Islands in the interior: a model for the colonization of Australia's arid zone

Abstract

A colonization model is proposed to explain the timing of human occupation in different regions of the arid zone and the reasons for inferred demographic changes through time. A biogeographic approach views changes in human economy and technology against the backdrop of climatic oscillations of the last 40,000 years. This model stands in strong contrast to that of the ‘conservative desert culture’ proposed by Gould, which has become untenable as data from arid zone excavations are increasingly argued to reflect significant changes in human economy, technology and demography through time. The results of regional survey and excavation from the Pilbara and sandy deserts of north‐west Australia, from central Australia, the Flinders Ranges and adjacent dunefields and from semi‐arid Queensland suggest that the occupation of the arid zone from the late Pleistocene on is likely to have been a highly dynamic process. The notion of a stable human adaptation to the diverse landforms and environments of the arid zone finds little support in the archaeological record.

Wind v water: Glacial maximum records from the Willandra Lakes

“…In other areas of Australia, the LGM witnessed archaeological patterns that indicate a restriction of foraging ranges, avoidance of high-risk environments and concentration on locally available resources within refuges (Smith 1989;Veth 1989;Hiscock 2008): territorial reorganisation (Hiscock 2008) was essential in the face of changing resource availability. In this national context, the Willandra Lakes may be viewed as a complex and variable refuge rather than a high-risk and abandoned environment; it offered watered environments that contracted north over time, particularly through the latter part of the LGM.…”

Humans, water, and the colonization of Australia

“…As the continent dried during the Last Glacial Maximum, populations contracted into smaller areas with access to a reduced number of permanent water points and reduced food resources. Rather than continental-scale refuges (16,43,44), these areas may have been a patchwork of smaller, individually isolated refugia (45, 46) distributed more broadly across the continent. A higher density of these isolated refugial areas occurred in regions such as the Kimberley, the rocky central arid zone, and the Channel Country, all areas identified as regional refugia by Williams et al (43) on the basis of the distribution of dated archaeological sites, as well as in some wetter coastal areas (46).…”

“…1) subsequently have been reworked to include a more nuanced understanding of "the filling of the continent" (p. 453 in ref. 15) as variably dependent on a matrix of biogeographic (16), ecological/climatic (17), and sociological/technological (18,19) facilitators of-or barriers to-dispersal from an initial point of entry in the north (20). The vast interior of the continent is now viewed as a mosaic of potential oases, corridors, and barriers, with the viability of a specific region for occupation or transit also depending on the trajectories of environmental change (21)(22)(23)(24).…”

Peopled Landscapes: Archaeological and Biogeographic Approaches to Landscapes

“…In other areas of Australia, the LGM witnessed archaeological patterns that indicate a restriction of foraging ranges, avoidance of high-risk environments and concentration on locally available resources within refuges (Smith 1989;Veth 1989;: territorial reorganisation was essential in the face of changing resource availability. In this national context, the Willandra Lakes may be viewed as a complex and variable refuge rather than a high-risk and abandoned environment; it offered watered environments that contracted north over time, particularly through the latter part of the LGM.…”