Ep06: Dingoes, Asian Contact, and European Fantasy with Australia

Welcome back to the history of Australia podcast. As always, before we start, I do want to acknowledge that this podcast is being produced on traditional Ghana land and recognized the Ghana people as the custodians of the Adelaide region. I also want to pay my respects to Ghana elders past, present and future. This week we begin our transition to what I'll describe as modern Australian history. By looking at the types of contact Indigenous Australians made with the outside world, prior to Dutch exploration, as well as how Europeans view the Australia prior to actually finding it. This episode is going to diverge a bit from the original formula and style of the previous ones. As I feel the changes work out a bit and at thematically without diverging too far chronologically. Therefore, I'll take a second to outline the episode now. We'll start by discussing the possible arrival of new peoples around 4 to 8000 years ago, the most of the discussion will surround the arrival of the Dingo. Before transitioning to the possible Indigenous contact with the Indonesian peoples known as the Makasar. This part will mess with the chronology of the podcast a bit, as the established contact that Indigenous Australians had with the Makasar peoples actually sits after the first arrivals of Dutch explorers to the region. However, I felt as though this discussion fits this episode better, rather than next episode. Finally, I'll round out the episode by looking at many different names and concepts which have been attached to the idea of the Southern continent throughout Europe's history, and discuss how they played a part in influencing Europeans to explore this area of the world. With that outline finished, let's get right into discussing the arrival of the Dingo around 4,000 years ago. The Dingo, besides the few animals I discussed in episode 2, was the first animal from Asia to make its way to Australia prior to European contact. Prior to the arrival of the Dingo, and after the extinction of the Megaphora, the main apex predator throughout Australia was that of the Tasmanian tiger or thylacene. The arrival of the Dingo quickly shifted this balance though, as the invasive species began to force the thylacene out through competition. But how exactly did the Dingo get here? Current scientific analysis of Dingo fossils and Indigenous Australian cave art provide an estimate of around 4,000 years ago for the Dingo's arrival. Though selected bone fragments have contextual evidence which may push back the Dingo's arrival to over 8,500 years ago. Whichever the case, the Dingo's arrival is seemingly confined to the species arriving alongside humans and boats who visited here from Asia. As the distance between the Silawesi or Timor islands and Australia had not changed despite the fragmentation of Sahul. However, who exactly did Dingo arrived with is an area of debate, as it envelops a much larger area of research and goings on that was occurring in Australia at the same time. Two tangent ever so slightly, the Pamanunian language and the stone tools that we discussed over the last two episodes had begun to spread throughout the rest of Australia, also around 4,000 years ago. To some archaeologists, this, alongside the arrival of the Dingo, is proof of extensive intermingling between the Indigenous Australians of Australia's northern coast with some group of Asian peoples. Geneticists such as Arena Purgatch and historians such as Sanjeev Sanjeev looking towards the DNA evidence have suggested that a group of Indians either intermingled with Indonesians who then transferred Indian DNA to the Indigenous Australians, or more contentiously that Indians had settled in Australia and had intermingled with Indigenous Australians themselves around 4,000 years ago. I won't go too in depth on the genetic analysis, but suffice to say, works such as and a Bergstrom's 2018 genomic insights into the human population history of Australia and New Guinea present effective counter-arguments to these claims. In addition, the Dingo's genetics are also evidence against these claims, as geneticists, Malayny, Filios and Poltacconnate. Essentially, Dingo's DNA do not contain the genes for star-stagestion, a gene which existed throughout those dogs who lived amongst agricultural societies. As such, this puts the Indian hypothesis into heavy questioning, due to the high amount of agriculture present in India at the time, meaning that the ancestors of the Dingo not containing this gene if they were from India is highly unlikely. This also likely removes peoples from Taiwan as candidates, due to their similar agricultural nature. According to the remaining candidates for the arrival of the Dingo, the Austro-Nesian Lapida peoples and the Indian-Nesian Toa-Leyian peoples both are likely. However, Filios and Tacconn favor the explanation of the Toa-Leyian peoples. Due to the same circumstances which made archaeologists such as Butler, favor the team or the Kimberley route for initial migration to Australia. While it is difficult to say for certain which of these two candidates is the most likely progenitor of the Dingo's arrival to Australia, what can be stated for certain is the animal's influence on the continent. The Philosine, the initial apex predator in Australia, hunted animals from fish to emus, and the Dingo's are believed to have directly competed in that niche for food. The Philosine's extinction on mainland Australia, excluding very remote locations in the Flinders Rangers and the Blue Mountains, around 2,000 years ago is argued to either be due to the introduction of the Dingo or climate change. This is somewhat similar to the arguments for the factors that cause the extinction of the Megaphorna, funnily enough. Broadly, the Dingo's were more versatile than the Thylacine, being omnivores rather than exclusive carnivores, and they seemingly were more likely to hunt impacts, providing them with significant advantages when it came to taking down prey. As such, many present the case that the Dingo simply out-competed the Thylacine, and therefore caused the extinction of the mammal. This is also supported by the continued survival of the Thylacine in Tasmania, where Dingo's were never present. However, some believe that climate change was more a significant factor, stating that the Thylacines lack of versatility led to its dying off on the mainland continent due to climate change. It should be noted that those who support climate change as the main factor for the extinction of the Thylacine, do agree that the Dingo at least played some part in their extinction. Whether the Dingo was the main, or just one of many, reasons for the extinction of the Thylacine, it's arrival by people likely from the Silawesi Islands is perhaps the harbourn germ of the extended intermingling of these people with indigenous Australians, though these later people would be known as the Makasar. The Makasar were an Indonesian peoples who visited North and Northwestern Australia for trapeying. Trapeying are a type of sea cucumbers, which were seen as a delicacy among Southeast Asian and Chinese markets. And as such, the Makasar would travel to regions such as the northern oceans of Australia, where they were plentiful to fish