Climate variability and population dynamics in prehistoric Australia

The first people to settle in Australia, ancestors of present day
Aboriginals, arrived in Australia about 50,000 years ago. They
took advantage of the lower sea levels that were the norm
throughout the last 100,000 years and were the result of a
cooling global climate - part of the last ice age cycle. The
first people who entered Australia encountered a cooler and drier
continent than at present. From about 35,000 years ago global
temperatures and water availability declined even further
culminating in the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), about 21,000 years
ago. At this time, the Australian continent entered its driest
and coolest period since modern humans colonized it. By 12,000
years ago the climate warmed rapidly, sea levels rose and climate
began to ameliorate.


How did populations in Australia respond to these climate
fluctuations? This episode of the podcast explores this question
with Alan Williams, an archaeologist and graduate student in the
Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian
National University in Canberra, and an Aboriginal Heritage Team
Leader at AHMS Pty Ltd. Alan’s research explores the responses
and adaptations by Aboriginal people to climate change through
time.


Music credit: "Homesick" by keytronic, available from
ccMixter