History of the New England newspaper press 4 - the drift to the city begins

MOVING TO THE CITY: The growth of Sydney's population towards the end of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century put pressure on newspapers in regional areas.This is the fourth in a series on the history of the media and especially the newspaper press in New England 

Between 1861 and 1901 the population of regional NSW grew from 261,573 to 878,475. During that same period, the number of provincial newspapers grew from 21 to 193. 

By 1900, 127 towns had at least one newspaper, 58 had two or more. 

On the New England Tablelands, no less than fourteen newspapers were established between 1856 and 1878, four in Inverell, three each in Armidale, Tenterfield and Glen Innes plus one in Uralla.  

Many of the new papers had relatively short life spans. 

The peripatetic Frank Newton first established the Grafton Herald (1864-65) before coming to Armidale to establish the Armidale Telegraph (1865-1872) and then the Inverell Dispatch and Central New England Advertiser (1873-78).  

Newton’s moves reflected local politics as well as commercial pressures. Both the Armidale and Inverell papers were established to represent squatter interests at a time when their landholdings were under threat. 

While many papers had relatively short life spans, there were also titles that we know today, including the Armidale Express (1856), Tenterfield Star (1871), Glen Innes Examiner (1874), Inverell Times (1875) and the Uralla & Walcha Times (1876). 

There is a problem here for historians who rely on local newspapers. As newspaper historian Rod Kirkpatrick remarked, history is written by the winners. 

Few copies of these early newspapers have survived. In the case of the Armidale Telegraph, for example, the only extant copies are pages of one issue found under the floor boards of an Armidale house under renovation. For most, we know about them primarily from reports in other newspapers.

This means that our views are formed by papers such as the Glen Innes Examiner where copies do survive. As we have seen with Frank Newton, the papers represented particular interests. We cannot assume that the views expressed in any one paper are in fact representative. 

Regardless of the individual biases of particular papers, they were all intensely parochial, concerned to boost the towns on which their business depended and to attract the services demanded by a growing but still sparsely spread population. 

This parochialism supported and fed into rivalry between towns, a rivalry that was played on by politicians and impeded cooperative action. Now this parochialism was to be tempered by harsh economic realities, forcing the papers to cooperate. 

Central to this was the growing dominance of Sydney. While the NSW regional population still outnumbered that of Sydney by almost two to one, Sydney’s share of the NSW population had increased from 26.24% in 1871 to 35.42% in 1901, a trend that was continuing.

Note to readers: This post was prepared as a column for the on-line edition of the Armidale Express. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020 

History of the New England newspaper press 3 -the rise of newspapers as New England towns flourished

 

Historic press. This Albion Press was first used to print Henry Parkes the Empire. It was then purchased by Walter Craigie and William Hipgrave in 1856 to print their new newspaper, The Armidale Express. Donated to the Museum of Applied Arts and Science by the Armidale Newspaper Company in 1929.

This is the third in a series on the history of the media and especially the newspaper press in New England 

The second half of the Nineteenth Century was a period of town formation across Northern NSW, the broader New England. With time, the slab buildings of early European settlement were replaced by more substantial structures that still form the core of our built landscape.

The squatters, merchants and still small professional and trade classes all faced communications problems.

The squatters and their agents needed to place legal advertisements about absconding servants, debts and stolen stock.

The merchants and professionals wanted to advertise their wares in town and into the countryside beyond. They also wanted to promote their towns and villages. All groups had a need for printing such as invoices, flyers, letterhead and catalogues.

Merchants and townspeople combined to sponsor the formation of newspapers. In Armidale, for example, a public meeting was convened on 1 December 1855 to consider the best way to establish a local paper for the New England district. A fund raising committee was formed and finally raised £89 12s and 6d.

The results of the meeting were advertised in the Maitland Mercury, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Empire. Two Mercury staff members decided to accept the challenge.

Early in 1856, William Hipgrave and Walter Craigie loaded their newly acquired printing press and other kit onto a bullock dray and set out from Maitland for Armidale. It took them twenty seven days. They called their paper the Armidale Express, with the first edition appearing on 5 April 1856.

