About this guide

This guide introduces you to the study of history and connects you to a variety of reliable resources, including primary sources, about Australia's first peoples.

Glossary

Glossary Key words explained.

Why study history?

History matters because it can provide us with solutions to many of the problems of the present.

Primary sources

Uploaded on YouTube Sep 14, 2015

Uploaded on YouTube Sep 23, 2011

Scientists have used DNA evidence from a lock of hair found in WA in the 1920s to map the early migration of humans from Africa to Australia.

Warratyi, prehistoric site

A rock shelter in the Flinders Range, called Warratyi, has proven to be an important prehistoric site. Learn how dating of artefacts and fossils from the site has changed our previous conceptions of human settlement and technology, and even our interactions with megafauna.

Click on image.

Ancient Australia unearthed by Alethea Kinsela Drawing on primary archaeology to map 50,000 years of Australia’s ancient past, this book presents our rich and complex history in a comprehensive time line format.
Call Number: 994 KIN

Devil's Lair
This article in Britannica describes Devil's Lair and why it's a valuable primary source.

Teaching history with 100 objects

One hundred objects from museums across the UK with resources, information and teaching ideas to inspire your students’ interest in history.

Archived websites (1996 – now)

The Australian Web Archive captures over twenty years of website snapshots of our cultural and social history.

The material includes:

more than two decades of the PANDORA Web Archive - a collection created in partnership with cultural institutions around Australia
government websites formerly accessible through the Australian Government Web Archive; and
websites from the .au domain collected annually through large scale crawl harvests

Take a closer look at the British Museum's most popular objects.

Explore the British Museum's rich collection of objects.

Early human history

Australia - a time traveller's guide

Come on a journey through 4.6 billion years of Australian history.

Human evolution

Human evolution is about the origin of human beings. All humans belong to the same species, which has spread from its birthplace in Africa to almost all parts of the world. Its origin in Africa is proved by the fossils which have been found there.

A comprehensive look at early human history.

Map of human migration

When humans first ventured out of Africa some 60,000 years ago, they left genetic footprints still visible today.

The spread of people to Australia

Looks at two viewpoints.

Australian Aboriginal peoples - Traditional knowledge

This video has been passed on by the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry Victoria. It covers the early agriculture and village life for Aboriginal people which has been widely forgotten.

Aboriginal astronomy Many ancient cultures studied the night sky, and we know this because it is reflected in some of the earliest stories we have on record.

For tens of thousands of years Australian Aboriginal peoples have actively managed the savanna using fire. Their knowledge of the seasons and local conditions enable them to produce the most effective cool burns. These cool burns benefit both the environment and the Aboriginal traditional way of life.

Cool burning
Many resources: videos, pictures, info graphics & fact sheets, news reports.
Fire country
Delving deep into the Australian landscape and the environmental challenges we face, Fire Country is a powerful account from Indigenous land management expert Victor Steffensen on how the revival of cultural burning practices, and improved 'reading' of country, could help to restore our land

Australian Aboriginal peoples - Creation stories

Click the image to see these paintings.

Wandjina is a powerful Rain Maker spirit associated with the north-west region of the Kimberley in Western Australia.

The Dreamtime The Dreamtime a resource created by Aboriginal Art and Culture Centre - Alice Springs
Aboriginal art Dreaming stories A variety of Dreaming stories.
Aboriginal Dreamtime stories More Dreamtime stories.
An indigenous story: 'The Be' Explore the story of the Be man, which comes from Dalabon country in the Northern Territory. This animated story is about two brothers who investigate a mysterious visitor to their home.

Australian Aboriginal peoples - history

Renowned author Tom Keneally rates the finding of ancient human remains in his top three defining moments in Australian History

Australia in the before time Indigenous Australians' history, belief systems, social organisation, science and technology.

Discoveries at Lake Mungo Visit the site of a discovery of human remains that are so old they make Egyptian mummies seem recent.
Mungo Man The story behind the bones that forever changed Australia's history.
Mungo lady In 1968 geologist Jim Bowler discovered human bones around the now dry Lake Mungo in south-western New South Wales. Bowler and his colleagues named her Mungo Lady and discovered that she had been ritually buried.

Ceremony held for the return of Mungo Man After waiting half a lifetime for his return, many Aboriginal elders wept this afternoon as Mungo Man made his way back home.

The quest to remove aboriginal remains from museums The remains of up to 10,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are kept in museums around Australia. Their descendants want them back.
Cape York map could help return bones of Indigenous ancestors to country Scientists and Indigenous leaders hope a new map may be a first step in helping identify the origins of thousands of Indigenous remains held in museums.

Scavenger hunt

Aboriginal People of Australia

Recommended fiction set in ancient civilizations

Click on the image if you're interested in reading stories set during ancient times.

Humanities: Ancient Worlds: Aboriginal and Torres Strait and Islander Peoples and Cultures