Michael Slack

Post-last glacial maximum settlement of the West Angelas region in the inland Hamersley Plateau, Western Australia

Abstract An excavation and survey program at West Angelas, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, shows that the poorly watered interior area of the Hamersley Plateau was first occupied soon after the conclusion of the Last Glacial Maximum, and that significant use of this area probably only occurred during the mid to late Holocene. Although current archaeological research shows that Aboriginal groups have occupied areas of the Hamersley Plateau for more than 40,000 years, the permanent and prolonged use of the more marginal or ecologically suboptimal foraging environments of the interior plateau is a comparatively recent development in the region’s long archaeological record.

Late Holocene Occupation At Bunnengalla 1, Musselbrook Creek, Northwest Queensland

Bunnengalla 1 is a sandstone rockshelter fronting onto a permanent waterhole on Musselbrook Creek located on the northern margin of Boodjamulla National Park in northwest Queensland. In July 2004 excavation of the rockshelter revealed a rich 1.5 m sequence of human occupation. A preliminary report of the radiocarbon ages and stratigraphic sequence is presented here. The site provides a record of Late Holocene occupation from at least 6000 years BP with a considerable increase in occupation debris from 1300 years BP that is coincident with the amelioration of the ENSO dominated climate and increased precipitation in northern Australia.