The genesis of Tamworth’s first paper, the Tamworth Examiner and General Advertiser for the Northern Districts of New South Wales, later just the Tamworth Examiner, was somewhat similar.

Action began when printer John Ambrose Gallagher wrote from Yass to a number of Tamworth business houses canvassing support for the establishment of a local newspaper. The response was positive, with business owners pledging their support and that of the townsfolk, even offering a small subsidy to help Gallagher.

Gallagher declined the subsidy but moved to Tamworth, with the first edition of the paper appearing on 13 April 1859.

The formation of the Tamworth Examiner illustrates another thread in the history of the New England media, the close relationship between newspaper formation and political interests.

In responding to Gallagher, local business interests warned him that the squatters would oppose the paper unless it supported their position. By contrast, many townspeople supported the paper because it might weaken squatter power and further Tamworth’s growth.

Note to readers:This post was prepared as a column for the on-line edition of the Armidale Express. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020 

History of the New England newspaper press 2 - Early paper rush in New England: have printing press will travel!

EARLY GROWTH: High Street, West Maitland. For a number of decades, Maitland was the Norths largest urban centre.This is the second in a series on the history of the media and especially the newspaper press in New England 

The history of the newspaper press in Northern NSW is entangled with our history.

When the Maitland Mercury, the North’s first great paper and journal of record, was founded in 1843 Maitland was the North’s largest town, a position it would hold for many years. North of the Hunter, the pastoral rush was well underway, but the European population was thinly spread.

Between 1841 and 1859 ten newspapers were established, most failing quickly. Seven of the ten were in the lower Hunter where the European population was concentrated.

Of the remaining three, two would go on to become major Northern newspapers, the Armidale Express (1856) and the Clarence & Richmond Examiner (1859). 

From 1860, there was a rush of newspaper formations across country New South Wales with 47 papers launched between 1860 and 1864. Of these, 35 died in infancy.

This newspaper rush coincided with the early gold rushes. These created new population centers with their own papers such as The Miner (Lambing Flat).

The process of newspaper formation was a little different in Northern NSW. Here the early gold fields were smaller and more ephemeral, too small at that point to support papers. However, they did added population to existing townships as a consequence of new business generated by gold.

This new business came in part from servicing nearby gold fields, in part from increased business from pastoralists and farmers supplying the miners. On the New England, the squatters were sending stock as far south as the Victorian fields, helping lay the basis for later fortunes.

The papers that were created Northern NSW in the decade from 1860 were located not on the gold fields, but in the emerging port towns (the Macleay Herald and Manning Times) and in existing town centers inland or on the lower Hunter.

One feature of the 1860s was the early emergence of competing newspapers in many towns. There were two new starts in Grafton, two in the lower Hunter, adding to existing papers.

This would become a major feature by the end of the nineteenth century. By then, even small centers had two newspapers.

This competition reflected ease of entry: have printing press will travel! It also reflected the commercial and political dynamics holding in particular areas.

I will look at this in my next column.

This post was prepared as a column for the on-line edition of the Armidale Express. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020 

History of the New England newspaper press 1 - 1841: Thomas Strode and the Hunter River Gazette

Thomas Strode, 1872. Strode was New England's first pressman. This is the first in a series on the history of the media and especially the newspaper press in New England 

Historian Rod Kirkpatrick chose Country Conscience as the title for his history of the NSW provincial press 1841-1995.

At a time when so many country newspapers have suspended publication, it seems appropriate to tell a little of the rich story of the newspaper press across Northern NSW. Rod’s book title is well chosen.

The first newspaper in Northern NSW, the Hunter River Gazette, came off a little timber hand-operated press in Maitland on 11 December 1841.

With a population of 2,768, Maitland with its nearby river port at Morpeth was the North’s largest town, servicing the rapidly expanding pastoral occupation across the North.

Thomas Strode, the Gazette’s proprietor, had been mechanical superintendent on the Sydney Herald and then co-founder of the Port Phillip Gazette with George Arden.

The Gazette failed, ceasing publication in June 1842. This failure was not due so much to local factors, but to problems with the Port Phillip Gazette that forced Strode to return to Melbourne.

Despite the Gazette’s short life, it illustrates many of the features of our early newspapers.

