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43000 BC
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One proposed date for the peopling of Greater Australia
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42500 BC
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Around this time the site at Devil's Lair, Australia, is in use
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42000 BC
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Date of earliest Aboriginal engravings found in South Australia
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41800 BC
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Carpenter's Gap rock shelter in use
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38000 BC
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Jo's Creek site in use, Huon Peninsula, New Guinea
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37500 BC
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Site at Buang Merabak, New Ireland, in use
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33000 BC
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Colonisation begins of the islands beyond Melanesia
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33000 BC
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Lachitu Cave site in use, New Guinea
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32000 BC
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Rock shelters at Mandu Mandu and Pilgonaman in use
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29000 BC
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By this time Aboriginal people are living in the region of Keilor, Victoria
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28000 BC
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Highlands of New Guinea populated
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28000 BC
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By this time most regions of Australia was populated
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28000 BC
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Ground stone axes made in northern Australia
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26000 BC
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Kilu Cave, Buka, in use
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26000 BC
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Noala Cave site in use
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24000 BC
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Human cremations carried out
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22000 BC
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Kutikina Cave is occupied by Tasmanian Aboriginal people
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22000 BC
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Site at Koolan, Kimberley, abandoned
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20000 BC
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Ice Age Glacial Maximum: cold desert climate across most of Australia
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18000 BC
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People arrive on the Bismarck Achipelago
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18000 BC
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Aboriginal people are well established throughout coastal and mainland Australia and Tasmania
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18000 BC
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‘Megafauna’ (very large animals) become extinct in Australia
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17000 BC
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First rock paintings produced in Australia
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17000 BC
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Milly's Cave site in use
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16000 BC
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Grass seed harvesting is important part of life in the large grasslands
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15000 BC
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Climate starts to become gradually wetter and warmer
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12000 BC
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Tasmania separated from Greater Australia by rising sea levels
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10000 BC
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Indigenous Australians forced inland as coastal sites flooded
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10000 BC
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Humanlike figures begin to be used in Australian rock art
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8200 BC
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Earliest evidence found for agriculture on New Guinea
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8000 BC
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Development of the boomerang along with other weapons such as barbed spears
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6000 BC
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Migration from South-east Asia gives rise to Austronesian culture
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5000 BC
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The climate begins to get drier
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5000 BC
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New Guinea separated from Greater Australia by rising sea levels
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4800 BC
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Around this time the ground stone adze comes into use on New Guinea
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4000 BC
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People make periodic visits to the western Torres Straits islands
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4000 BC
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Earliest datable evidence for human activity on the Solomon Islands
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3000 BC
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Over the next 1000 years, Guam is colonised by Chamorros peoples
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2000 BC
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Dingo introduced to Australia, probably from South-east Asia
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2000 BC
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Indigenous Australian X-ray art develops
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2000 BC
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New types of small, flaked-edge stone tools and points start to be used
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1600 BC
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Start of Polynesian expansion by boat from New Guinea
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1550 BC
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Early Plain ware in use at Balof rock shelter, New Ireland
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1528 BC
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By this time the Marianas Islands have been colonised by Chamorros peoples
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1500 BC
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Possible date for the earliest stone sculpture in New Guinea
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1500 BC
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Belau and the Mariana Islands (Micronesia) are settled by Austronesian peoples, probably from the Phillippines.
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1500 BC
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Lapita culture begins to expand eastward from Melanesia into the more remote islands of the western Pacific
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Oceania
50,000-1500 BC
The first humans in Oceania arrived in Australia sometime between 60,000 and 40,000 years ago. They came from Asia at a time when sea levels were lower than today and crossed a land bridge which linked Australia with the present day islands of New Guinea. By 30,000 years ago most regions of the continent were settled. The earliest archaeological finds elsewhere in the Pacific are 33,000 years old, in New Guinea – though settlement was almost certainly contemporary with migrations into Australia.
Between 8000 and 10,000 years ago, New Guinea was cut off from Australia by rising sea levels caused by melting ice caps at the end of the Ice Age.
Around 4000 BC a wave of people speaking a language called Austronesian migrated from South-east Asia and moved along the coasts of New Guinea to the Solomon Islands. From about 2000 BC archaeological evidence shows the spread of a distinctive style of decorated pottery, known as Lapita, which seems to have been made by a people with more advanced marine technologies that enabled them to expand east. The Lapita makers were probably the first settlers on Fiji in around 1500 BC.
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