Period of human habitation of Australia up to 1788
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The prehistory of Australia is the period between the first human habitation of the Australian continent and the colonisation of Australia in 1788, which marks the start of consistent written documentation of Australia. This period has been variously estimated, with most evidence suggesting that it goes back between 50,000 and 65,000 years. This era is referred as prehistory rather than history because knowledge of this time period does not derive from written documentation. However, some argue that Indigenous oral tradition should be accorded an equal status.[1]
The nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle is no longer considered the dominant nutritional style prior to colonisation, as there is extensive evidence of land management by practices such as complex gardening, cultural burning,[2][3] and in some areas, agriculture,[4][5][6] fish farming,[7][8] and permanent settlements.[9][10][11][12]
^Mahuika, Nepia (14 November 2019). Rethinking Oral History and Tradition. doi:10.1093/oso/9780190681685.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-068168-5.
^Wyrwoll, Karl-Heinz (11 January 2012). "How Aboriginal burning changed Australia's climate". The Conversation. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
^Williams, Robbie (21 June 2023). "Before the colonists came, we burned small and burned often to avoid big fires. It's time to relearn cultural burning". The Conversation. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
^Gammage, Bill (October 2011). The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines made Australia. Allen & Unwin. pp. 281–304. ISBN 978-1-74237-748-3.
^Gammage, Bill (19 September 2023). "Colonists upended Aboriginal farming, growing grain and running sheep on rich yamfields, and cattle on arid grainlands". The Conversation. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
^Moore, Robyn (2 August 2020). "Secondary school textbooks teach our kids the myth that Aboriginal Australians were nomadic hunter-gatherers". The Conversation. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
^Bates, Badger; Westaway, Michael; Jackson, Sue (15 December 2022). "Aboriginal people have spent centuries building in the Darling River. Now there are plans to demolish these important structures". The Conversation. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
^Clark, Anna (31 August 2023). "Friday essay: traps, rites and kurrajong twine – the incredible ingenuity of Indigenous fishing knowledge". The Conversation. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
^Wright, Tony (12 July 2019). "Even dynamite could not destroy the people of the Budj Bim stones". The Age. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
^Thomas, Northcote W. (1906). Natives of Australia.
^Wahlquist, Calla (5 September 2016). "Evidence of 9,000-year-old stone houses found on Australian island". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
^"Rethinking Indigenous Australia's agricultural past". ABC Radio National. 15 May 2014. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
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