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The expansion of European occupation across Australia was closely circumscribed during the first half century of the colony's existence. Despite this, there is considerable evidence of unsanctioned movements beyond the officially prescribed boundaries. Given their illegal nature, information on such movements is unlikely to be preserved in the documentary record. Other sources of information may, however, yield evidence of these activities. Perhaps the most useful of these is that preserved in sediments laid down at the time of initial colonisation. This study exploits this data source, focussing on the depositional record from the New England Tablelands of northern New South Wales. Well-dated sedimentary sequences yield evidence of enhanced rates of soil erosion and disturbance to lake sediment chemistry perhaps decades before the accepted date of European arrival on the Tablelands in the 1830s. This disturbance is unlikely to have been a consequence of natural processes. It may instead have been the result of Aboriginal activities, although it is more likely to indicate the presence of either Europeans or the shadow of European culture in New England well before the official date of settlement. The sediments may therefore throw light on the timing and processes of European colonisation of the continent, and reveal indications of early contact environmental disturbance, of particular significance given the long-term response of the Australian biophysical environment to human impacts.

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We present a new well dated Holocene record of environmental change from Little Llangothlin Lagoon in eastern Australia derived from aquatic plant macrofossils, macroscopic charcoal flux, and sediment stratigraphy from multiple cores. Little Llangothlin was an ephemeral freshwater wetland exhibiting frequent dry phases between 9800 and 9300 calendar years before present (cal. yr BP). There was a switch to a more positive water balance after 9300 cal. yr BP, and by 8000 cal. yr BP, there was a lake that persisted until 6100 cal. yr BP. The period between 6100 and 1000 cal. yr BP was much drier, and there is no evidence for a permanent lake during this period. The Little Llangothlin record provides evidence for a wet phase during the Early to Middle Holocene (9000–6000 cal. yr BP) from the boundary region between temperate and tropical influences in eastern Australia. We propose that generally enhanced circulation after 9000 cal. yr BP explains the pattern of increasing moisture at the site at this time. The later Holocene climate at the site is consistent with other sites in south east Australia with a switch to generally drier conditions after 6000 cal. yr BP.