Box Gully: new evidence for Aboriginal occupation of Australia south of the Murray River prior to the last glacial maximum.

Recent archaeological investigation at Box Gully, located on the north western tip of the Lake Tyrrell lunette, has resulted in the first documentation of pre-30,000 calBP Aboriginal occupation of the extensive area between the Murray River and the Tasmanian highlands. The remains of repeated small scale camping episodes were uncovered in a palaeosol capping a buried pelletal clay lunette. Five new radiocarbon determinations on charcoal associated with cultural material in the palaeosol range from ca. 32,000 calBP near the bottom to ca. 26,600 calBP near the top, and are supported by both conventional radiocarbon and Optically Stimulated Luminescence dates obtained independently during geomorphic investigations of Box Gully. Hearth features, stone artefacts and the remains of bettong, hare-wallaby, shingle-backed lizard, emu and fresh water mussel were present within the palaeosol. Review of the late Pleistocene archaeological record of the western Murray Basin allows the finds at Box Gully to be placed in a human occupation context of adaptation to severe climatic stress leading to the Last Glacial Maximum. As conditions deteriorated further after ca. 27,000 calBP, lacustrine localities including the Willandra Lakes, Lake Tandou and the Lower Darling were much less heavily frequented than previously, or like Lake Tyrrell, abandoned. At the same time sustained occupation of the Murray River valley occurred, as did the initial occupation of rockshelters in the highlands of southern Victoria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]