91-524: Jackey Jackey (also spelled Jacky Jacky ) (c. 1833–1854), Aboriginal name Galmahra (or Galmarra), was the Aboriginal Australian guide and companion to surveyor Edmund Kennedy . He survived Kennedy's fatal 1848 expedition into Cape York Peninsula (in present-day Queensland ) and was subsequently formally recognized for heroic deeds by the Colony of New South Wales in words engraved on
182-593: A Holocene hunter-gatherer sample ("Leang Panninge") from South Sulawesi , which shares high amounts of genetic drift with Aboriginal Australians and Papuans. This suggests that a population split from the common ancestor of Aboriginal Australians and Papuans. The sample also shows genetic affinity with East Asians and the Andamanese people of South Asia. The authors note that this hunter-gatherer sample can be modelled with ~50% Papuan-related ancestry and either with ~50% East Asian or Andamanese Onge ancestry, highlighting
273-588: A Liberal government), a feat that had last been achieved in 2007. This would last until 24 August 2024 Northern Territory general election when Labor lost Northern Territory to the Country Liberal Party (CLP) opposition. Losing its first mainland state/Territory level. The Liberal National opposition have never had this feat (control of the entirety of Mainland Australia at the federal and mainland state levels simultaneously) as of 2024. From 1788 to 1859, Britain established five colonies on
364-674: A collaborator, the subservient native complicit in his own people's dispossession. As a young man, Galmahra seems to have grown up and lived at Jerrys Plains near Muswellbrook, New South Wales , most likely as a member of the local Australian Aboriginal nation : the Wonnarua . In April 1848, still a young man, Galmahra was asked to accompany and help guide Assistant Surveyor Edmund Kennedy and team (including botanist William Carron) on an expedition through unknown country heading up into Cape York Peninsula . On that expedition Galmahra proved his value (including bush skills) and turned out to be
455-611: A gene flow from India to Australia: firstly, signs of South Asian components in Aboriginal Australian genomes, reported on the basis of genome-wide SNP data; and secondly, the existence of a Y chromosome (male) lineage, designated haplogroup C∗, with the most recent common ancestor about 5,000 years ago. The first type of evidence comes from a 2013 study by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology using large-scale genotyping data from
546-566: A loyal and resilient member of the expedition upon whom Edmund Kennedy increasingly relied until he died, speared by Yadhaykenu (a.k.a. Jathaikana) people in the northern Peninsula area (December 1848), somewhere near the Escape River. Following an inquiry into Edmund Kennedy and other expedition members deaths, Galmahra became more generally known to the colony of New South Wales as Jackey Jackey: an Aboriginal Australian to be honoured for his loyalty, heroic deeds, and general assistance to
637-587: A number of occasions from maps of Australia, reinforcing the divide between Tasmania and the mainland. The 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane left Tasmania off the map of Australia during the opening ceremony, as did the designs of the Australian Swim Team uniform for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow . The land mass covers 7,591,608 km (2,931,136 sq mi), about 98.7% of
728-751: A person as Indigenous. (Torres Strait Islanders are ethnically and culturally distinct, despite extensive cultural exchange with some of the Aboriginal groups, and the Torres Strait Islands are mostly part of Queensland but have a separate governmental status .) Some Aboriginal people object to being labelled Indigenous , as an artificial and denialist term, because some non-Aboriginal people have referred to themselves as indigenous because they were born in Australia. Australian Indigenous people have beliefs unique to each mob ( tribe ) and have
819-598: A pool of Aboriginal Australians, New Guineans, island Southeast Asians, and Indians. It found that the New Guinea and Mamanwa (Philippines area) groups diverged from the Aboriginal about 36,000 years ago (there is supporting evidence that these populations are descended from migrants taking an early "southern route" out of Africa, before other groups in the area). Also the Indian and Australian populations mixed long before European contact, with this gene flow occurring during
910-615: A profound spiritual connection. Over the millennia, Aboriginal people developed complex trade networks, inter-cultural relationships, law and religions. Contemporary Aboriginal beliefs are a complex mixture, varying by region and individual across the continent. They are shaped by traditional beliefs, the disruption of colonisation, religions brought to the continent by Europeans, and contemporary issues. Traditional cultural beliefs are passed down and shared through dancing , stories , songlines , and art that collectively weave an ontology of modern daily life and ancient creation known as
1001-495: A single group. Aboriginal identity has changed over time and place, with family lineage, self-identification, and community acceptance all of varying importance. In the 2021 census , Indigenous Australians comprised 3.8% of Australia's population. Most Aboriginal people today speak English and live in cities. Some may use Aboriginal phrases and words in Australian Aboriginal English (which also has
