Southern Australasia (49,293–28,578 BCE)

Southern Australasia includes central and southern Australia (southern WA and NT margins; central/southern Queensland; NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania) + New Zealand’s South Island and SW North Island coast.

Anchors: Willandra Lakes–Mungo, Murray–Darling basin, Bassian Plain (Australia–Tasmania land bridge), Nullarbor–Eyre, Flinders Ranges, Gippsland coasts, NZ South Island Alps & Canterbury/Otago plains.

Geographic & Environmental Context

• LGM sea-level fall exposed the Bassian Plain, joining Tasmania to mainland Australia; vast coastal shelves expanded.

• Interior: dune fields and salt lakes proliferated; Willandra lake system alternated levels.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

• Cooler/drier; westerlies displaced; interior aridity intensified; alpine glaciation in NZ South Island; snowlines lower in mainland ranges.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Australia: Humans present long before 49 ka; by this epoch, Pleistocene foragers occupied deserts, riverine corridors, coasts, and lakeshores.

  • Willandra Lakes: fishing, waterfowl, marsupials; cremation/burial traditions (Mungo).

  • Coasts & shelves: shellfish, fish, pinnipeds, beached whales; plant geophytes.

• New Zealand South Island: unpeopled (Aotearoa settled much later, late 1st–early 2nd millennium CE).

Technology & Material Culture

• Flake/blade cores, backed artifacts emerging; grindstones in some regions; ochre widely used.

• Wooden spear throwers, clubs; fiber nets; hearth/earth ovens.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Murray–Darling and Lake Eyre/Willandra waterways; coastal highways along expanded shelves; Bassian crossings between mainland–Tasmania.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Early engraving/painting traditions; ochre burials; structured hearths and shell middens.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Highly mobile estate systems coordinated use of water points, lakes, and coasts; fire management promoted mosaic productivity.

Transition

• Post-LGM sea rise will drown the Bassian Plain, isolating Tasmania; Holocene humid pulses will expand estuaries and shellfish grounds.