It began because local merchants and others saw a newspaper as necessary to communicate with customers and advocate local interests. Strode himself was a printer not a journalist, a necessary requirement when skills were scarce; the proprietor had to physically produce the paper. 

Strode also faced multiple challenges in selling advertisements, gaining subscriptions and then producing and distributing the paper. Finally, he saw his role in grand terms, in admonishing the unworthy against temptation, in protecting the underdog and in educating the population.

Mind you, despite these lofty ambitions, Strode was not immune to the temptation to use his columns to pursue personal vendettas, to assert his views!

Maitland was still growing as the Gazette closed. This left a market gap that needed to be filled.

There was a first abortive attempt that failed, but then on 7 January 1843 came the launch of the Maitland Mercury, the North’s first great paper and journal of record.

I say great paper and journal of record advisedly. The Maitland Mercury was the only newspaper in a vast if thinly populated area. It saw its reporting role not just in local terms, but in terms of the broader area it serviced.

It was also very profitable.

This post was prepared as a column for the on-line edition of the Armidale Express. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020 

Consolidated posts on the history and changing role of the media in Australia's New England

Frank Walter Vincent Senior on the left, his wife Armidale girl Sarah Jane nee Rampling nursing the child. They met while Frank and brother Henry were helping Frank Newton establish the Armidale Telegraph. Brother Henry met his wife at the same time, another Armidale girl, Sarah Shiels. On 15 April 1876, the two brothers established the Uralla & Walcha Times (later just Uralla Times), with Frank as editor. He and then son Barnes were editors for all but six years of its life, from foundation until the paper's sale to the Armidale Newspaper Company Ltd at the close of 1946.

I have begun a new series for my Armidale Express column on the history of the newspaper press in the broader New England. It seemed a good idea to do so given that we are at a change point where the very survival of the local and regional media seems uncertain. Publication is a little uncertain, but I will in any event publish them here.

To assist me, I have begun the process of consolidating my writing on the New England media. A list of the first 31 posts follows. I will add to the list as I continue the search process.

The posts cover different themes  cover different themes from history through changing roles and the pressures of commercial survival. Necessarily the posts are a little fragmentary, written over a number of years. I have tried to group them in rough thematic order. Later when I have completed the list, I will consolidate.   

• Wednesday, August 06, 2014 History revisited – Lang vs Clark Irving: the battle for Northern self-government begins. Foundation of newspaper press Grafton, newspapers and politics, self-government, 1850s
• Wednesday, October 09, 2013 History revisited - pressed for change. Historical note on printing presses etc
• Wednesday, September 25, 2013 History revisited - turning the page on a new chapter with newspapers. The Armidale Express, formation of the Armidale Telegraph, influence of local politics on paper formation 1850s
• Wednesday, April 04, 2012 Introducing the Vincent printers 
• Wednesday, October 24, 2012 History revisited - a pressing change. Formation of the Armidale Newspaper Co, competition with the dailies
• Monday, July 26, 2010 Formation of the Armidale Newspaper Company
• Wednesday, December 23, 2015 History Revisited - building a New England media empire. Ernest Christian Sommerlad 
• Wednesday, August 13, 2014 History revisited – January 1920. Tamworth Observer’s Victor Thompson re-launches fight for New England new state. On Victor Thompson and the fight for self government
• Wednesday, August 20, 2014, History revisited – Thompson’s separatist fire burns well
• Wednesday, January 20, 2016 History Revisited - how Tamworth's paper became a leader. Early history of the Northern Daily Leader
• Friday, March 14, 2008 History of ABC in Newcastle
• Wednesday, December 11, 2019, Saving the Dorrigo Park, The Vincents, Don Dorrigo Gazette
• Wednesday, December 19, 2018, New England folk takes its place on the stage. Reference to influence of papers in promoting local history 
• Tuesday, November 22, 2011 Belshaw's World - New England’s newspaper history bespeaks change
• Friday, December 26, 2008 More on perceptions, selection and bias in the Australian media
• Saturday, December 27, 2008, Saturday Morning Musings - more on the media. Reflections on the role and history of the regional media
• Saturday, April 11, 2009 The importance of the local press - why it's lost it's way 
• Friday, October 02, 2009 The role of the New England Press - and the need for change
• Tuesday, December 07, 2010 Rural Press, Fairfax and Brian McCarthy. Reflections on the end of an era
• Wednesday, November 23, 2011 APN ceases daily publication of Tweed Daily, Coffs Advocate
• Saturday, August 11, 2012 Fairfax rolls out new web format across its New England papers
• Saturday, November 27, 2010 Social Change in New England 1950-2000 5: end of local media ownership
• Wednesday, December 27, 2006 Newcastle's Information Blackhole. 
• Wednesday, January 03, 2007 Tamworth and the History of Country Music
• Friday, August 10, 2007 The Koori Mail - New England's national indigenous newspaper
• Tuesday, November 25, 2014 ABC cuts - Newcastle loses metro radio status, jobs and local programming
• Friday, December 05, 2014 New England Passings – Remembering Bruce Treloar
• Monday, February 18, 2019 Another blow to the North; Paywalls damage regional reporting - and cohesion - across Northern NSW, the broader New England
• Thursday, May 09, 2019 Antony Catalano's challenge -a possible ten time profit but only if he discovers his papers ' local and regional roots
• Friday, April 17, 2020 Reflections on the suspension of the Armidale Express and other ACM mastheads.

