Accident?» Desire to explore» Pressure from people in

South East Asia» Gradually over generations

More Evidence• More than 60 000

Aboriginal sites in Australia– Campsites– Middens– Quarries– Fish traps– Scarred trees– Burial sites– Ceremonial sites– Rock art

Definitions for 3.4 (words 17-19)

• Anthropoid – human-like• Fauna – animals• Middens – refuse heaps