Australia (History - Part 1)

Fifty mn years ag the Austral continent broke away fr the great southern landmass o Gondwanaland, which compris South Ame, Afri, Ind, Austra and Antarc. Apart from period dur the last Ice A when the sea lev was 100m long than it is to, Australia then exis in isolation. This resul in a curious and of unique evolu (...).

The Aboriginal popul may have liv in Australia f 50,000 ye. When European explore arrived, the Aborigin lived b hunting a gathering d using sto tools. Estimates of size of population vary; some go high as 750,000. Their soci, though technologi undeveloped, had creat complex cultur and religious forms, and had so 500 languages, in 31 bas groups. There was enormously rich oral tradi of songs and stor, and many diffe styles of ro art.

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Source: Copyright © The Commonwealth Yearbook 1996
Many thanks to Mr Peter Emmett (peter.emmett@hcooke.co.uk) for allowing us to use excerpts from the Commonwealth Yearbook.
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