5000 BC-AD 500 Late Holocene

Archaeological evidence suggests that from around 5000 BC there were substantial changes in Indigenous Australian population density, settlement pattern and technology. About 4000 years ago the dingo was introduced to Australia from Asia, and this seems to have increased the efficiency of Indigenous Australian hunting. At about the same time a new range of small, sharp-edged stone tools came into use. The population increased and expanded to occupy new areas. There was also a large increase in the distance that objects moved along trade routes.

It is not known if this new technology arrived with a wave of immigrants who brought the dingo with them, or if it arose through technical innovation in Australia. There is also no clear evidence about the extent and nature of immigration into Australia from Asia. It is not known if there was only one, or many waves of immigrants – though given the existence of a continued link across the Torres Straits to New Guinea it is possible that movement continued over many thousands of years.