Australian Aborigines
The original inhabitants, who have descendants to this day, are known as aborigines. Humans are thought to have arrived in Australia about 30,000 years ago, though some archaeological evidence indicates that humans first arrived in Australia between 65,000 and 60,000 years ago. In the eighteenth century, the aboriginal population was about 300,000. The aborigines, who have been described alternately as nomadic hunter-gatherers and fire-stick farmers (known for using fire to clear the brush and attract grass-eating animals instead of cultivating the land), settled primarily in the well-watered coastal areas. Some observers believe that poor treatment of the environment by aborigines over many centuries may have led to the barren nature of much of the Australian interior. Higher forms of mammals never reached Australia because the land bridge from Asia ceased to exist about 50 million years ago.
It is theorized that the Aboriginal people came to Australia from Southeast Asia and the islands to the north, with small sea voyages of perhaps 50 miles at a time until they reached Australia. This was, perhaps, the first time mankind had ever colonized by sea. (North and South America were probably not inhabited at this time, the Pleistocene era.) As the oceans rose and took over the coastal land, the people moved southward in all directions. By 20,000 B.C., they had reached present-day Sydney Harbor. By the time James Cook, and, later, the First Fleet arrived, there were probably 300,000 Aborigines throughout Australia, most living along the coasts where there was more rain and food.
The main food source for the early Aborigines came from the sea. Their boats were made by cutting a long oval of bark from an eucalyptus tree and binding both ends. A fire was kept in the bottom of the boat, on clay, so that the fish could be cooked and eaten at sea. The fragility of these boats suited the nomadic way of life as they were easy to carry and just as easy to replace. The men hunted emus, kangaroo, lizards, and geese, with spears, stone axes, and a fire stick. The women did their vegetable/fruit collecting with digging sticks. They also gathered turtles, insects, nuts and honey. The only semidomestic animals were the wild, young dingos, who probably migrated with the original natives. Water holes and rain pools were the source of water. There was no indication of planned agriculture. There was no surplus since there was no means of storage. There has been no evidence of property ownership, money, or outside trade.
These first Australians were divided into tribes which grew or shrank with the availability of food. Each tribe of hunter/gatherers moved within a proscribed area dictated by their hunting customs and totemism. They did not have any notion of private property or leaders. The land was of the greatest importance, dictating their identity, language, and religion. They had their own stories of the Dreamtime and the landmarks of their area. Even today, natives who have lived away from their territory for two or three generations still identify with it.
Much of Australia was an inhospitable and uninhabitable country to the first Europeans, but to Aboriginal people the inland offered a rich and habitable landscape. The linguistic map illustrates that, with few exceptions, all of Australia was occupied by Aboriginal people. The interior deserts and the tropical north, largely shunned by Europeans, have always been productive regions for Aboriginal people. In contrast with the European perception of the land, these areas gave a good living to the relatively large numbers of Aboriginal people. In South Australia, only Kangaroo Island was unoccupied at the time of European arrival, although archaeological studies have shown the Aborigines lived there in earlier times. It is difficult to determine accurately either the size or the distribution of the Aboriginal population in Australia prior to 1836. Two main theories have been put forward to explain the origin of Australian languages. One theory suggests that initially a number of unrelated languages were spoken across Australia. The other theory postulates that all languages are interrelated and derived from one proto-language. These two views may be compatible. It is possible that earlier diversification was gradually overlain some 10,000 or so years ago by the spread of a common language from which today's languages have all been developed. By the time of European settlement there were six groups of languages and more than thirty individual languages in daily use within the borders delineated for South Australia and many of these languages were further divided into dialects. Boundaries are omitted on the map where paucity of information has made it difficult to distinguish between languages and dialects. The size of the area covered by a language reflects the density of population and the degree of communication between people in that region. Thus, the Western Desert linguistic area covered a major section of central Australia with relatively few languages separated only indistinctly - a feature that reflects the wide ranging seasonal movements and extensive communication among desert peoples. Caves or branch-grass dwellings were the main types of shelter. Home was indicated by the hearth fire, and the fire stick made that portable. Clothing was probably at a minimum, but plagues of mosquitoes and flies were battled by keeping fish oil on the body. To this was added animal grease, sand, dust, and sweat. Their muscular development and stamina was outstanding.
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