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This paper reports on an Aboriginal site complex, incorporating hut structures, ceremonial stone arrangements, an extensive surface artefact assemblage of lithics and mussel shell, and a silcrete quarry, located along Hilary Creek, a tributary of the Georgina River in western Queensland, Australia. At least two phases of occupation are indicated. The most recent huts have their collapsed organic superstructure still present, while those of a presumably earlier phase are distinguished as bare, circular patches of earth which are conspicuous amongst the ubiquitous gibber, with or without stone bases, and lacking any collapsed superstructure. Immediately adjacent to the huts and also a few hundred metres away are clusters of small stone arrangements, and about 2 km to the southwest, along the same creekline, is another series of larger, more substantial stone arrangements; these features speak to the importance of the general Hilary Creek area for ceremonial purposes. Radiocarbon dating reveals use of the Hilary Creek complex dates to at least 300 years ago; the absence of any European materials suggests it was likely not used, or only used very sporadically, after the 1870s when pastoralists arrived in the area, and when traditional lifeways were devastated by colonial violence.

Although the historical record relating to nineteenth century frontier conflict between Aboriginal groups and Europeans in Queensland has been clearly documented, there have been limited associated archaeological studies. As part of the Archaeology of the Queensland Native Mounted Police (NMP) project, this paper canvasses the physical imprint of frontier conflict across Queensland between 1849 and the early 1900s, focusing specifically on the activities and camp sites of the NMP, the paramilitary government-sanctioned force tasked with policing Aboriginal people to protect settler livelihoods. At least 148 NMP camps of varying duration once existed, and historical and archaeological investigations of these demonstrate some consistent patterning amongst them, as well as idiosyncrasies depending on individual locations and circumstances. All camps were positioned with primary regard to the availability of water and forage. Owing to their intended temporary nature and the frugality of the government, the surviving structural footprints of camps are generally limited. Buildings were typically timber slab and bark constructions with few permanent foundations and surviving architectural features are therefore rare, limited to elements such as ant bed flooring, remnant house or yard posts, stone lines demarcating pathways, and stone fireplaces. Architectural forms of spatial confinement, such as lockups or palisades, were absent from the camps themselves. The most distinctive features of NMP camps, and what allows them to be distinguished from the myriad pastoral sites of similar ages, are their artefact assemblages, especially the combined presence of gilt uniform buttons with the Victoria Regina insignia, knapped bottle glass, and certain ammunition-related objects.

Nardoo (scientific name Marsilea spp.) is a small freshwater fern, common across semi-arid and arid Australia. While reported as an important starchy food, albeit requiring complex processing in some regions, it is not well known as a food source in the Pilbara of Western Australia. Here we describe plant residues including megaspores, starch grains, cellulose, and fibres on a portable grinding stone from the surface of a rockshelter in the West Angelas region of the Central Pilbara. These residues display physical characteristics that strongly suggest they derive from nardoo. Given these findings, we encourage researchers to consider nardoo processing and consumption in future ethnobotanical and archaeological studies in the Pilbara.

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys offer several advantages for non-invasively assessing stratigraphy in archaeological rockshelters, including providing information about subsurface stratigraphy and the location of features such as roof fall and bedrock. Challenges to understanding the record of human impact and site formation processes in Australian rockshelter deposits include where to position archaeological excavations, how best to determine the onset of human occupation within sequences beyond the presence of stone artefacts (which can be limited at depth owing to sampling issues) and how to resolve issues relating to stratigraphic associations. This paper demonstrates how GPR can be used to gain a better understanding of buried deposits in a Pleistocene-aged rockshelter. When compared with results from sediment magnetic susceptibility studies, GPR verified the major stratigraphic units identified at the site, the depth of bedrock and the presence of roof fall, but it also provided information on the sediment volume within the stratigraphic units. This is a unique outcome for exploring rockshelter deposits and geophysical signatures overall, aiding in the interpretation of complex site sediments and offering a useful tool for future site investigations.

The archaeological record of Lower Laura (aka Boralga) Native Mounted Police camp, a longstanding base for Queensland’s frontier war in Cape York Peninsula, includes a diverse assemblage of culturally modified Erythophleum chlorastychys (Cooktown ironwood) trees. Analysis of cultural scar attributes and tool marks – which were found to be variously associated with Aboriginal stone tools, tomahawks of different types, and long handled axes – reveals a scenario of nineteenth century land use and technology that transcends the pre-conflict era of Aboriginal clan estates. As well as reflecting traditional patterns of Aboriginal tenure of prime waterfront land, the assemblage reveals innovations that occurred in Aboriginal technology in the lead-up to war. However, an unusual style of cultural scar cut using long handled axes appears to signal transformations in demography and land use following Native Mounted Police occupation. By integrating historical, oral history, spatial, typological, and botanical data this study provides evidence of demographic and environmental changes set in train by the gold-rush invasion. It also highlights the complexities of documenting Cooktown ironwood trees of advanced age and their fragile, deteriorating cultural modifications.