The early Aboriginal peopling of Australia's New England

Neanderthal cousins: Artists reconstruction of a Denisovan girl based on the combination of skeletal and DNA evidence.

In April, I began a sort series of Armidale Express columns on the history of the Aboriginal peopling of New England. Drawn from the introductory course I was running on the history of New England, the columns told in short form the story of the journey to and arrival on the mega-continent now known as Sahul, the spread across Sahul and arrival in New England followed by the challenge of the Last Glacial Maximum.

Aboriginal settlement of Sahul: by 40,000 years ago, the ancestors of Australia's Aboriginal peoples had occupied the entire continent known as Sahul.

In a later series I will carry the story forward through the Holocene and the golden age that came to an end with the arrival of the Europeans in 1788.

I have now posted all the columns to this blog. This post allows you to follow the whole series through from the first post. 

• Wednesday, April 01, 2020 The peopling of New England - the mysterious Denisovans
• Wednesday, April 08, 2020 The peopling of New England - Mysteries of migration
• Wednesday, April 15, 2020 The peopling of New England - Aboriginal peoples' arrival in New England
• Wednesday, April 22, 2020 The Aboriginal peopling of New England - What did Aboriginal life look like in New England 40,000 years ago?
• Wednesday, April 29, 2020 The Aboriginal peopling of New England. How the New England landscape went through dramatic changes
• Wednesday, May 06, 2020 The Aboriginal peopling of New England. Reoccupation following the ending of the Last Glacial Maximum

The Aboriginal peopling of New England. Reoccupation following the ending of the Last Glacial Maximum

Stuart’s Point today, the site of the oldest known Aboriginal occupation in New England following the end of the Last Glacial Maximum This is the sixth and final in a series on the Aboriginal peopling of New England drawn from the introductory course I have been running on New England's history. I will continue the story of the Holocene period in a later series.   

In my last column I discussed the likely impact of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), a cold dry windy period running from around 12,000 to 15,000 years ago, on New England’s Aboriginal peoples.

Faced with persistent drought and temperatures up to 8C below present, New England’s Aboriginal peoples were forced to retreat to refuge areas where food as well as protection from the elements was still available. Whole groups may have been wiped out.

Around 15,000 years ago, the LGM began to ease. From around 12,000 years ago, the period now described as the Holocene began. Average temperatures rose, rainfall increased. Deserts retreated westwards, while plants, animals and humans began to reoccupy the landscape.

This process took time, while its effects varied from place to place.

Down on our coastal strip, sea levels rose by 130 metres rushing inland past the coastline we know today. If you were standing where Kempsey is now, you would be on the coast. Shelters, camping grounds, ceremonial sites and food resources were submerged by the rising waters.

Slowly, the silt laden rivers swollen by higher Tablelands’ rainfall pushed back, joined by sea currents depositing sand, creating the current coastal dunes and backing estuaries.

This process took time. The coast as we know it today finally emerged about 6,000 years ago.

