Ancient Land, Ancient People

Article | Updated 8 years ago

My mother would grind seeds on a tjiwa [grinding stone]. Sometimes she carried one on her head and she would grind wintalyka, roll it into a ball and give it to us to eat.

Mantjintjarra elder, 2007

Aboriginal peoples have called Australia home for at least 50,000 years. Over time they developed detailed knowledge of and deep attachment to their country. Archaeological evidence suggests that the number of people living in the Goldfields area expanded and contracted over time.

By 20,000 years ago deserts were spreading. Many freshwater lakes, which once supported fish, mussels and birdlife, were replaced by dry lake beds supporting species adapted to an arid environment, including seed bearing shrubs, acacias, bush turkeys and reptiles.

Despite the harsh conditions between 30,000 and 18,000 years ago, people continued living in the arid zone, becoming some of the earliest and most successful desert dwellers in the world.