How did native Australians arrive on the continent??

Question

Studies show Aboriginies appeared in Australia ~45,000 yrs ago. How did they get there? Wasn't Australia already separated from the other land masses by large oceans.

Answer 1

Oh for Pete's sake, Australia and New Guinea were NEVER connected to any other landmass by land bridges. Have you people never heard of Wallace's line or Russells line? Eveer wonder why marsupials aren't found in Asia? Or why only two placental groups are native to Australia? Not likely if land bridges had ever existed, is it? Australoid peoples in Malysia and Australia appear similar because they share a recent common history. It isn't indicative of land bridges, simply inidactive that Australia was settled from South East Asia.

People arrived in Australia by using boats. Even at the heights of the last ice age there was still several gaps of greater than 40km separating the islands of Indonesia from the Australian and New Guinean landmases. That is far to far for people to swim, particularly since the landmasses would not have been visible to one another. People at the time must have been using watercraft of some type.

At the time of sea level minima Australia and New Guinea were themselves connected and formed the continent of Austronesia. As a result we can't say for sure whether people made first landfall in Northern Australia or western New Guinea or possibly both.

Answer 2

Sea levels were much lower during ice ages. American indigenes walked across the Bering land bridge from Asia during such a time. Maybe Australians did the same thing. Are there any paths from southeast Asia that would have been possible with sea level 40 or 50 feet lower?

If not, then the distances from one island to another, and then on to the Australian continent would have been pretty easy by canoe. All of the Pacific islands were reached by outrigger canoe. Some of those journeys were huge.

Answer 3

it is said that there used to be land-bridges connecting the whole continent of asia. australia might be part of this connection because the aborigines look much like the malayan counterpart. when sea levels went up, these land-bridges became submerged and the remaining islands are now the countries in the south pacific.

Answer 4

As already said, they simply floated somehow or swam or island hopped. There are many genetic and culutural similarities between them and New Guinea natives. I think it's harder to imagine how the Maori got to New Zealand. They share genetic similarities with polynesians, but New Zealand is a lot further away from Polynesian islands than Australia is from New Guinea.

Answer 5

To deduce he frequency it could be they crossed the land bridge that connected asia to australia. Quite possibly they could have made boats.

Answer 6

they arrived by floating canoes and slowly inahbited the oceania region islands and then moved to australia

Answer 7

The stork dropped the first egg...

Answer 8

i heard once they come from south America