Even before this date, new habitats emerged favourable to human occupation.

In 1975 excavations at Stuarts Point, a very large oyster and cockle midden on the inner barrier north of the present estuary of the Macleay, revealed an occupation date of 9320 ± 160 BP (Before Present). Prior to that result, the earliest coastal date had been 6444 ± 74 BP for the basal levels of the Seelands dig in the Clarence about 12 kilometres northwest of Grafton.

On the Western Slopes and Plains, the earliest certain occupation date we have is much later than the coast, with an uncalibrated age of 5450 ± 100 years BP at Graman near Inverell.

On the Tableland, the earliest certain occupation date that we presently have is an uncalibrated age of 4300 years ago from Bendemeer. However, analysis done by Wendy Beck suggests that the resource base would have allowed targeted visits from at least the start of the Holocene, with permanent settlement possible from perhaps 6,000 years.

It is frustrating that we cannot sketch out the story in more detail. What we can say with a degree of certainty is that New England’s Aboriginal peoples were entering a golden age that would last to European invasion.

I will tell you this story in a later series of columns.

This post was prepared as a column for the on-line edition of the Armidale Express. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020 

The Aboriginal peopling of New England. How the New England landscape went through dramatic changes

The Byron landslip scar. This is the fifth in a series on the Aboriginal peopling of New England drawn from the introductory course I have been running on New England's history.

Aboriginal oral tradition records memories of great floods as the sea rushed in. These are usually attributed to large scale sea level rises as the icy conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum (21,000 to 15,000 years ago) eased and sea levels rose.

I suspect that’s broadly true, but they may also included memories of submarine landslide induced tsunamis, many of which occurred over the last 25,000 years along the Southern Queensland and Northern NSW coasts.

These tsunamis came about because of land collapses along the steeply sloping continental shelf. These collapses sent great blocks of rock and sediment plunging down the steeply sloping shelf out to sea over distances up too 100km and depths of 3,000m. You can imagine the effects on sea levels.

While spectacular, these changes were only a small part of the challenges faced by Australia’s Aboriginal peoples.

In my last column, I discussed what the Aboriginal occupation of New England might have looked like perhaps 40,000 years ago.

The Aborigines had arrived on the ancient content called Sahul at a time when the climate was colder but damper.

From perhaps 25,000 years ago, the environment deteriorated significantly.

Globally, the ice spread. As it did, the climate became colder and drier, deserts spread and trees retreated. This climatic regime peaked during the Last Glacial Maximum 21,000 to 15,000 years ago.

Sahul became very dry, both intensely hot and intensely cold. Sea levels fell by 60+ metres to perhaps 130 metres below current levels. Sea temperatures fell to 2-4 degrees C below those of today.

The effects across New England were dramatic. In the west, there were cold arid conditions. The deserts expanded eastwards. Stream flow was reduced. Trees and animals retreated.. In the east, the falling sea levels revealed a rugged inhospitable shore. While the coastal areas remained relatively well watered, food resources would have been reduced.

On the New England Tablelands, average temperatures fell by perhaps 8 degrees C. The Tablelands marked the start of a region of cold steppe and scattered sub-alpine woodland sweeping down through the southern Snowy Mountains into Tasmania, making it an inhospitable region for human habitation.

Faced with these changing conditions, the Aborigines would have been forced to retreat to refuge areas where food was still available. Some groups would have perished.

Better conditions lay ahead, but challenges had to be surmounted first.

This post appeared as a column in the on-line edition of the Armidale Express on 23 April 2020. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020 

The Aboriginal peopling of New England - What did Aboriginal life look like in New England 40,000 years ago?

Over c48,000 years, Tableland lagoons such as Little Llangothlin have provided a potential resource for Aboriginal people. This is the fourth in a series on the Aboriginal peopling of New England drawn from the introductory course I have been running on New England's history.

In my last column I suggested that while we had no direct archaeological evidence, the pattern of archaeological dates across Sahul suggested that first Aboriginal occupation of the broader New England may have taken place around 40,000 years ago.

Given the present absence of archaeological evidence, what might this occupation have looked like? To start answering this question, we need to start with New England’s geography.

