Fires unearth forgotten Aboriginal settlement

AN extraordinary discovery of Aboriginal stone houses in southwestern Victoria appears to confirm that some of Australia’s first inhabitants lived in settlements, not just as nomads. Should this prove to be true then it’ll rewrite what we know of the original Aussies but I do think Matt Butt, the Winda-Mara Aboriginal Corporation’s land management supervisor, is stretching things a bit when he says;
“This is very early aquaculture,” Mr Butt said. “People talk about the Egyptians 3000 years ago, but this is something else.”
It is something else, Matt and further study could prove interesting, but the pile of stones pictured in the Australian aren’t quite up to pyramid standards.

2 comments

  • Kev, I don’t think that there is any controversy about Aborigines living settled lives in south-western Victoria. Their stone huts and stone fish-traps were observed by explorers and European settlers in the 19th Century. There are a number of places you can go to in the Western District to see their remains today. I think that there is some debate as to whether they were permanantly settled or moved around in summer then back to their stone settlements for winter, and also as to when they built their first stone houses.

  • I’m more use to northern and western Australia where I haven’t actually come across any but listening to later broadcasts there are a lot.