Over the past two decades, archaeologists have explored aspects of Indigenous agency to better encompass experiences of cross-cultural contact in colonial Australia. Yet the area of frontier conflict has largely remained the purview of historians, in part because of challenges in identifying such events archaeologically. One alternative means through which to consider frontier conflict is to investigate the material remains of colonial policing forces. This article focuses on the camps of the Native Mounted Police, a paramilitary government force that operated in Queensland from 1849 (before the state was officially established) until the early decades of the twentieth century. During this period, this force variously occupied 174 camp sites across Queensland, spread unevenly across pastoral and biogeographic districts. By mapping known events of frontier conflict (whether they be attacks on Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal people, stock, and/or property) across the state, we demonstrate that the extent and nature of frontier conflict was highly variable spatially and temporally, and was tied into a largely negative feedback loop with the deployment of the Native Mounted Police. Although Native Mounted Police camps did not form a defensive cordon of structures akin to a ‘frontier line’ across Queensland, they demarcated a frontier ‘zone’ that was contested, precarious, and violent. The fact that so many camps were required for such a long period provides clear evidence of the persistent and determined resistance of Aboriginal peoples to the theft of their land and the bloodshed that resulted.

Little is known about the Pleistocene climatic context of northern Australia at the time of early human settlement. Here we generate a palaeoprecipitation proxy using stable carbon isotope analysis of modern and archaeological pandanus nutshell from Madjedbebe, Australia’s oldest known archaeological site. We document fluctuations in precipitation over the last 65,000 years and identify periods of lower precipitation during the penultimate and last glacial stages, Marine Isotope Stages 4 and 2. However, the lowest effective annual precipitation is recorded at the present time. Periods of lower precipitation, including the earliest phase of occupation, correspond with peaks in exotic stone raw materials and artefact discard at the site. This pattern is interpreted as suggesting increased group mobility and intensified use of the region during drier periods., Stable carbon isotope analysis of modern and archaeological pandanus nutshell from Australia’s oldest known archaeological site of Madjedbebe reveals precipitation fluctuations over the last 65,000 years.

There is little evidence for the role of plant foods in the dispersal of early modern humans into new habitats globally. Researchers have hypothesised that early movements of human populations through Island Southeast Asia and into Sahul were driven by the lure of high-calorie, low-handling-cost foods, and that the use of plant foods requiring processing was not common in Sahul until the Holocene. Here we present the analysis of charred plant food remains from Madjedbebe rockshelter in northern Australia, dated to between 65 kya and 53 kya. We demonstrate that Australia’s earliest known human population exploited a range of plant foods, including those requiring processing. Our finds predate existing evidence for such subsistence practices in Sahul by at least 23ky. These results suggest that dietary breadth underpinned the success of early modern human populations in this region, with the expenditure of labour on the processing of plants guaranteeing reliable access to nutrients in new environments., Little is known about the diets of early modern humans as they dispersed into Australia. Here, Florin et al. study charred plant remains from Madjedbebe rockshelter, which show that 65–53 thousand years ago, early modern humans in northern Australia already had a broad diet of plants.

The Irish settlement of Baker’s Flat, located in the rural heart of South Australia near the town of Kapunda, was occupied from the mid-nineteenth century for about 90 years. Although little archaeological work has been carried out in Australia specifically on Irish communities, Baker’s Flat is of particular interest because it potentially operated as a traditional Irish clachan, an informal clustering of farm dwellings and outbuildings, and home in this instance to the Irish immigrants who worked in the nearby copper mine. The site was cleared for farming purposes in the 1950s, and little recordation of the dwellings and settlement exist today, aside from a single 1890s map. Owing to the demolition and landscape modification, it was unclear whether any intact subsurface deposits still existed. Therefore, this site was ideal for deploying two geophysical methods, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and magnetic gradiometry, to assess the presence of subsurface remains and explore the spatial layout of the site. Our results, when compared with those obtained from surface surveys and targeted archaeological excavation, revealed numerous subsurface features and helped to confirm that Baker’s Flat was built in the style of a traditional Irish clachan. This study also demonstrated that magnetic gradiometer was the better geophysical method for mapping this settlement as the nature of the geology (shallow bedrock) and construction of the houses (built within the bedrock) limited the utility of GPR.

