Leslie Massey
Aboriginal Australians are the indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, and over time, they formed as many as 500 language-based groups. The ancestors of present-day Aboriginal Australians migrated from Southeast Asia by sea during the Pleistocene epoch, making them among the first in the world to have completed sea voyages. They lived over large sections of the Australian continental shelf when sea levels were lower. As sea levels rose, the people on the Australian mainland and nearby islands became increasingly isolated, some on Tasmania and some of the smaller offshore islands. The Aboriginal Tasmanians were isolated from the mainland from about 14,000 years ago. The British Empire established a penal colony at Botany Bay in 1788, and in the 150 years that followed, the number of Indigenous Australians fell sharply due to introduced diseases and violent conflict with the colonists.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Islands conquered by Aborigines | Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, Barrow Island, Carpenters Gap in the Kimberley, Devils Lair south of Perth, Willandra Lakes in NSW, Warratyi rock shelter in the Flinders Ranges |
| Year of conquest | 50,000 to 65,000 years ago |
| Year of isolation of Tasmanian Aboriginal people | 14,000 years ago |
| Year of British invasion | 1788 |
| Year of forced relocation of Aborigines to Flinders Island | 1834 |
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What You'll Learn
Aboriginal Tasmanians
At the time of European contact in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Aboriginal Tasmanians were divided into several distinct ethnic groups, each with their own delimited hunting territory and dialect. The population at this time is estimated to have been around 4,000 people. The Aboriginal Tasmanians had a rich culture and deep spiritual connection to the natural environment, with rituals and spirituality influencing their daily lives. They were skilled hunters and gatherers, utilising wooden spears, clubs, flaked-stone tools, bone implements, basketry, and bark canoes for coastal travel.
The British colonisation of Tasmania in 1803 had a devastating impact on the Aboriginal Tasmanians. Within three decades, their population drastically declined, primarily due to introduced diseases and violent conflict with colonists. By 1835, only about 400 full-blooded Aboriginal Tasmanians remained, and most of them were incarcerated in camps. Many historians consider this demographic collapse as a genocide, meeting the definition adopted by the UN Genocide Convention.
In the late 19th century, it was widely and erroneously believed that the Aboriginal people of Tasmania had become extinct, primarily due to the death of Truganini in 1876, a Tasmanian Aboriginal woman who was considered the last person solely of Tasmanian descent. However, Aboriginal identity remained alive in the Furneaux Group of islands, where Tasmanian Aboriginal women had children with European men, and their descendants continued to identify as Aboriginal.
In the 1970s, a movement for Aboriginal rights in Tasmania gained momentum, led by activists who proudly asserted their Aboriginal identity. This movement led to the adoption of the Aboriginal Lands Act of 1995, which returned control of significant places to the Tasmanian Aboriginal community. In recent years, there has been a renewed embrace of indigenous culture across Tasmania, with the introduction of Tasmanian Aboriginal Studies in schools and a growing recognition of palawa culture, arts, and history.
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Bass Strait Islands
The Bass Strait is a stretch of water between mainland Australia and Tasmania, named after George Bass, who sailed across it with Matthew Flinders in 1798–99. The Bass Strait Islands include King Island, Flinders Island, and the Furneaux Islands.
King Island is known for its rugged beauty, wilderness, adventure, history, stunning views, and incredible fresh produce. It is located in the heart of Bass Strait and offers pristine sandy beaches, ancient lichen-covered boulders, tranquil lagoons, and rugged mountain ranges.
Flinders Island, the largest of the Furneaux Islands, is a sanctuary of natural beauty and rugged landscapes. It features pristine beaches, crystal-clear waters, dramatic granite peaks, and lush hills. Aboriginal people lived on Flinders Island until around 4,000 years ago.
The Furneaux Islands are a group of approximately 50 islands located in the Bass Strait, between Tasmania and the Australian mainland. They are named after Captain Tobias Furneaux, who was the first European to set foot on the islands in 1773. The Furneaux Islands are known for their secluded beauty and untouched natural landscapes.
The Bass Strait Islands are culturally and linguistically distinct from mainland Aboriginal peoples. The Aboriginal Tasmanians were isolated from the mainland from about 14,000 years ago due to rising sea levels. This isolation led to the development of unique cultures and lifestyles, with the Tasmanians adopting watercraft made from reeds and bark to travel between islands and hunt for seals and muttonbirds.
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Kangaroo Island
The separation of Kangaroo Island from mainland Australia occurred around 10,000 years ago during the last glacial period when sea levels rose. This separation is confirmed by geological evidence and the Ngurunderi Dreaming story, an oral history passed down through generations. According to the Dreaming story, Ngurunderi, an ancestral being, pursued his two wives across Lake Albert to Cape Jervis. When he saw them wading across the shallow channel towards Kangaroo Island, he angrily ordered the water to rise and drown them.