SECTION 10
#17327809332341092-470: A solid silver breastplate or gorget , which read as follows: Presented by His Excellency Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy K.D. Governor of New South Wales , to Jackey Jackey, an Aboriginal native of that colony. In testimony of the fidelity with which he followed the late Assistant Surveyor E.B.C. Kennedy , throughout the exploration of York Peninsula in the year 1848; the noble daring with which he supported that lamented gentleman, when mortally wounded by
1183-411: A spirit creates the earth then tells the humans to treat the animals and the earth in a way which is respectful to land. In Northern Territory this is commonly said to be a huge snake or snakes that weaved its way through the earth and sky making the mountains and oceans. But in other places the spirits who created the world are known as wandjina rain and water spirits. Major ancestral spirits include
1274-470: A strong connection to the land. Contemporary Indigenous Australian beliefs are a complex mixture, varying by region and individual across the continent. They are shaped by traditional beliefs, the disruption of colonisation, religions brought to the continent by Europeans, and contemporary issues. Traditional cultural beliefs are passed down and shared by dancing , stories , songlines and art —especially Papunya Tula (dot painting)—collectively telling
1365-427: A tangible influence of Aboriginal languages in the phonology and grammatical structure ). Many but not all also speak the various traditional languages of their clans and peoples. Aboriginal people, along with Torres Strait Islander people, have a number of severe health and economic deprivations in comparison with the wider Australian community. DNA studies have confirmed that "Aboriginal Australians are one of
1456-773: Is an increase in allele sharing between the Denisovan and Aboriginal Australian genomes, compared to other Eurasians or Africans. Examining DNA from a finger bone excavated in Siberia , researchers concluded that the Denisovans migrated from Siberia to tropical parts of Asia and that they interbred with modern humans in Southeast Asia 44,000 years BP, before Australia separated from New Guinea approximately 11,700 years BP. They contributed DNA to Aboriginal Australians and to present-day New Guineans and an indigenous tribe in
1547-477: Is based on the Aboriginal peoples' geographical isolation, with little or no interaction with outside cultures before some contact with Makassan fishermen and Dutch explorers up to 500 years ago. The Rasmussen study also found evidence that Aboriginal peoples carry some genes associated with the Denisovans (a species of human related to but distinct from Neanderthals ) of Asia; the study suggests that there
1638-556: Is concentric and sparse, whereas there is higher intensity rainfall toward the mainland's tropics and coastal areas. Australia lies on the middle of the Indo-Australian tectonic plate and as a result is not influenced by any severe tectonic activity . Over millions of years, the shifting of these tectonic plates has seen the Australian mainland undergo many physical changes. Mountain ranges and seas have come and gone, and
1729-487: Is host to some of the world's largest open-cut and underground mines. Across the mainland states (besides the ACT), there are over 350 operating mines, producing 19 useful rocks and minerals . These mines allow Australia to be one of the world's largest producers of iron ore , coal , bauxite (aluminium ore), manganese , nickel , copper , gold , silver , cobalt , lead , copper , uranium , opal and diamond . Some of
1820-474: Is in these mainland regions that much of Australia's native flora and fauna can be found. Early in the Cretaceous period, 130 million years ago, Australia (and Antarctica ) separated from a supercontinent known as Gondwana . Antarctica's separation from Australia began roughly 85 million years ago, at a rate of a few millimetres per year. It took over 30 million years (53 million years ago), toward
1911-480: Is no evidence for South Asian gene flow to Australia .... Despite Sahul being a single connected landmass until [8,000 years ago], different groups across Australia are nearly equally related to Papuans, and vice versa, and the two appear to have separated genetically already [about 30,000 years ago]." Aboriginal Australians possess inherited abilities to adapt to a wide range of environmental temperatures in various ways. A study in 1958 comparing cold adaptation in
SECTION 20
#17327809332342002-532: Is observed through the states and territories of mainland Australia representing 146 of the 151 members in Parliament . The 25 March 2023 New South Wales state election marked the second time in history that the Australian Labor Party gained control of the entirety of Mainland Australia at the federal and mainland state levels simultaneously (leaving Tasmania as the only state with
2093-453: Is only in the last two hundred years that they have been defined and started to self-identify as a single group, socio-politically. While some preferred the term Aborigine to Aboriginal in the past, as the latter was seen to have more directly discriminatory legal origins, use of the term Aborigine has declined in recent decades, as many consider the term an offensive and racist hangover from Australia's colonial era. The definition of
