The migration route taken by the first Australians to reach the continent would not have been an easy one. The islands of Southeast Asia were largely covered in thick and dense rainforest and jungles and, even at its maximum, the lower sea levels of the glacial periods (which meant that Australia and New Guinea defined a single land mass) were still high enough so that a substantial sea voyage would be required to reach this expanded continent (known as Sahul). Indeed, all through the island of Indonesia, these people would have had to make a number of sea-crossings between islands, some of which were at least 50-60 km distant. As such, the first Australians must have had access to boat-making technology of some sort (see Ships and Seafaring).
Even though much of the interior region during the earliest phase of human habitation would have been very much like it is today; the semi-arid areas would have been quite different. As the archaeology and palaeo-environmental reconstructions at Lake Mungo indicate, this area which is semi-arid today, would have been defined by a large lake teeming with fish and shellfish around 40 000-30 000 years ago. Also giant marsupials (megafauna) would have, along with the earliest humans of the continent, wandered on the shores of the lake. Around 11000 years ago with the interglacial the Arafura plain, that ‘joined’ Australia and New Guinea, was flooded, thus separating them. Associated with this was increased rainfall and warmer temperatures which made inland parts of the continent more habitable and triggered a westward migration by most of the early population that had lived along the eastern coastline.
World History
