Ancient sites

Several years ago Tasmanian ecologist David Bowman did DNA tests on palm seeds from the outback and near Darwin.The results led him to conclude the seeds were carried to the Central Desert by humans up to 30,000 years ago.Several years ago Tasmanian ecologist David Bowman did DNA tests on palm seeds from the outback and near Darwin. The results led him to conclude the seeds were carried to the Central Desert by humans up to 30,000 years ago.Several years ago Tasmanian ecologist David Bowman did DNA tests on palm seeds from the outback and near Darwin. [node:read-more:link]

There has been evidence that the First peoples were on this continent 60,000 years ago, but the work of Dr Peter Kershaw's palynology (the study of fossil pollen) research suggests that the first peoples were on the continent as long ago as 80,000 years earlier than that.
When specks of prehistoric pollen and charcoal embedded in the ocean floor off the Great Barrier Reef were analyzed it was discovered an abrupt change in the fossil pollen was recorded around 140,000 years ago. [node:read-more:link]

A comprehensive Timeline for the history of First Nations people in Tasmania. Also incded are some copies of John Glover's landscape paintings, including the Last Muster of Tasmanian Aborigines at Risdon. This painting tells the story of the last group of innocent Tasmanian Aborigines that remains in the Risdon Area before they were deported to Flinders Island. Glover thought the Tasmanian Aborigines would be extinct by that period of time, and when he died in 1849, there were only about 40 Tasmanian Aborigines still alive. [node:read-more:link]

Yulu's coal - part one - An amazing audio about "The People of Rocks" - The Adnyamathanha people from the Northern Flinders Ranges in South Australia. This program is about the journey of one of the major Adnyamathanha Creation Ancestors, Yulu the Kingfisher Man. Yulu’s Coal, explores the travels of Yulu as he moved across Country, followed by two Arkurra , Giant Rainbow Serpents and why the coal mined at Leigh Creek Coal Mine today belongs, from an Adnyamathanha perspective, to Yulu, the Kingfisher Man. [node:read-more:link]

Burrup Rock Art

A steep drop in Aboriginal sites being added to WA's heritage register is leading to "a vast sea of ignorance" that will thwart heritage protection, according to Carmen Lawrence, the chair of the Australian Heritage Council.
After changing the heritage laws to favour mining companies, Aboriginal Affairs Minister said some places "presented as worthy of protection" were "of little or no interest" to Aborigines and that only "the industry of heritage professionals" appeared to value those sites. [node:read-more:link]

'Australian' First Nations people are the longest living continuous culture on earth, but modern researchers have just started to look at the wisdom that comes with the many thousand years of residency, and that's especially true of astronomy. They tracked and predicted interstellar movements in highly sophisticated ways, looking up at the night with eyes intriguingly different to our own. To hear some examples of things that they could teach us, I met with Swinburne University's Dr. Alan Duffy, who specializes in Australian First Nations astronomy. [node:read-more:link]

The practices of First Nations people, honed over thousands of years, weave science with storytelling. In this Indigenous science series, we look at different aspects of their life and uncover the knowledge behind them. Here we examine the chemistry and techniques behind perhaps the most iconic element of Indigenous life: rock art. - An article by Andrew Thorn, Lecturer in Stone Conservation, from the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property [node:read-more:link]

The NSW Labor Government sold the iconic The Drip gorge for $2084 in a 2010 lease conversion sale that cost a Chinese coal company less than $3 a hectare. The unpublicised $2084 conversion of more than 700 hectares of Crown land to freehold title in 2010, despite the community raising strong concerns about the possibility of such a conversion at least two years earlier, has shocked and angered groups fighting to protect the area. "They sold it for the price of a clapped-out second-hand car" said Environmentalist Bev Smiles [node:read-more:link]