Norman Tindale

Norman Tindale’s Aboriginal Tribes of Australia Norman B Tindale – pioneering anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist, and ethnologist – is best remembered for his work mapping the distribution of Indigenous Australian people and their languages. His lifetime project utilised data from various sources, including his own field observations in Aboriginal communities all over Australia from as early […]

Motorcycle safety Australian outback

As a rider, you have invested in your bike, it is important and responsible to yourself and for those who care about you including your family that you take any chosen outback motorcycle adventures with your safety and those of your travelling companions as the priority. It will never be a good story if you do not return or do but are permanantly disabled through just a second of lapsed concentration.

Australian Bushfires

The Black Summer: An Unprecedented Australian Bushfire Season Fire and fire management has historically been part of the this continents fabric. Ecosystems have adapted to fire from the regeneration of Eucalpyt forests to triggers for Leptospermum seeds to germinate after a fire event. However, Australia experienced unprecedented fires during the 2019-20 bushfire season, September to […]

Aboriginal Fire Management

In Aboriginal culture, ownership provides rights to the resources of the land, as well as responsibilities for managing the land and caring for country. For tens of thousands of year, in a process tightly connected to this duty, Aboriginal cultures across Australia used fire deliberately and skilfully to manage their environment.

John Eyre Colonial explorer of South Australia

Edward John Eyre, one of Australia’s youngest and most fearless explorers, is immortalized in the names of the South Australian landscape, most notably Lake Eyre and the Eyre Peninsula.

Historical Aboriginal Marketplaces

Ancient Aboriginal Marketplaces By Marco Stojanovik Trade was a central part of life in Aboriginal Australia prior to British settlement, with trading routes criss-crossing the breadth of the continent, flowing from one nation to the next. Isabel McBryde (1987: 267) explains that lying at the intersections of various routes on mutual soil were exchange centres, which may […]

How was Pituri Traded in Ancient Aboriginal Australia?

Ancient Aboriginal Pituri Trade By the time European colonisation began in Australia 1788, Aboriginal people had been using and trading a leafy psychoactive plant substance called ‘pituri’ for thousands of years (Watson 2011). A highly…

Australian Aboriginal Paths of Migration

The Peopling of Australia Before Europeans reached Australia, there were probably already more than a million Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people inhabiting the land. Their ancestors had been there for upwards of 60,000 years.…

Key Aboriginal Trade Routes of Ancient Australia

Key Aboriginal Trade Routes By Marco Stojanovik Trade was a central part of life in Aboriginal Australia prior to British settlement. Trading routes criss-crossed the breadth of the continent, flowing from one nation to the next, dispersing goods information, technologies, and culture. These routes were not necessarily narrow, well-defined trails, with some passing haphazardly between […]

Aboriginal Ochre Trade

Ancient Aboriginal Ochre Trade The natural clay ochre was one of the most important and valuable trading items for Australian Aboriginal people. An iron oxide pigment, it is found in a range of colours, ranging…

The Pituri Road: Ancient Aboriginal Trading Route

The ‘Pituri Road’ was one of the most important, serving as an extensive network of Aboriginal trading routes across the continent.  Pituri is made from leaves of the shrub Duboisia hopwoodii, the most potent of Australian plants containing nicotine. Widely harvested, prepared, traded and chewed by Indigenous people across much of Australia, it has been described as the ‘gold standard’ of Indigenous trading (Brady & Long, 2003). Dominant as a bartering commodity with and within tribal groups, it was considered as equivalent in status to boomerangs, spears, shields, and red ochre.

Australian Megafauna

Australian Megafauna Harkening back to a surreal and exciting chapter of Australia‘s natural history, the era of Australia‘s megafauna sees a recurrence of the many familiar faces seen in our native wildlife today, such as the much loved fuzzy wombat, or the iconic Kangaroo. However, this ancestral wombat wasn’t quite so small and cute as […]

Iconic Animals of the Australian Outback

Iconic Animals of the Australian Outback When it comes to Australia‘s iconic wildlife, the more well known faces of the Kangaroo, Emu, or Koala generally spring to mind. But for many Australians, or visitors from abroad, it can be easy to forget the incredible diversity of wildlife that inhabits this enormous continent, ranging from the […]

Aboriginal Songlines

Songlines trace the journeys of ancestral spirits who created the land and all natural phenomena. The creation stories as well as practical knowledge needed for survival.

David Unaipon

Unaipon made several significant contributions to Australian society in scientific ideas, literature, and Aboriginal affairs

Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings

Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings This article for small group tours into Outback Australia for mature and senior travellers as a couple or solo traveller is to assist you in understanding and appreciating Aboriginal art as you travel and explore with your program leader and expert local guides. There are three main art producing areas of Australia: […]

Aboriginal Kinship systems

The Importance of Australian Aboriginal Kinship Systems Aboriginal lore was laid down in the Dreaming which is the embodiment of Aboriginal creation. The Dreaming gives meaning to everything and affects the relationships people have with the land, their environment, each other and their totems. AboriginalAustralia was the original multicultural country with over 500 separate nations […]

Why did the British settle Australia?

Reasons for the British Settlement of Sydney By Marco Stojanovik On 7 February 1788, Governor Arthur Phillip formally proclaimed the first of the Australian colonies, New South Wales, at Sydney. Twelve days earlier Governor Phillip had landed Britain’s first fleet at Port Jackson, establishing a settlement at Sydney Cove. He had been directed by the […]

The Arrival of Aboriginal Australians on the Continent

Aboriginal Australian Arrival Some Aboriginal Australians have always believed that their ancestors came from across the sea in canoes in the Dreamtime. In northern Australia, for example, one of the major themes in indigenous Creation stories concerns the arrival of the Great Earth Mother, symbol of fertility and creator of life, from across the sea. […]

Appreciating Australian River Systems

Australian Rivers By Marco Stojanovik Australian rivers have shaped the country from the moment the first Indigenous people arrived tens of thousands of years ago through European occupation until today. Supplying the vital ingredients of life and supporting a significant amount of biodiversity, they have also played a significant cultural and economic role, a means […]

Aboriginal Art

Aboriginal Art for small group tours Australian Aboriginal art is the oldest unbroken tradition of art in the world dating back at least 85,000 years. Prior to the arrival of Europeans in Australia, Indigenous people used many art forms including rock engravings, bark painting, body painting, sculpture, weaving and string art. A core concept amongst […]