2184-502: Is that the desert people are able to have a higher body temperature without accelerating the activity of the whole of the body, which can be especially detrimental in childhood diseases. This helps protect people to survive the side-effects of infection. Aboriginal people have lived for tens of thousands of years on the continent of Australia , through its various changes in landmass. The area within Australia 's borders today includes
2275-729: The CC BY 4.0 license. Mainland Australia Mainland Australia is the main landmass of the Australian continent , excluding the Aru Islands , New Guinea , Tasmania , and other Australian offshore islands . The landmass also constitutes the mainland of the territory governed by the Commonwealth of Australia , and the term, along with continental Australia , can be used in a geographic sense to exclude surrounding continental islands and external territories . Generally,
2366-490: The CSIRO stressed the importance of taking a demand-driven approach to services in desert settlements, and concluded that "if top-down solutions continue to be imposed without appreciating the fundamental drivers of settlement in desert regions, then those solutions will continue to be partial, and ineffective in the long term." [REDACTED] This article incorporates text by Anders Bergström et al. available under
2457-709: The Eastern Highlands (including the Great Dividing Range ) cover almost 10% of the mainland. Incorporating several mountain ranges which extend 3,700 km (2,300 mi) the Highlands run parallel to the east coast of the mainland; covering Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria. The highlands were formed around 80 million years ago, and are some of the oldest and most prominent in
2548-636: The Gibson Desert . Much of the Western Plateau receives minimal rainfall and thus appears red in colour. Conversely, the Northern Plateau experiences heavy rainfall throughout the wet season (November to April), due to its more tropical location compared to the Western Plateau. Australia's separation from the other continents resulted in a long period of uplift , erosion and thick terrigenous deposition in rift valleys . It
2639-590: The Initial Upper Paleolithic . They are most closely related to other Oceanians , such as Melanesians . The Aboriginal Australians also show affinity to other Australasian populations, such as Negritos , as well as to East Asian peoples . Phylogenetic data suggests that an early initial eastern lineage (ENA) trifurcated somewhere in South Asia , and gave rise to Australasians (Oceanians), Ancient Ancestral South Indian (AASI), Andamanese and
2730-712: The Kimberley region in what is now Western Australia about 60,000 years ago. They migrated across the continent within 6,000 years. A 2018 study using archaeobotany dated evidence of continuous human habitation at Karnatukul (Serpent's Glen) in the Carnarvon Range in the Little Sandy Desert in WA from around 50,000 years ago. Genetic studies have revealed that Aboriginal Australians largely descended from an Eastern Eurasian population wave during
2821-637: The Makassar people of modern-day Indonesia. Aboriginal Australians have a wide variety of cultural practices and beliefs that some scientists believe make up the oldest continuous cultures in the world, although this is disputed. At the time of European colonisation of Australia, the Aboriginal people consisted of complex cultural societies with more than 250 languages and varying degrees of technology and settlements. Languages (or dialects) and language-associated groups of people are connected with stretches of territory known as "Country", with which they have
Jackey Jackey - Misplaced Pages Continue
2912-790: The Northern Territory and parts of South Australia . Over one-third of the mainland, the Plateaus are made of one stable block of igneous and metamorphic rock which is up to 3.6 billion years old. Despite this, the Plateau is a huge area of tablelands, averaging 500m above sea level in some parts. It is home to Uluru , Kata Tjuta , the Finke River , the Victorian Desert , the Great Sandy Desert and
3003-615: The Northern Territory to study their genetic makeup (which is not representative of all Aboriginal peoples in Australia). The study concluded that the Warlpiri are descended from ancient Asians whose DNA is still somewhat present in Southeastern Asian groups, although greatly diminished. The Warlpiri DNA lacks certain information found in modern Asian genomes, and carries information not found in other genomes. This reinforces
3094-459: The Pleistocene epoch and lived over large sections of the Australian continental shelf when the sea levels were lower. At that time, Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea were part of the same landmass, known as Sahul . As sea levels rose, the people on the Australian mainland and nearby islands became increasingly isolated, some on Tasmania and some of the smaller offshore islands when
