Is there any known chronology for pre-1788 Australia?

by andreas3

Besides human arrival ca 40,000ya and rising sea levels at the end of the last ice age i've never heard of any chronology for australia before european arrival. Has archeology or dreamtime-decoding managed to give us anything like this?

timmci

Not so much a chronology, and extends beyond 1788, but check out this documentary from the SBS (7x1hour) called 'First Australians' http://www.sbs.com.au/firstaustralians/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcslF8yQ1Tg

If you're interested in the topic at all, this is by far the best, nothing else I've read or seen has explained the history and culture as well as this.

Shezzam

There is a stone circle in Western Victoria which predates Stonehenge by thousands of years. You should look into some of the stories of the Dreaming. In NW West Australia, there are cave paintings that show the "arrival" of tribal ancestors.

The biggest issue for us to decode the history is that the policies of "breeding them out" and child removal have resulted in a very large proportion of folk lore and tribal custom being lost. Compounding this is the difficulty many of the stolen children have in being recognised by their own people. I have several friends whose grandparents were stolen and their tribe can't or is unable to recognise them as part of their nation.

Chronological knowledge to the indigenous People of Australia doesn't mean the same thing as it does to the Western mindset.

I have seen a couple of questions from you, and am curious - are you starting Aboriginal studies or something?