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Mapping ‘superhighways’ travelled by first Australians
‘Superhighways’ used by a population of up to 6.5 million Indigenous Australians to navigate the continent tens of thousands of years ago have been revealed by new research using sophisticated modelling of past people and landscapes.
The new insights into how people not only survived, but thrived, in harsh environments provide further evidence of the capacity and resilience of the ancestors of Indigenous people, and help paint a picture of large, well-organised groups navigating tough terrain.
The ‘peopling’ of Sahul – the combined mega continent that joined Australia with New Guinea when sea levels were lower than today – could have taken as little as 5,000 years as people moved from the far northwest, all the way to Tasmania in the southeast.