Stone Age mystery unravelled

JAMES Cook University scientists may have solved the riddle of how the vast continent of Australia was colonised nearly 50,000 years ago.

A team of researchers assessed the position and permanency of 112,786 water bodies to investigate early human migration across the continent.

They found a series of wellwatered routes across Australia, particularly through the Channel Country in western Queensland, could have made possible the rapid human occupation of the arid interior.

They said from an initial entry point in the northwest or north, Aboriginal people quickly made their way southeast to occupy the Willandra Lakes region by 41,000 to 45,000 years ago.

This suggested that people rapidly filled the continent within 5000 to 10,000 years of their initial arrival.

The results were reported this week in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.