Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

Aboriginal Occupation - Populating the Continent - Savannah

The coasts, extensive savannahs and the rainforests of northern greater Australia Sahul) were apparently settled at least between 40,000-60,000 years ago. It is clear that settlement was well established by that time, consisting of more than random nomadism, incipient settlement, and transient hunting and gathering. The settlers had established customs and traditions relating to northern Greater Australia, as well as colonising large parts of this area. These were societies based on allegiance and order, communication and cohesion, industry and artistry.

These people, described by the author¹ as super-nomads, had colonised the forested environments of all of northern Australia, and the savannah that extended from New Guinea across the land bridge, that is now Torres Strait, surrounded giant Lake Carpentaria, and headed in a long arm into central New South Wales. This extensive area of savannah must have been a familiar, and in many respects, ideal opportunities for a growing population with succeeding generations constantly looking for new land to expand into. It is suggested by the author¹ that colonisation continued through this familiar landscape to the east, west and south, and evidence has been found of human settlement to the south of the Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape York, both sites dating to about 40,000 BP. GRE8, near the Gregory River, is the earliest known camp in the gulf country. At this site, that has been confidently dated to 39,900 BP, though possibly between 37,460 and 42,300 BP, there are flaked stone tools and food remains such as freshwater mussels. This is a large rock shelter on top of Ngarrabullgan (Mount Mulligan), a large table-topped mountain rising to 400 m above the surrounding plain, 10 km west of Cairns. Flaked artefacts and bone fragments at this site have been dated to 37,000 BP.

In the savannah area of the Kimberley region there is evidence of human occupation that is even earlier at the Carpenter's Gap in the Napier Range overlooking a valley cut by the Lennard River in the central southern pat of the Kimberley site that has been dated to 40,000-45,000 BP. In this area the mountains are composed of limestone, the result being that echoing gorges have been formed by the river along which broad riverine beaches back against majestic cliffs. In the winter dry season the Lennard River flows placidly through the gorges, but in the summer wet season it becomes a raging torrent, as do the other rivers of the Kimberley. In all seasons there are many crocodiles and there probably were in the distant past. At the present it is a landscape that is well-watered and attractive and the author¹ suggests it was possibly even better in the past when it was first occupied by humans. At that time it would have been cooler which meant there was less rain but there would also have been a lower rate of evaporation because of the lower temperatures, overall it meant that it is likely some parts may have been wetter and more fertile, making it a softened semi-arid setting against the ranges above the plains that were interspersed with savannah and sand dunes. There were open marshlands where sedges grew and the plains were vegetated with tall tropical perennial grasslands. In the moister vine thickets and seasonal gullies there were palms and trees that produced fruit.

Large amounts of domestic material accumulated where people camped in the lee of limestone cliffs that have since been studied by archaeologists. The alkaline limestone sediments in which the material was deposited preserved a vast array of organic remains from the time of the earliest occupation of the site. Excavations carried out at this site revealed details about the personal and domestic lives of the occupants, including large amounts of charcoal, small seeds, paperbark and wood shavings, all traces of domestic activity, life in the camp, where activities took place such as the preparation and cooking of food and wooden tools were repaired. It is indicated by the presence of the preserved remains of fruit that ripen in the wet season that the shelter was used as a wet season camp. One of these fruit, Terminalia sp., is very high in vitamin C. The author¹ suggests the occupants were healthy and well-fed while they watched the storms of the wet season.

There were also many fragments of grass from the base of spinifex (Plectrachne) leaves, that are rolled into a hard needle-like form. The large quantity of this part of the spinifex leaf suggests the inhabitants were making adhesive for the attachment of worked stone to wooden handles, hafting, by the making spinifex resin from the spinifex sap. Spinifex resin was widely used for many purposes in the past, such as hafting flaked stone tools to wooden handles for wood-working, and to spears for hunting and fighting. Specially flakes stone blades had the resin added to them to make a comfortable hand hold to use the blade as a dagger, and it was also used as an excellent sealant, being used like putty to repair damaged wood dishes. It also had a decorative function, being used as a foundation for attaching coloured beads and other attractive items to string made from human hair and natural fibres. Being a thermoplastic material it softens when heated but hardens to a rock-hard substance when cool. According to the author¹ as a student he was involved in an experiment with this material which compared to the best equivalent glue at that time, Tarzan's Grip, the results showing that the spinifex resin was the superior adhesive, and it had another advantage, if heated it could be removed and reused with no loss of strength or adhesive ability. When the spinifex is threshed and pounded, the mixture then being winnowed and the contaminants picked out, the remaining grey dust-like material then has a firestick moved gently across it until it melts and coagulates to form dark red globules of resin, the globules are then stuck together until a ball is formed that is large enough. As a result of the time it takes to form the resin balls it was considered to be valuable. This resin can then be used or traded, the author¹ suggests a lot of human behaviour can be read in the fragments of 40,000 year old spinifex grass.

There appears to have been much human activity in the Kimberley at that time, such as a limestone slab that was covered with ochre in the Carpenter's Gap Rock Shelter. Ancient ochre crayons found at Malakunanja and Nanwalabila, and the paintings of ancient marsupials throughout Arnhem Land suggest there was artistic activity that is extraordinarily old and the emergence of artistic tradition in the earliest era of the occupation of Australia. A painted rock surface that fell from the roof on to the floor of an ancient camp 40,000 BP. It is still not known what the artists were trying to paint but the author¹ suggests they were members of a unique group - the first painters in the world.

On the southern edge of the Kimberley region, 200 km south from Carpenter's Gap, there is another old site that demonstrates the great antiquity of settlement in the interior of Australia which confirms implicitly the ancient settlement of its original coastline. This site is called Riwi Cave, is situated some distance inland along the Fitzroy River, and facing the Great Sandy Desert, that was about 500 km from the coast at the time of its first occupation. It is located in a deep, high cave that has a keyhole entrance, and it is still being used at the present. It is a cave in a limestone cliff overlooking wide plains covered by savannah woodland, with small creeks flowing from the ranges and there are permanent pools in some of the nearby caves. The cave was occupied more than 40,000 BP, possibly up to 43,000-46,000 BP. The limestone has preserved organic remains, as it has at other sites in limestone caves, with seeds, fragmented spinifex leaves and paperbark fragments. In this cave there are traces of ochre attached to the paperbark fragments, possibly suggesting the existence of portable art, ancient aesthetic appreciation, and maybe, ritual. The author¹ suggests a particular kind of ancient packaging is possibly indicated by the ochre traces. The author¹ has observed the typical use of paperbark to wrap precious items such as bone points, special flaked points and traded shell, which are typically coated with ochre that adheres to the paperbark wrapping. So possibly some ancient treasures might have been hidden in the paperbark from Riwi Cave.

Sources & Further reading

1. Cane, Scott, 2013, First Footprints: The epic story of the first Australians, Allen & Unwin