3185-627: The Rainbow Serpent , Baiame , Dirawong and Bunjil . Similarly, the Arrernte people of central Australia believed that humanity originated from great superhuman ancestors who brought the sun, wind and rain as a result of breaking through the surface of the Earth when waking from their slumber. Taken as a whole, Aboriginal Australians, along with Torres Strait Islander people, have a number of health and economic deprivations in comparison with
3276-583: The 17th and 18th century, progressively mapping what we now know to be as (mainland) Australia. The most famous and well documented expedition of Australia occurred 164 years after Janszoon's journey, through British navigator and explorer James Cook . He documented the first interaction of the Eastern Australian coastline, and on 23 April 1770, Cook made the first recorded observation of Indigenous Australians at nowadays Brush Island . This journey, coupled with numerous other reports, ultimately led
3367-778: The 1970s and 1980s, when Aboriginal people moved to tiny remote settlements on traditional land, brought health benefits, but funding them proved expensive, training and employment opportunities were not provided in many cases, and support from governments dwindled in the 2000s, particularly in the era of the Howard government . Indigenous communities in remote Australia are often small, isolated towns with basic facilities, on traditionally owned land . These communities have between 20 and 300 inhabitants and are often closed to outsiders for cultural reasons. The long-term viability and resilience of Aboriginal communities in desert areas has been discussed by scholars and policy-makers. A 2007 report by
3458-677: The 19th century. Scholars believe that most Aboriginal Australians originated from Southeast Asia. If this is the case, Aboriginal Australians were among the first in the world to have completed sea voyages. A 2017 paper in Nature evaluated artefacts in Kakadu . Its authors concluded "Human occupation began around 65,000 years ago." A 2021 study by researchers at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage has mapped
3549-638: The Australian mainland was by Willem Janszoon in 1606, as he sailed around Australia's north coast arriving in present-day Cape York, Queensland . These explorations led way to the term ' Terra Australis ', Latin for South Land, which was hypothesised on the notion there must be land in the Southern Hemisphere to balance the land mass in the Northern Hemisphere . This encounter led several other Dutch , Spanish , Portuguese and British journeyings to Terra Australis throughout
3640-500: The Australian mainland, and one in Tasmania . All six colonies were constitutionally connected to Britain , each with their own parliament and courts , with their respective laws subject to the laws of British Parliament . These colonies formed the six states of Australia; New South Wales , Victoria , Western Australia , South Australia (included the Northern Territory at this time), Queensland and Tasmania . In 1901,
3731-662: The Australian mainland, the Central Lowlands (and Deserts) are low-lying with an average height of under 200 metres (660 ft) above sea level. It is home to the Sturt and Simpson deserts and closer to Central Australia lie some desert mountain ranges ( MacDonnell and Musgrave ). The Central Lowlands incorporates three primary drainage basins : in the North, the Carpentaria Lowlands , Lake Eyre toward
Jackey Jackey - Misplaced Pages Continue
3822-466: The British to establish a penal colony in Australia, firstly at Botany Bay . The Australian mainland's geology and climate is one of its defining features. Despite being surrounded by ocean, approximately 20% of the Australian mainland is classified as desert . This is due to the extremely variable rain patterns across the mainland. Toward the barren centre of the mainland, the rainfall pattern
3913-496: The Dreaming . Studies of Aboriginal groups' genetic makeup are ongoing, but evidence suggests that they have genetic inheritance from ancient Asian but not more modern peoples. They share some similarities with Papuans , but have been isolated from Southeast Asia for a very long time. They have a broadly shared, complex genetic history, but only in the last 200 years were they defined by others as, and started to self-identify as,
4004-620: The East/Southeast Asian lineage, including ancestors of the Native Americans . Papuans may have received approximately 2% of their geneflow from an earlier group (xOOA) as well, next to additional archaic admixture in the Sahul region. Aboriginal people are genetically most similar to the indigenous populations of Papua New Guinea , and more distantly related to groups from East Indonesia. They are more distinct from
4095-881: The Holocene ( c. 4,200 years ago). The researchers had two theories for this: either some Indians had contact with people in Indonesia who eventually transferred those Indian genes to Aboriginal Australians, or a group of Indians migrated from India to Australia and intermingled with the locals directly. However, a 2016 study in Current Biology by Anders Bergström et al. excluded the Y chromosome as providing evidence for recent gene flow from India into Australia. The study authors sequenced 13 Aboriginal Australian Y chromosomes using recent advances in gene sequencing technology. They investigated their divergence times from Y chromosomes in other continents, including comparing
