First arrival no accident
TOWNSVILLE r e s e a r c he r s are solving the puzzle of how people first reached Australia.
James Cook University scientists say the arrival of the first Australians more than 50,000 years ago marked the end of a planned journey
“Our results show that the colonisation of Australia was no accident,” said lead researcher Professor Michael Bird. “The modelling shows that accidental drifting was unlikely to lead to successful crossings and that arrival on the now submerged northwest coast was the result of deliberate boat journeys.”
The researchers used deep- sea mapping, voyage- simulation techniques, and genetic information to show the arrivals were made of large groups of between 100 and 200 people. The team simulated hundreds of voyages to track likely routes of vessels leaving three sites on the islands of Timor and Roti before arriving off the Kimberley coast of northwest Australia. Prof Bird said he was surprised with the level of sophistication present in human society at the time.
“It means you’ve got to be able to discuss it with the group, it involves multiple people using technology to build some rudimentary kind of vessel that will arrive at the other side,” he said. “It means those people had language or a means of communication … the people early on were pretty sophisticated, not too dissimilar to us in terms of our brains.”
Professor Sean Ulm said the findings, published in Quaternary Science Reviews, meant the rethinking of the capabilities of our human ancestors.
“Purposeful voyaging on this scale relied on advanced cognitive, linguistic, symbolic and technical capabilities,” he said.
“It would have required construction of watercraft and well- developed navigation technology as well as planning and information- sharing ahead of an open ocean voyage lasting up to a week.”