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The remains of stone traps used to capture eels at Budj Bim have been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. Source: ABC News/Bridget Brennan
9 July, 2019 - 08:27 Ed Whelan

6,000-Year-Old Budj Bim Named Australia’s First ‘Purely Cultural’ World Heritage Site

UNESCO has given a 6,000-year-old Aboriginal cultural landscape called the Budj Bim archaeological site in Victoria, Australia the status of a World Heritage Site. They have acknowledged the national...
The first people to walk along the shores of northern Australia arrived more than 50,000 years ago. Source: Nicolaas Weber /Adobe Stock
18 June, 2019 - 21:25 ancient-origins

Ancient Ancestors Made A Large and Deliberate Migration to Australia

The size of the first population of people needed to arrive, survive, and thrive in what is now Australia is revealed in two studies published on June 17. It took more than 1,000 people to form a...
View through sacred rocks beyond Dhambala Homeland center, Elcho island.
12 May, 2019 - 22:03 Ed Whelan

Will Ancient African Coin Found in Australia 'Change Everything'?

The tenacity of amateur archaeologists and historians searching on a remote island off the coast of the Northern Territories in Australia seems to have finally paid off. The team has found a small...
A saber-toothed cat stands atop a boulder on a grassy plain. Credit: Daniel / Adobe Stock
8 May, 2019 - 23:00 ancient-origins

Of Bunyips and Other Beasts: Evidence of Extinct Megafauna Displayed in Art and Stories

On many continents during the last ice age , typically from about 50,000 to 12,000 years ago, species of megafauna that had lived there for hundreds of thousands of years became extinct...
Kurdaitcha is a ritual executioner
19 March, 2019 - 17:51 dhwty

How Does the Aboriginal Executioner ‘Kurdaitcha Man’ Avenge the Dead?

Kurdaitcha (known also as Kurdaitcha man) is a ritual ‘ executioner ’ in the culture of the Australian Aborigines , in particular the Arrernte people of Central Australia. The job of a Kurdaitcha was...
Detail of the breastplate from Captain Matthew Flinders' grave. (HS2) Insert: Watercolour miniature portrait of British navigator Matthew Flinders, dated about 1800.
25 January, 2019 - 22:52 Ed Whelan

Archaeologists Find the Lost Grave of Captain Flinders – The First to Circumnavigate Australia

Archaeologists working at a famous burial site in London have identified the remains of a very important British explorer and navigator. They have found the coffin and remains of Captain Matthew...
‘Arrival of Burke, Wills and King at the deserted camp at Cooper's Creek, Sunday evening, 21st April 1861’ (1907) by John Longstaff.
16 January, 2019 - 14:04 Caleb Strom

Exploration and Misfortune—The Tragic Tale of the Burke and Wills Expedition

Going out into the unknown comes with a cost. This was learned the hard way by the Burke and Wills expedition of 1860-1861, the first European expedition across Australia from Melbourne, Victoria in...
Prison turned government building at KAVHA on Norfolk Island (1825-55).
28 November, 2018 - 01:38 Ed Whelan

Kingston and Arthurs Vale Historic Area on Norfolk Island was Hell in Paradise

Australia is famous for its convict settlements and penal colonies. One of the most important and infamous convict settlements was at Norfolk Island in the South Pacific Sea. Today the penal colony...
Tetrodon Loop, Dirk Hartog Island, Shark Bay, Western Australia
16 October, 2018 - 14:00 ashley cowie

Australian Dirk Hartog Island Undergoes $16million Fauna Roll Back to 1616

One of Australia's oldest landing sites of pre-European settlement has been successfully restored to “how it was 400 years ago” saving an entire ancient ecosystem from collapse. Dirk Hartog Island...
HMS Endeavour Replica
20 September, 2018 - 22:56 Ed Whelan

Have Experts Finally Located the Wreck of Cook’s Ship HMS Endeavour?

Marine archaeologists are about to announce that they have solved one of the greatest maritime mysteries of all time. They believe that they have finally discovered the wreck of HMS Endeavour, the...
Uluru, also referred to as Ayers Rock, is sacred to the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara, the Aboriginal people of the area. It has many springs, waterholes, rock caves and ancient paintings. Uluru is listed as a World Heritage Site.
27 August, 2018 - 23:46 Robin Whitlock

Aboriginal languages could reveal scientific clues to Australia’s unique past

The loss of Australian aboriginal languages could obstruct access to unique scientific information regarding Australia’s ancient geological history, according to a story reported this week by BBC...
Ancient Aboriginal drawings of mythical quinkins/yowies. Laura, Australia.
15 August, 2018 - 19:12 Bryan Hill

The Australian Yowie: Mysterious Legends of a Tribe of Hairy People

In 1804, the book Modern Geography – a Description of the Empires, Kingdoms, States and Colonies: with the Oceans, Seas and Isles: In all Parts of the World was published by John Pinkerton. In it...
The 40,000-year-old remains of Mungo Man were discovered in 1974 on the southern sector of the eroding Lake Mungo shoreline.
8 July, 2018 - 22:56 ancient-origins

Fifty Years Ago, at Lake Mungo, the True Scale of Aboriginal Australians’ Epic Story was Revealed

This month marks the golden jubilee of a watershed event in the history of this nation that should cause all Australians to pause and reflect. On July 15, 1968, while searching for clues to past...
One of the four images of the cockatoo gifted to Frederick II by the ‘Sultan of Babylon’.
27 June, 2018 - 13:59 ashley cowie

The Dark Legacy of an Exotic Parrot Gifted to an Ancient Emperor

Four images of an Australasian white cockatoo discovered in a 13th century Sicilian manuscript have reset historical models of the European “discovery’ of Australia. What is more, they mark the...
The 2,200-year-old coin will go on display at the Cairns Museum later this year.
4 June, 2018 - 18:53 ashley cowie

WW1 Souvenir? Or Proof Ancient Egyptians Sailed to Australia?

While the legacy of an ancient Egyptian coin discovered in a rainforest in far north Queensland, Australia baffles experts, it equally excites a growing faction of people who believe that ancient...
Representation of prehistoric people around a campfire.
30 May, 2018 - 23:00 Alicia McDermott

Cave Holds Evidence of a 20,000-year-old Kangaroo Meat Family BBQ

Some 20,000 years ago a family of eight to ten people shared in a timeless tradition – they had a BBQ. But the meat on their menu was probably not a kind of steak you’d normally put on your grill…...

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