4186-654: The Natives of Escape River, the courage with which after having affectionately tended the last moments of his Master, he made his way through hostile Tribes and an unknown Country, to Cape York; and finally the unexampled sagacity with which he conducted the succour that there awaited the Expedition to the rescue of the other survivors of it, who had been left at Shelbourne Bay . In the 1970s Australian school textbooks, such as Margaret Paice 's Jackey Jackey , were published recording Jackey Jackey's life and achievements: To
4277-859: The Northern, Southern and Central cultural areas. The Northern and Southern areas, having richer natural marine and woodland resources, were more densely populated than the Central area. There are various other names from Australian Aboriginal languages commonly used to identify groups based on geography , known as demonyms , including: Other group names are based on the language group or specific dialect spoken . These also coincide with geographical regions of varying sizes. A few examples are: However, these lists are neither exhaustive nor definitive, and there are overlaps. Different approaches have been taken by non-Aboriginal scholars in trying to understand and define Aboriginal culture and societies, some focusing on
4368-771: The Philippines known as Mamanwa . This study confirms Aboriginal Australians as one of the oldest living populations in the world. They are possibly the oldest outside Africa, and they may have the oldest continuous culture on the planet. A 2016 study at the University of Cambridge suggests that it was about 50,000 years ago that these peoples reached Sahul (the supercontinent consisting of present-day Australia and its islands and New Guinea ). The sea levels rose and isolated Australia about 10,000 years ago, but Aboriginal Australians and Papuans diverged from each other genetically earlier, about 37,000 years BP, possibly because
4459-444: The ancient people expanded and differentiated into distinct groups, each with its own language and culture. More than 400 distinct Australian Aboriginal peoples have been identified, distinguished by names designating their ancestral languages, dialects, or distinctive speech patterns. According to noted anthropologist , archaeologist and sociologist Harry Lourandos , historically, these groups lived in three main cultural areas,
4550-450: The area of the country of Australia and 1.5% of Earth 's surface. It is sometimes described as an island, in which case it would be the largest island by area –more than three times the size of Greenland . Its population is about 25.9 million, 98% of Australia's total population. Mainland Australia has a variety of climatic regions, ranging from tropical rainforests and deserts to cool temperature rainforests to snow-covered mountains. It
4641-532: The centre and the Murray-Darling Basin down South. The lowest point on the mainland is found in this division at Lake Eyre, at 50m below sea level. Approximately 144 to 65 million years ago ( Cretaceous period), there lay a great inland sea, stretching over one quarter of the mainland. The evaporation of this ocean left behind what we now know as the Western Plateau. The Western and Northern Plateaus incorporate nearly all Western Australia and
SECTION 50
#17327809332344732-619: The colony. Instead he gained a reputation for enjoying his alcohol and, in 1854, after drinking too much during an overland journey to Albury, New South Wales , fell into a campfire and died. Australian Aborigine Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands . Humans first migrated to Australia at least 65,000 years ago, and over time formed as many as 500 language-based groups . In
4823-519: The deep split between Leang Panninge and Aboriginal/Papuans. Mallick et al. 2016 and Mark Lipson et al. 2017 study found the bifurcation of Eastern Eurasians and Western Eurasians dates to least 45,000 years ago, with indigenous Australians nested inside the Eastern Eurasian clade. Two genetic studies by Larena et al. 2021 found that Philippines Negrito people split from the common ancestor of Aboriginal Australians and Papuans before
4914-497: The desert-dwelling Pitjantjatjara people compared with a group of European people showed that the cooling adaptation of the Aboriginal group differed from that of the white people, and that they were able to sleep more soundly through a cold desert night. A 2014 Cambridge University study found that a beneficial mutation in two genes which regulate thyroxine , a hormone involved in regulating body metabolism , helps to regulate body temperature in response to fever. The effect of this
5005-457: The end of the Palaeocene epoch , for Australia to fully separate from Antarctica and set course for where we see the two continents today. During the last ice-age around 35,000 years ago, sea levels (around Australia) dropped by 120 metres (390 ft), developing a continuous stretch of land between what is now Papua New Guinea , Australia and Tasmania . Over the next 6,000 years
5096-479: The expedition. By March 1849 a lithographic portrait of 'Jackey Jackey' had been produced for sale, and by the beginning of 1851 the Governor of New South Wales had presented him with a specially made, pure silver breastplate (see above) plus a £50 bank account gratuity . Galmahra never wore the breastplate, never accessed the £50 bank account, and did not seem to have otherwise been fully engaged or employed by