Ant bed (also known as termite mound) floors were a common feature of historical buildings in colonial Australia, yet they are rarely identified in archaeological contexts. In this paper we present a case study of these features in buildings associated with a late nineteenth century Native Mounted Police camp in Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. Aboriginal colleagues reported the former existence of these floors in buildings at the site, though none could be seen at the contemporary ground surface. The question thus existed as to whether they were extant in subsurface contexts. Ground-penetrating radar revealed rectangular, high amplitude reflections in many parts of the site. Excavation demonstrated these features comprised stratigraphically discrete units that were highly compact, often with a substantial gravel component. Sediment analysis of the coarse-grained component has distinguished these floors from surrounding off-site samples. The level of compaction seen in the floors has significant implications for the retrieval of artefacts in such contexts since it prevents any objects from being integrated into the deposit. While the distribution of the practice of using ant beds for floors is unknown, it appears their use was common throughout Australia in the late 18th through the 19th and 20th centuries. Examination of the physical elements that make up these floors has provided a clearer idea of each floor's recorded history and use. We have also identified a methodology for examining ant bed floors in Australia and elsewhere that can be used anywhere that ant mounds occur and may have been a source of flooring material.

This study investigates the palynological remains (both fossil pollen and charcoal) recovered from the Thundiy shell midden deposit, Bentinck Island, Gulf of Carpentaria, northern Australia, to provide a vegetation and fire record for this site, which sheds light on human occupation of the southern Wellesley Archipelago over the late Holocene. Results show that the development of a high-density shell deposit by human activities was directly responsible for pollen preservation, possibly through the creation of a moist, anaerobic environment that reduces oxidation of pollen grains. The presence of recoverable pollen from a shell midden deposit from Bentinck Island provides a valuable new proxy to provide greater context for archaeological records, particularly in terms of local vegetation information and potential insight into human land management practices.

A 2400 year record of environmental change is reported from a wetland on Bentinck Island in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria, northern Australia. Three phases of wetland development are identified, with a protected coastal setting from ca. 2400 to 500 years ago, transitioning into an estuarine mangrove forest from ca. 500 years ago to the 1940s, and finally to a freshwater swamp over the past +60 years. This sequence reflects the influence of falling sea-levels, development of a coastal dune barrier system, prograding shorelines, and an extreme storm (cyclone) event. In addition, there is clear evidence of the impacts that human abandonment and resettlement have on the island's fire regimes and vegetation. A dramatic increase in burning and vegetation thickening was observed after the cessation of traditional Indigenous Kaiadilt fire management practices in the 1940s, and was then reversed when people returned to the island in the 1980s. In terms of the longer context for human occupation of the South Wellesley Archipelago, it is apparent that the mangrove phase provided a stable and productive environment that was conducive for human settlement of this region over the past 1000 years.

Otoliths are calcium carbonate structures found in the inner ear of teleost fish. While they are routinely studied by marine scientists, analyses of otoliths recovered from archaeological sites in Australia and the Pacific have generally been restricted to identification of species and sometimes the fish age. Otoliths can also provide information on the season of catch, and, through trace element analysis, allow the reconstruction of environmental conditions experienced by fish. In this study, we use otoliths from mid- to late Holocene aged archaeological shell middens at the Coorong (South Australia) to examine species present, season of catch, age of fish and environmental conditions experienced by fish. Results demonstrate that the majority of the fish (identified as Argyrosomus japonicus and Acanthopagrus butcheri) were caught in freshwater environments during the warm season, and had grown to an age and size indicative of their having reached sexual maturity. This study provides data indicating fluctuating levels of salinity in the estuary, which are significantly lower than the hypersaline conditions experienced today. Ultimately, this project highlights the usefulness of conducting more detailed investigations of otoliths, including geochemical analyses, to address a wide range of research questions in archaeology and palaeoenvironmental research.

This preliminary report describes the initial results from an archaeological survey conducted in the foothills of the Gregory Ranges on Middle Park Station in inland northwest Queensland. Nearly 130 Aboriginal sites were located during the survey, which was carried out as a collaborative project between an archaeologist (LW) and members of the Woolgar Valley Aboriginal Corporation (DS and HS). Sites were dominated by rockshelters containing stenciled art, although open artefact scatters, grinding surfaces, axe grinding grooves and quarries were also present. This project has enabled the Woolgar Valley Aboriginal Corporation to begin compiling a detailed inventory of sites in their traditional country, thereby allowing a better understanding of their cultural heritage and addressing various research oriented questions about the nature of Aboriginal occupation in the region.

