Did any Australian Aboriginal tribes/groups trade with other groups outside of Australia?

by no_more_balloons

Such as the New Zealand people of the time.

amp1212

Short answer:

We have very little evidence for contact until quite recently.

Discussion:

This is a question for archaeologists and anthropologists not historians

There's not much evidence for contact between Maori and Aboriginal Australians before European arrival. Bear in mind that the Maori are themselves relative newcomers to Aotearoa/New Zealand-- Kupe's celebrated arrival in Hokianga is circa 1100 AD, and while it might not be accurate in all the particulars, the date is likely about right. I'm aware of one unusual find -- a possibly Maori adze was found in Tasmania, and the Polynesians were extraordinary sailors, so it's certainly possible. There's just not much time for them to have done it, nor evidence that they did.

. There's also a quite recent history of contact by Makassan sailors from Sulawesi (present day Indonesia); they are reliably known to have been fishing off Australia in the early 18th century, and perhaps a bit earlier -- but again, that's a very recent contact.

But considering that Aboriginal Australians have been in Australia for something on the order of 60,000 years-- for nearly all of that time we don't have evidence of them trading with anyone else, with one exception. There may have been more contact over a much longer period on the Top End -- the Torres Straits Islanders had contact both with Aboriginal Australians and with Papua New Guinea, and this seems to have gone fairly far back in time, a matter of considerable debate for archaeologists and anthropologists.

Sources:

Skinner, H. D. “A GREENSTONE ADZE OR AXE FROM NORTHERN TASMANIA.” The Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 45, no. 1(177), 1936, pp. 39–42.

Mullins, Steve. “THE TORRES STRAIT BECHE-DE-MER FISHERY: A QUESTION OF TIMING.” The Great Circle, vol. 14, no. 1, 1992, pp. 21–30.

J. Golson, 'Land connections, sea barriers and the relationship of Australian and New Guinea prehistory', D. Walker (ed), Bridge and Barrier: the Natural and Cultural History of Torres Strait , (Canberra:1972)

Taçon, Paul S. C. “Rock Art Evidence for Macassan–Aboriginal Contact in Northwestern Arnhem Land.” Macassan History and Heritage: Journeys, Encounters and Influences, edited by Sally K. May and Marshall Clark, ANU Press, 2013, pp. 127–140.

Lilley, Ian. “So near and Yet so Far: Reflections on Archaeology in Australia and Papua New Guinea, Intensification and Culture Contact.” Australian Archaeology, no. 50, 2000, pp. 36–44.