Ingenious Indigenous Works
Before European explorers recorded the coastline of Australia on maps, before English settlers arrived in Australia with their new found knowledge from the industrial revolution, the original indigenous people of this land built engineered works.
Their engineered works included:
- tracks and trading routes;
- stone fish traps;
- stream diversions;
- stone ceremonial rings;
- quarries and mines;
- stone shelters.
The knowledge and skills to construct and maintain these works were handed on through many generations, through stories and ceremonies.
Unfortunately Europeans brought with them new diseases, foreign plants and animals, and they occupied prime grasslands, fertile lands and rivers. These areas were usually the major seasonal hunting and fishing areas of the aborigines.
And so the indigenous population was gradually dispossesed of their homelands, and their culture and their works fell into ruin.
Few works now survive, but those that do, provide us with an insight into their skills and knowledge. Some of these works pre-date other more well known civilisations in the Middle East.
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