Who can see the sea? Prehistoric Aboriginal occupation of the Cape Range peninsula

WA Museum Records and Supplements | Updated 9 years ago

Abstract: Archaeological research on Cape Range peninsula has provided the earliest unequivocal evidence for the use of coastal resources by Pleistocene Australians. Mandu Mandu Creek rockshelter, a small limestone cave in the western foothills of Cape Range is currently the oldest reliably dated archaeological site in northern Western Australia. Excavations in this site, and in two other rockshelters in Cape Range, firmly establish that coastal resources have been an integral part of Aboriginal subsistence strategies in this region for over 30,000 years. The archaeological record from midden sites near the modern shoreline provides important evidence for the presence and subsequent decline during the middle Holocene of a more diversified intertidal environment than exists today on this semi-arid stretch of the Western Australian coast.