Investigating the signature for people and megafauna at South Walker Creek
Channel: ANU TV
Date: 2012-09-21

Dr Michael Westaway from the Queensland Museum & Sciencentre presents a public lecture 'Investigating the signature for people and megafauna at South Walker Creek, Central Queensland'. This address was filmed at The Australian National University on Friday 31 August 2012.  

The extinction of the Australian megafauna in the public view occupies two alternate universes. One where Aboriginal people unwittingly unleash an ecological catastrophe within the span of several millennia after their arrival in Australia, the other where co-existence occurs for tens of millennia. The reality perhaps lies somewhere in between. Three seasons of excavations in partnership with the Barada Barna people at South Walker Creek, Central Queensland, is revealing a picture that would appear to support the latter view, although much more dating is required. In this paper I discuss the current evidence for the co-existence of people and megafauna in one small region of central Queensland. 

This seminar was part of the Centre for Archaeological Research (CAR) seminar series, jointly hosted by the Colleges of Arts and Social Sciences and Asia and the Pacific at The Australian National University.