In the east, the coastline as we know it today with its rich estuarine and marine resources did not exist and would not do so for another 34,000 years.

Sea levels were 60 metres lower than present. Because the continental shelf in this part of Australia is generally relatively narrow and steep sloping, the land revealed by the lower waters was often rugged, falling away to the then coastline,

The rivers from the Tablelands that now meander to the sea would have been faster flowing, their courses straighter with smaller estuaries. However, while the coastal environment was not as rich as it would later be, the combination of coastal, riverine and land environments would have been sufficient to support human occupation.

Inland, the Western Slopes and Plains would have been relatively well watered and potentially rich in resources. Again, it seems unlikely that the area was left vacant.

Further force is provided to this tentative conclusion in that in moving south whether by the inland or coastal routes, the advancing Aborigines would have passed through the broader New England. 

But what about that bit in the middle, the New England Tablelands? This was a less rich area in food terms, making occupation less likely.

In the absence of early dates, Wendy Beck, Robert Hayworth and John Appleton examined what resources might have been available to the Aborigines on the New England in the lagoons that run along the spine of the Tablelands.

The lagoons and especially Little Llangothlin have been studied because their long existence (c48,000 years) provides a useful record of change over time. They concluded that the combination of megafauna with lagoon resources could have provided a base for at least seasonal visits.

All this is surmise based on circumstantial evidence. We may never know because of the scale of changes that have taken place over the last forty thousand years. On the coast, for example, changing sea levels mean that many potential occupation sites have been buried under water or later silt deposits.

Despite such problems, I do believe that we can learn more through the type of studies pioneered by Wendy and her colleagues.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the on-line edition of the Armidale Express Extra on 17 April 2020. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020 

The peopling of New England - Aboriginal people's arrival in New England

Aboriginal settlement of Sahul: by 40,000 years ago, the ancestors of Australias Aboriginal peoples had occupied the entire continent known as Sahul. This is the third in a series on the Aboriginal peopling of New England drawn from the introductory course I have been running on New England's history.

If the ancestors of Australia’s Aboriginal peoples reached the large continent known as Sahul perhaps 65,000 years ago, how and when did they reach the broader New England?

To start answering this question, consider the illustration to this column from Alana Coper et al. It shows the land boundaries of the mega-continent of Sahul during the Last Glacial maximum when sea levels were much lower.

The red lines suggest possible settlement paths; the black dates archaeological dates where kya stands for a thousand years. Ignore the other elements.

The Aboriginal ancestors arrived in Sahul during the Pleistocene, a period of repeated ice ages broken by warmer periods. They arrived at a benign time with relatively comfortable temperatures and a higher rainfall sufficient to fill the lakes and rivers.

The archeological dates shown in black suggest that by 40,000 years ago the descendents of those first settlers had occupied the entire continent of Sahul from Papua and surrounding islands in the north to Tasmania in the far south.

The migration paths are subject to some dispute. One school of thought is that migration went down the east coast.

I disagree. I think that it is most likely that migration proceeded down the western slopes and immediate western plains where there was water and easier immigration paths.

Whatever the exact path, it seems clear that by 40,000 years ago Sahul was occupied. Herein lies a problem, for the dates we have for the broader New England are all later.

The Cuddie Springs site near Brewarrina suggests occupation as long ago as 35,000 years BP. However, dates here have been subject to considerable dispute.

Excluding Cuddie Springs, we have a date of greater than 20,200 years BP (Before Present) from a hearth at Glennies Creek 35 kilometres north of Branxton in the Hunter, while a site on a former terrace of Wollombi Brook near Singleton suggested a date range of 18,000-30,000 years BP. At Moffats Swamp near Raymond Terrace, a date of 17,000 years BP was obtained.

On the Liverpool Plains, Aboriginal occupation has been dated to at least 19,000 years BP. Further north in South-East Queensland, the Wallen Wallen Creek site on what is now North Stradbroke Island shows continuous occupation from about 20,000 years ago.

While these dates are all later, Aboriginal peoples moving south must have passed through the broader New England, so we can reasonably assume some Aboriginal occupation by at least 40,000 years ago, probably earlier.

In my next column, I will discuss what that occupation might have looked like. 

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 8 April 2020. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019, here 2020