5187-626: The forces of weathering and erosion have formed much of the mainlands current topography . These physical changes developed four primary landform divisions spread throughout the mainland states and territories; the Coastal Plains, the Eastern and Southern highlands , the Central Lowlands (and Deserts) and the Western and Northern Plateaus (and Basins). Along the Eastern seaboard of
5278-714: The haplogroup C chromosomes. They found a divergence time of about 54,100 years between the Sahul C chromosome and its closest relative C5, as well as about 54,300 years between haplogroups K*/M and their closest haplogroups R and Q. The deep divergence time of 50,000-plus years with the South Asian chromosome and "the fact that the Aboriginal Australian Cs share a more recent common ancestor with Papuan Cs" excludes any recent genetic contact. The 2016 study's authors concluded that, although this does not disprove
5369-418: The ice gradually melted, increasing sea-levels, cutting off Papua New Guinea and Tasmania from mainland Australia. It has been estimated that Australian Aborigines occupied mainland Australia up to 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, well before the last ice-age. Although an exact figure has not been decided on, numerous DNA studies all confirm that Aboriginal Australians are one of the oldest living populations in
5460-401: The idea of ancient Aboriginal isolation. Genetic data extracted in 2011 by Morten Rasmussen et al., who took a DNA sample from an early-20th-century lock of an Aboriginal person's hair, found that the Aboriginal ancestors probably migrated through South Asia and Maritime Southeast Asia , into Australia, where they stayed. As a result, outside of Africa, the Aboriginal peoples have occupied
5551-653: The increased suicide rate, many researchers have suggested that the inclusion of more cultural aspects into suicide prevention programs would help to combat mental health issues within the community. Past studies have found that many indigenous leaders and community members, do in fact, want more culturally-aware health care programs. Similarly, culturally-relative programs targeting indigenous youth have actively challenged suicide ideation among younger indigenous populations, with many social and emotional wellbeing programs using cultural information to provide coping mechanisms and improving mental health. The outstation movement of
SECTION 60
#17327809332345642-511: The indigenous populations of Borneo and Malaysia , sharing drift with them than compared to the groups from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. This indicates that populations in Australia were isolated for a long time from the rest of Southeast Asia. They remained untouched by migrations and population expansions into that area, which can be explained by the Wallace line . In a 2001 study, blood samples were collected from some Warlpiri people in
5733-512: The islands of Tasmania , K'gari (previously Fraser Island) , Hinchinbrook Island , the Tiwi Islands , Kangaroo Island and Groote Eylandt . Indigenous people of the Torres Strait Islands, however, are not Aboriginal. In the 2021 census , people who self-identified on the census form as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin totalled 812,728 out of a total of 25,422,788 Australians, equating to 3.2% of Australia's population and an increase of 163,557 people, or 25.2%, since
5824-400: The land was inundated at the start of the Holocene , the inter-glacial period that started about 11,700 years ago. Scholars of this ancient history believe that it would have been difficult for Aboriginal people to have originated purely from mainland Asia. Not enough people would have migrated to Australia and surrounding islands to fulfill the beginning of the size of the population seen in
5915-600: The largest mines on the Australian mainland are listed below: Gold Lead Uranium Gold Silver Copper Underground The Australian mainland's various geology and climate, has led to the increased utilisation of renewable energy ( solar , wind and hydro ) over recent decades. In 2021, approximately 28.9% of the mainland's total electricity generation was from renewable energy sources with South Australia at 66.5% renewable energy generation, Victoria at 33.4%, Western Australia at 31.5%, New South Wales at 26.0% and Queensland at 19.6%. The majority of this renewable energy
6006-406: The last 10,000 years it may have occurred—newer analytical techniques have the potential to address such questions. Bergstrom's 2018 doctoral thesis looking at the population of Sahul suggests that other than relatively recent admixture, the populations of the region appear to have been genetically independent from the rest of the world since their divergence about 50,000 years ago. He writes "There
6097-464: The latter two diverged from each other, but after their common ancestor diverged from the ancestor of East Asian peoples . The dingo reached Australia about 4,000 years ago. Near that time, there were changes in language (with the Pama-Nyungan language family spreading over most of the mainland), and in stone tool technology. Smaller tools were used. Human contact has thus been inferred, and genetic data of two kinds have been proposed to support
