PREHISTORIC AUSTRALIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 3773, 6 July 1926, Page 35

PREHISTORIC AUSTRALIA.

VICTORIAN DISCOVERIES, AN ANCIENT FLINT. (From Oub Own Correspondent.! SYDNEY, June 17. Increasing evidence is offering that scientists and scientific students of all kinda m Australia are taking a deepening interest m the far distant past of their land. This is in accord with a movement that is sweeping across the older countries of the world, but here in this new country—now, that is, m the sense of settlement—tbe opportunities of research are so more numerous, and tha people available to do it ao fewer that progresa of investigations must necessarily sre>u alowei than in other lands Quite recently the announcement by an eminent Melbourn** scientist of the discovery of what he claimed to be a human skull antedating all other known human remains excited inteiest, not only in Australia, but also in other lands. If bis discovery is ever proved to be correct, scientists state that Australia, and not Asia, Us the cradle of mankind. Hardly less interesting than this discovery was the recent find in timestome caves at Straihdownie, in the south-western district of Victoria, of the fossilised remain# of giant kangaroos over 12ft in height, or about twice the size of the large modern specimen*. The species of fossilised kangaroos tound aie certainly extinct. They were unearthed by an amateui enthusiast, Mr J S. Lockie, who continuing his delving among the bat-in-fested, bone-riddled caves* came across an ancient flint implement; rudely fashioned by hands that were stilled thousands of years ago. This implement waa found with tb* fossil marsupial bones, and ita discoverer is positive that bones and implement are contemporary. The fossils are of uncertain age—between 10,000 and 25,000 years— *o that accepting the implement as that ancient, wo may think of a race of Australian cave men that flourished centuries before the pyramids were built. Some experts who have examined the flint assert that it is at least 15,000 years old. The flint U imperfectly shaped, but fits fairly well the description of the Chellean type, the oldest known implements that aro certainly the work of man. It ia regarded as certainly not the work of our aborigines that roamed the cave regione in modern times. It has the glaze of antiquity. Ho highly it is appraised by scientists that the Melbourne National Museum it arranging a systematic search of the cavea district in which it was discovered. The discovery of the human akull previously mentioned and the kangaroo cave flint, facta gleaned get legists and students of philology and tribal customs, all point to one general conclusion—that Australia shares in the childhood of man; that it lias a chapter in the prehistory of man. A national enthusiasm is now being generated that we have need of many gleaners and students in the field of man’s antiquity, and the fear ia expressed that if the people of thie country do not do it, foreigners will step in and ro« us of our relics.