This paper reports on the recording of previously unpublished Aboriginal stone hut structures in southwestern Queensland. Located along the Georgina River, these 15 structures are typical of the region, being generally circular in plan view, with an average diameter of 5m and a 1m-wide opening consistently positioned to afford protection from prevailing winds. Evidence suggests these structures were roofed with vegetation and, while they pre-date the contact period, appear also to have been used into at least the late 1800s. Artefacts associated with them include stone flakes, cores and edge-ground axe fragments, freshwater mussel shells, rifle cartridge cases, fragments of glass, and metal objects. A comparison of these stone hut structures is made with similar features from elsewhere in Australia, demonstrating that there was a widespread but consistent use of stone for construction. This short report contributes to an increasing awareness of, and literature about, built structures in traditional Aboriginal societies.

Examination of a phytolith assemblage from the archaeological site of Carpenter's Gap 1 provides an hitherto unrecognised source of vegetation history for the tropical savannah region of north western Australia. Two predominant mechanisms contributed to the formation of the phytolith assemblage: firstly, the introduction of phytoliths in plant materials brought in by humans, and, secondly, the introduction of phytoliths contained in faecal pellets deposited by animals. Separating the effects of both mechanisms enables local vegetation patterns, and, by inference, climatic conditions, to be reconstructed. The period ca. 40,000 years BP was probably wetter than today, allowing the southerly expansion of palms beyond their present day distribution. Grassland compositional changes occurred by ca. 33,000 years BP, probably resulting from a combination of lowered rainfall, decreased temperatures and possibly Aboriginal firing activities. A reduction in palm at a similar time, followed by its complete disappearance, in association with the loss of Ulmaceae prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) indicates a continued trend in decreasing water availability. An abundance of Cyperaceae, sponge spicules and diatoms during the LGM, when considered in conjunction with the other evidence, possibly represents altered human behaviour in response to increased aridity.

For thousands of years spinifex grasses were utilized by Indigenous Australians, most commonly for the production of resin that was then used as a hafting adhesive. While varying levels of knowledge about this particular use are retained in Indigenous communities, museum collections serve as a valuable repository of little known information about a multitude of other uses of spinifex including ornamental, medicinal, structural and ceremonial functions. In this paper we describe the range of uses of spinifex, based on examinations of objects and photographs held in various museum collections, coupled with reviews of the ethnographic and ethnohistoric literature. This study (1) brings together disparate sources of knowledge about Indigenous uses of spinifex that are not well known among the scientific community and (2) demonstrates the value of museum collections for Indigenous communities seeking to ‘reconnect’ with aspects of so-called ‘lost traditional culture’.

Like elsewhere in Australia, the archaeology of northwest Queensland has focused on the antiquity of occupation and the continuity of that occupation through the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), in an attempt to better understand the adaptive capabilities and strategies of early humans. Veth (1989, 1993) has hypothesised that the northwest Queensland savannah, as an important ‘corridor’ for the colonisation of Australia (e.g. Bird et al. 2005; Horton 1981), should contain ‘early’ sites; and furthermore that with the climatic deterioration associated with the LGM, such sites should fit one of two patterns: (1) they will be abandoned and display a cultural hiatus; or, (2) if located in resource-rich zones within catchments (‘local refuges’), they will continue to be utilised, though subsistence strategies will be modified to rely more heavily on locally available resources. The northwest Queensland sites of Colless Creek at Lawn Hill (Hiscock 1984, 1988), and GRE8 near Riversleigh (Slack 2007:218-251; Slack et al. 2004), both fit the second pattern, i.e. persistent occupation through the LGM with altered strategies to cope with increased aridity. However, outside these local refugia, sites pre-dating the LGM have not yet been located in the northwest Queensland savannah. For example, Mickey Springs 34 (Porcupine Gorge) provides evidence for human occupation from c.10,000 BP (Morwood 1990, 1992, 2002) and Cuckadoo Shelter in the Selwyn Ranges (Davidson et al. 1993) provides a near basal date of 15,270}210 BP; Veth (1989:87) argued that such sites reflect the post-LGM expansion of groups from refuges. The evidence available to date raises the question as to whether the wider northwest Queensland savannah corridor was indeed occupied in the pre-LGM period, when rainfall levels were higher and there was greater availability of surface water and food resources (cf. Hiscock and Wallis 2005).