6188-496: The likely migration routes of the peoples as they moved across the Australian continent to its southern reaches and what is now Tasmania , then part of the mainland. The modelling is based on data from archaeologists , anthropologists , ecologists , geneticists , climatologists , geomorphologists , and hydrologists . It is intended to compare this data with the oral histories of Aboriginal peoples, including Dreaming stories, Australian rock art , and linguistic features of
6279-435: The mainland are the Coastal Plains; a narrow strip of land along the East coast of Australia from Queensland to Victoria . This division is host to some of the mainland's major cities, namely, Brisbane , Sydney and Melbourne , due to its hospitable conditions. Some sources refer to the Coastal Plains as the entire coastline of the mainland, outspreading beyond the East Coast. Approximately 100 km (62 mi) inland,
6370-423: The many Aboriginal languages which reveal how the peoples developed separately. The routes, dubbed "superhighways" by the authors, are similar to current highways and stock routes in Australia. Lynette Russell of Monash University believes that the new model is a starting point for collaboration with Aboriginal people to help reveal their history. The new models suggest that the first people may have landed in
6461-403: The micro-level (tribe, clan, etc.), and others on shared languages and cultural practices spread over large regions defined by ecological factors. Anthropologists have encountered many difficulties in trying to define what constitutes an Aboriginal people/community/group/tribe, let alone naming them. Knowledge of pre-colonial Aboriginal cultures and societal groupings is still largely dependent on
6552-411: The observers' interpretations, which were filtered through colonial ways of viewing societies. Some Aboriginal peoples identify as one of several saltwater, freshwater, rainforest or desert peoples . The term Aboriginal Australians includes many distinct peoples who have developed across Australia for over 50,000 years. These peoples have a broadly shared, though complex, genetic history, but it
6643-638: The oldest living populations in the world, certainly the oldest outside of Africa." Their ancestors left the African continent 75,000 years ago. They may have the oldest continuous culture on earth. In Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory , oral histories comprising complex narratives have been passed down by Yolngu people through hundreds of generations. The Aboriginal rock art , dated by modern techniques, shows that their culture has continued from ancient times. The ancestors of present-day Aboriginal Australian people migrated from Southeast Asia by sea during
6734-421: The original 250–400 Aboriginal languages (more than 250 languages and about 800 dialectal varieties on the continent) are endangered or extinct, although some efforts are being made at language revival for some. As of 2016, only 13 traditional Indigenous languages were still being acquired by children, and about another 100 spoken by older generations only. Dispersing across the Australian continent over time,
6825-420: The other studies had utilised complete Y chromosome sequencing, which has the highest precision. For example, use of a ten Y STRs method has been shown to massively underestimate divergence times. Gene flow across the island-dotted 150-kilometre-wide (93 mi) Torres Strait, is both geographically plausible and demonstrated by the data, although at this point it could not be determined from this study when within
6916-479: The past, Aboriginal people lived over large sections of the continental shelf . They were isolated on many of the smaller offshore islands and Tasmania when the land was inundated at the start of the Holocene inter-glacial period , about 11,700 years ago. Despite this, Aboriginal people maintained extensive networks within the continent and certain groups maintained relationships with Torres Strait Islanders and
7007-523: The people of his tribe he was Galmarra, the Songman; to the men of the ill-fated Kennedy expedition he was Jackey Jackey, the young Aborigine. This slightly built teenager was to be their strength as they faced the mangrove swamps and tropical jungles. The name "Jackey Jackey" since entered general Australian and Aboriginal Australian slang : For whites it was a generic dismissive, denying blacks their individuality and hence their dignity. To blacks it meant
7098-440: The presence of any Holocene gene flow or non-genetic influences from South Asia at that time, and the appearance of the dingo does provide strong evidence for external contacts, the evidence overall is consistent with a complete lack of gene flow, and points to indigenous origins for the technological and linguistic changes. They attributed the disparity between their results and previous findings to improvements in technology; none of
7189-414: The previous census in 2016. Reasons for the increase were broadly as follows: Most Aboriginal people speak English, with Aboriginal phrases and words being added to create Australian Aboriginal English (which also has a tangible influence of Aboriginal languages in the phonology and grammatical structure ). Some Aboriginal people, especially those living in remote areas, are multi-lingual. Many of
