Tag: Aborigines

Australia’s Bunya Mountains and Alternate World Histories

Could the Bunya Mountains be the one place to turn your preconceptions of human nature on its head? *** I recently finished Bruce Pascoe’s book ‘Dark Emu’. It’s an accumulation of the abundant evidence that Australian Aboriginals practised what was, by any objection definition, agriculture – and on a large scale. It’s not just a… Continue reading Australia’s Bunya Mountains and Alternate World Histories

Caterpillar Dreaming – Hiking Australia’s Larapinta Trail

The 220 km Larapinta Trail is a bit of a con…. ________________ It’s a funny thing, despite the Larapinta Trail being regarded as something of a toughie, just about any one I mentioned it to had either done it, or done part of it. Officially, it runs for 220 km along the MacDonnell Ranges, to… Continue reading Caterpillar Dreaming – Hiking Australia’s Larapinta Trail

Aboriginal Paintings of the Kimberley- very old Pleistocene or not so old Holocene?

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Many of the real advances in science seem to come from a sudden ‘insight’ ( think Archimedes and “Eureka!”) – and there is often no simple connection between collecting data and that ‘aha!’ moment.  The tedious data collection happens, but at some moment, the brain, perhaps quite subconsciously, puts two and two together, and comes up… Continue reading Aboriginal Paintings of the Kimberley- very old Pleistocene or not so old Holocene?

Tim Flannery and Megafaunal Extinction Shuffle-puck

Fire in Australian savanna

Are Australian lives and property being burnt as a result of something that happened tends of thousands of years ago? In 1994 an influential book, ‘The Future Eaters’, was published by the Australian paleontologist Tim Flannery. One of the goals of the book was to explain why an event several thousand years ago (the extinction… Continue reading Tim Flannery and Megafaunal Extinction Shuffle-puck