Immediate priorities in the writing of New England's history - Aboriginal New England to 1788: Origins

 My present first priority in completing my history of Australia's New England is the creation of a full working draft for the history of New England's Aboriginal peoples to 1788 starting with origins and journey.  Where and when did their ancestors come from? How did they get to Sahul? Who did they mix with on the way? When did they arrive in the area that I call New England? How did they get there?

I covered this material in my lecture series to Armidale U3A but now need to consolidate and update it. Power points are a real trap here. A set of summary power points does not a history make! I had become very dissatisfied with my work but then realised that was silly. I am presenting a story, really a series of hypotheses linked to create a synthesis. No matter how much time I spend there will always be errors of fact and interpretation. Better to get it out there so that it can be critiqued, recognising that the pace of new discoveries will quickly over-run my analysis.  

  

Belated Blogging update 30 May 2025

 While personal circumstances have limited all my research and writing activities, I have kept this blog open to allow for comments on past posts since it is clear that people are still reading it and commenting. Since my last post on 7 November 2023 there have been dozens of such comments excluding the inevitable spam, many on posts from early in the blog's history. Together, they constitute quite a valuable resource. 

 Some months ago I returned to research and writing (and book buying!) focused on my main history projects. This was mildly depressing at two levels: I found more gaps in my research, while there had been a mass of new material published that I needed to take into account! Still, I am now at the stage where I feel the need to revive this blog. Hopefully I can do this in a productive way.