The first people to settle in Australia, ancestors of present day Aboriginals, arrived in Australia about 50,000 years ago. They encountered a cooler and drier continent than at present. From about 35,000 years ago global temperatures and water availability declined even further culminating in the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), about 21,000 years ago. At this time, the Australian continent entered its driest and coolest period since modern humans colonized it. By 12,000 years ago the climate warmed rapidly, sea levels rose and climate began to ameliorate.
A new episode of the Exploring Environmental History Podcast explores the responses and adaptations by Aboriginal people to climate change over the past 50,000 years. The guest on this episode of the podcast is Alan Williams, an archaeologist and graduate student in the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University in Canberra.
To listen to this episode visit: http://www.eh-resources.org/
