AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 3? 



III. Deposits containing Artefacts. 



The first appearance of the Proto-Indies or Australoids in 

 Australia, in its present form, is of some antiquity; they came 

 many thousands of years ago, but the time that has elapsed since 

 their arrival is short compared, for instance, to that which has 

 passed since the Neanderthal appeared in Europe. In reviewing 

 here the stratigraphic positions of artefacts and the climatic 

 changes disclosed by the sections, only the more reliable finds 

 have been selected. One from outside Victoria has been included, 

 Hale and Tindale's classic investigation at Tartanga and Devon 

 Downs; it is felt that their evidence may be accepted without 

 reservations and should be summarized here as many of the 

 problems raised occur in Victoria. The Victorian records are 

 less reliable; like many archaeological discoveries nearly all of 

 them were made by unskilled observers, but the evidence is at 

 least as trustworthy as that of some accepted finds. 



Little has been attempted in Australia in correlating the 

 Recent or Postglacial and the Pleistocene sediments with climatic 

 change. Archaeological research in Australia has not as yet sup- 

 plied the close subdivision worked out in Europe, nor are there 

 any literary records or traditions to corroborate the more recent 

 events: for these reasons the dating of them must always be an 

 approximation. The bearing of climatic change in the Postglacial 

 and Pleistocene has hitherto only been touched on in a perfunc- 

 tory way and it is realized that the problems they raise can only 

 be settled by marshalling more evidence; it is hoped, nevertheless, 

 that their discussion may stimulate this. We are very much in 

 the same position in Australia at present as they were in America 

 when comparative records were not available there as to the 

 conditions that prevailed before the coming of the white man. 

 But a record of the climatic changes has been pushed back in 

 America for 3,000 years by a close study of the growth-rings of 

 trees. It has been said that the eucalypts do not lend themselves 

 to dendrochronology like the American trees, but there is evidence 

 of what appear to be largely climatic fluctuations in the former 

 levels of lakes. Many of these lakes have no outlets and would 

 appear to be suited to such an investigation. It is possible that by 

 correlating the evidence they reveal with such as may be obtained 

 from the study of growth-rings, a more or less reliable record 

 might be obtained. One could not expect the comparative accur- 

 acy of the Caspian levels which are substantiated by literary and 

 archaeological records, but such a record would, nevertheless, be 

 valuable. 