7280-487: The remaining land bridge was impassable. This isolation makes the Aboriginal people the world's oldest culture. The study also found evidence of an unknown hominin group, distantly related to Denisovans, with whom the Aboriginal and Papuan ancestors must have interbred, leaving a trace of about 4% in most Aboriginal Australians' genome. There is, however, increased genetic diversity among Aboriginal Australians based on geographical distribution. Carlhoff et al. 2021 analysed
7371-406: The same territory continuously longer than any other human populations. These findings suggest that modern Aboriginal Australians are the direct descendants of the eastern wave, who left Africa up to 75,000 years ago. This finding is compatible with earlier archaeological finds of human remains near Lake Mungo that date to approximately 40,000 years ago. The idea of the "oldest continuous culture"
7462-635: The six states were united as the Commonwealth of Australia , under a new federal constitution . In 1911, the Northern Territory was transferred from South Australia to the Commonwealth and formed a territory . After Federation in 1901, it was always assumed the Australian capital would be on the mainland . However, the location of the capital sparked years of negotiating between politicians in New South Wales and Victoria,
7553-535: The story of creation known as The Dreamtime . Additionally, traditional healers were also custodians of important Dreaming stories as well as their medical roles (for example the Ngangkari in the Western desert ). Some core structures and themes are shared across the continent with details and additional elements varying between language and cultural groups. For example, in The Dreamtime of most regions,
7644-409: The term Aboriginal has changed over time and place, with the importance of family lineage, self-identification and community acceptance all being of varying importance. The term Indigenous Australians refers to Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and the term is conventionally only used when both groups are included in the topic being addressed, or by self-identification by
7735-518: The term is applied to the states of New South Wales , Queensland , South Australia , Victoria , and Western Australia , as well as the Australian Capital Territory , Jervis Bay Territory , and Northern Territory . The term is typically used when referring to the relationship between Tasmania and the other Australian states, in that people not from Tasmania are referred to as mainlanders. Tasmania has been omitted on
7826-559: The two most prominent states, who each wanted their capital, Sydney and Melbourne respectively, to become the new country's capital. After years of debate to no avail, the two states decided on a compromise that met the requirements of the Australian Constitution . A separate territory (the Australian Capital Territory ) was to be established on land given by New South Wales, however it must be at least 100 miles (160 km) from Sydney. This territory would contain
7917-517: The wider Australian community. Due to the aforementioned disadvantage, Aboriginal Australian communities experience a higher rate of suicide, as compared to non-indigenous communities. These issues stem from a variety of different causes unique to indigenous communities, such as historical trauma, socioeconomic disadvantage, and decreased access to education and health care. Also, this problem largely affects indigenous youth, as many indigenous youth may feel disconnected from their culture. To combat
8008-433: The world outside of Africa . Prior to the arrival of Europeans on the Australian mainland in the late 18th century, over 500 different clan groups (nations) each with unique cultures, beliefs and languages inhabited territories on the mainland. Currently, Indigenous people living on the mainland make up 2.4% of the total Australian population, encompassing over 250 language groups. The first documented encounter of
8099-529: The world. This area is very rugged and primarily consists of a series of tablelands and plateaus. The highlands are much more prominent toward the south east of the mainland and form the Southern Highlands, which are located across (south) New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria. These Southern highlands experience snowfall for more than half the year during the winter due to their higher altitude. Occupying approximately 25% of
8190-405: Was generated through wind and solar , proportionally contributing 35.9% and 38.3% respectively. Australian political decisions are typically deliberated and enacted within the limits of homeland (mainland Australia) soil. Despite Tasmania being one of Australia's six British establishment colonies , Tasmania has often been looked over due to the state's small size and general isolation. This
8281-433: Was these processes which over millions of years has led to the accumulation of Australia's main known mineral , oil and gas resources. Most of Australia's oil and gas exploration occurs off the mainland. However, on the mainland, the abundance of minerals (and thus metals ) has formed the basis of Australia's dependence on mining ; exporting much of these natural occurring resources overseas. The Australian mainland
#233766