Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

A midden site on the southern coast of New South Wales, north of Burrill Lake, near Shellharbour. The site is on a hill that has a sharp drop on the eastward side. This site was occupied sporadically from about 17,000 BP, the early stone tool industry being from 17,000 to 3,500 BP. Because of the steep profile on the seaward side of the hill it would have been about 30 km from the sea when the sealevel was low, but as the sea level rose it became a headland. In the upper levels of the site the midden included the remains of shellfish, seals, birds and land mammals.

Bass Point is one of 2 known open occupation sites dated to the Pleistocene on the east coast of Australia, the other being at Wallen Wallen Creek, southern Queensland.

Sources & Further reading

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

Links

Bass Point Sites Data

(Case, 1988, 1989)