Archaeological evidence of Aboriginal occupation on the island was discovered in 1903 when Aboriginal stone hammers were unearthed at Rocky River. These artefacts dated back 16,000 years. Additionally, cave shelters, thousands of artefacts, middens (ceremonial sites with shells and animal bones), and campfire hearths have been found on the island. There is also evidence of 'industrial sites' where stone tools were crafted.
The Aboriginal history of Kangaroo Island is considered mysterious, and there is no clear understanding of why the original inhabitants left the island around 2,000 years ago. However, oral histories from mainland Aboriginal people and discoveries of artefacts provide valuable insights into the island's Indigenous past.
Today, Kangaroo Island is known for its diverse wildlife and bird species, attracting visitors with its natural beauty.
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Tasmania and New Guinea
Tasmania
Tasmania, an island south of the Australian mainland, was inhabited by Aboriginal Tasmanians (palawa kani: Palawa or Pakana). They were the southernmost population in the world during the Pleistocene era, with archaeological evidence of occupation dating back to 34,000 BP.
The ancestors of the Aboriginal Tasmanians first arrived in Tasmania around 40,000 years ago when it was still a peninsula of Australia. They were cut off from the mainland by rising sea levels around 6000 BC, resulting in isolation for approximately 8,000 years until European exploration in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
The Aboriginal Tasmanians were divided into several distinct ethnic groups, each with their own delimited hunting territory and dialect. They survived by hunting land and sea mammals, collecting shellfish and vegetable food, and moving seasonally between the open forests and moorlands of the interior and the coast.
The arrival of British colonists in 1803 had a devastating impact on the Aboriginal Tasmanians. Their population, estimated to be between 3,000 and 15,000 before colonisation, declined drastically within a few decades. By 1835, only about 400 full-blooded Aboriginal Tasmanians remained, and their numbers continued to diminish due to disease, forced relocation, and cultural erosion.
In the 20th century, it was erroneously believed that the Tasmanian Aboriginal people had become extinct, intentionally exterminated by white settlers. However, today, several thousand people in Tasmania identify as Aboriginal Tasmanians, reflecting the survival and resilience of this community.
New Guinea
New Guinea, part of the Sahul continent that included Australia, was inhabited by indigenous people known as Papuans or New Guinea Highlanders. They share a common origin with Aboriginal Australians, diverging genetically about 40,000 years ago. The Papuans' genetic makeup is primarily derived from Ancient East Eurasians, with some admixture from other ancient human species like the Denisovans.
The indigenous languages of New Guinea are diverse, with over 800 languages belonging to both Austronesian and non-Austronesian linguistic families. The term "Papuan languages" is used as a convenient grouping for the non-Austronesian languages spoken in the region.
The indigenous people of New Guinea have a rich cultural heritage, and their genetic studies provide valuable insights into the ancient history of human migration and settlement in the Australasia region.
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Barrow Island
Aboriginal Australians are the indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia between 50,000 and 65,000 years ago, and over time, they formed as many as 500 language-based groups.
The island is known for its diverse fauna, including several species now extinct or greatly reduced on mainland Australia. Thirteen mammal species exist on the island, including the spectacled hare-wallaby, burrowing bettong, golden bandicoot, and black-flanked rock-wallaby. The island is also home to 43 species of terrestrial reptiles, including dragons, legless lizards, geckos, skinks, snakes, and monitors. The most recognisable of these is the perentie, Australia's biggest lizard and the island's top predator. The island is an important conservation reserve in Western Australia due to its isolation from the mainland.
In the 19th century, Barrow Island was visited by whalers and was used as a slave-trading centre for Aboriginal Australians by Captain William Cadell until 1876. Guano was mined on the island in the 1880s, and in the 1960s, commercial quantities of oil were discovered. Today, Barrow Island is one of Australia's richest oil fields, with oil being transported to a tanker-loading jetty 10 kilometres offshore via a submarine pipeline.
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Frequently asked questions
The Aboriginal people of Australia did not conquer any islands. In fact, rising sea levels isolated some Aboriginal people on Tasmania and smaller offshore islands, such as the Bass Strait Islands and Kangaroo Island in South Australia, about 11,700 years ago.
The Aboriginal Tasmanians were isolated from mainland Australia about 14,000 years ago. As a result, they lacked many of the tools and equipment of the mainlanders. By 3,700 BP, they had stopped eating fish and using bone tools. They built watercraft from reeds and bark and travelled up to 10 kilometres offshore to hunt for seals and muttonbirds.
From 1788, the British treated Australia as a colony of settlement, taking over Aboriginal land on the premise that the land belonged to no one ('terra nullius'). This assumption was based on the belief that European culture was superior to all others. The colonisation resulted in a drastic decline in the Aboriginal population due to introduced diseases and violent conflict with the colonists.
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