AUSTRALIA’S ABORIGINES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 30 April 1934, Page 7

AUSTRALIA’S ABORIGINES

V. WEN DID’THEY ARRIVE? 20,000 YEARS IN AUSTRALIA Concurrently with the recent revival of interest in Australian aborigines, discussion has arisen among naturalists of the number of blacks in the Continent when white men arrived, and also of the period in which the aborigines haveJdnhabitecl Australia (states the “Argiis”). It is generally supposed that the aboriginal population 150 years ago numbered about 300,000 —certainly not under 250,000. Today the number is little more than 50,000. No one knows with certainty where man first appeared on the earth. Most scientists incline to the opinion that it was in Asia. From its original home, wherever it was, the human species gradually spread, and in time Asia, Europe, and Africa received human inhabitants. There was at that time no land “bridge” connecting America with the other continents, and thus man did not readli the American continent until late, perhaps only 25,000 or 50,000 years ago. Australia, it seems, was not populated until even later. .Scientists are not dogmatic, on this point, but it is generally agreed that Australia was the last part of the earth to become inhabited by human beings. The suggestion is that the tjme was about 20,000 years ago. Man came to Australia from Asia, lie may have had to cross the sea, but it is possible that he came by a land bridge. Doubtless the climate and geographical features of Australia were then somewhat different from those of to-day. There is, for example evidence that when man and the dingo—which is supposed to have arrived at the same time —reached Austialia, the central area was well watered, and carried' an abundance of animal life, for in that region arc found remains of large extinct marsupials, such as the diprotodon. None of these animals, however, was fitted to domestic service, and as th,e blacks, moreover, had no knowledge of agriculture, a comparatively primitive civilisation was developed along special lines. That is one of the reasons why our aborigines arc so interesting to anthropologists. The white people’s ancestors, it is believed, were in much the same stage of civilisation 20,000 years ago as the Australian aborigines are to-day. Thus, from the spiritual as well as the physical point of view, the aborigine is a highly important human document. I ‘