for them. Coming on boats known as Perros, the Makasar's day of first contact with indigenous Australians is somewhat debated. From one midnight's 1976 work, The Voyager the Mirage, Makasar and Trapengas in northern Australia, I would like to have a copy. Suggest that the earlier trapeying fleets, as they were known, first came to Australia's northern shores, likely in the early 1700s. With 1720, being the latest state of arrival he provides. He does note that the earliest record of a trapeying flea visiting Australia's coast was actually in 1751, but it's just that they were likely visits before these in the decades prior. While a midnight does present some convincing evidence for his estimate, Regina Ganta utilized slow-sweetsy works to extend the data first contact to at least 1640. Her evidence also includes analysis of the Makasar's influence on the Yogh Nu people of Arnhemland, stating that such heavy influences must represent a period of longer contact than initially thought. With a Ganta or midnight is more correct, is up to interpretation, but you will note that both dates provided cite well after the Dutch discovery of Australia in 1606. Then they were quite before the British first sale of the area. As I mentioned last episode, I feel as though Makasar contact fits more dramatically with this transitionary period, and as such the slight tampering with the chronological order of themes is necessary to make for a more engaging episode. I will also note that at least a couple of historians believe first contact was made in the 1500s, based off the carbon dating of boat designs found in indigenous cave art. Going back to what Ganta mentions though, the Makasar did have a significant impact on the lives of indigenous Australians in the north of the continent. Most obviously, indigenous Australians produced significant amounts of warlar, depicting the arrival of these peoples, and were such as Trapang and Bollanda entered the vocabulary of clans in the region. With the latter word meaning white person, and becoming the actual word used for white people by clans in the area. More significantly, there is evidence that a sort of pigeon Makasar was in use throughout [BLANK_AUDIO] coast of Australia at the time. What is pigeon language formed as a way to facilitate trade between the two groups of peoples, different indigenous clans began to use this pigeon Makasan in a day-to-day life as well. I will note, when I say pigeon, I do not mean the bird. I mean the type of language which is made from another, but is more simplified. Speaking of trade, beyond the Japan, trade was extensive between the indigenous Australians of the northern shores and the Makasar. Indigenous Australians were employed as trapeignants at times, especially those of the year-new nation. And trade between the two groups often existed of indigenous Australians trading total shells, pearls and other such materials to the Makasar, who would in turn trade tobacco, cloth, as well as metal axes and knives. It should be noted that not all contact was peaceful trade though. The night describes at least one source, which presents a violent confrontation between the two groups. A Matthew Flanders himself stated that the Makasar warned him of indigenous Australians. The contact of the Makasar also changed the way in which indigenous nations of the North survived. Maknite presents the case that the Makasar provided the indigenous Australians of the region with dug out canoes and shoveled those spears, both being impressive technological advancements for the people of this region, which therefore allowed them to hunt more effectively and fish more effectively. The Makasar did not only bring the materials to the indigenous Australians though. Plants such as the Tamarind trees were likely introduced by these people. It is also hypothesized by a few historians, such as Ganta, that Islam was at least somewhat adopted by the young you from the Makasar, who added it to their dreaming stories and ceremonies in a limited fashion. It should be noted that there is also evidence of smallpox being brought over to Australia by the Makasar, and potentially infecting those indigenous peoples of the northern coast. Though this is disputed, as it is difficult to tell whether the infections found amongst these groups were from Makasar contact or from first fleet smallpox, which we will discuss in a later episode. While the Makasar may not have been the first outside peoples to contact or discover the indigenous Australians, they may have been the first to have had extensive contact with wide-ranging ramifications. They provided an already sophisticated material and societal culture that existed around northern Australia with new ideas, tools and concepts. And their mostly peaceful contact with the indigenous Australians perhaps sets the stage for European contact with Australia. However, directly competing with the indigenous Australians, the Makasar worked alongside them, in trade and in gathering after paying. Before I move on to the final part of this episode, I do want to note that as of the year 2023, photos have been found which are believed to represent indigenous Australians living in Makasar as recently as the 1870s. The people in these photos have been identified as your new people by indigenous elders. And their existence and the possibility of the existence of their descendants in Makasar represents perhaps some of the first movement of indigenous Australians outside of Australia's borders. And perhaps the first time indigenous Australians crossed from Australia to Indonesia instead of the other way around. That being said, let us move now to how the Europeans conceived of Australia before they had ever laid eyes on it. To the Europeans, Australia was generally connected to the concept of a great southern land. In this part of the podcast, I'll be elaborating on not only rhythm records, but maps and all as well. If you would like me to provide these maps, slash on the website for easy access, let me know and I can look towards the feasibility of doing so. Looking to the first references of a possible southern continent through the minds of Europeans, the classic accreditation is two Pythagoras. The great mathematician described the world as being split into five parts, the middle equator and two frigid and temperate zones, each in both the north and the south, as to provide balance to a spherical earth. This was developed further by two Romans known as "Creaties of Malos" and "Pomponius Mella" who believes the southern continent to be inaccessible, perhaps due to a great ocean, but possibly inhabited. This was finalized by Ptolemy, who believes that this southern continent, which she described as terror incomnida, includes the Indian Ocean. While those thinkers of antiquity conceptualized the possibility of a southern continent, such a landmass was never truly realised in the minds of the Romans on Greeks, and began to fade away towards the beginning of the medieval period. St. Augustine, on the precipice of antiquity, rejected the concept of a southern continent. To the St, the south of the earth was entirely ocean, and not inhabited by a race of men, thought to be known as the Antipodes, whose fee was the opposite of our own. His rejection of the southern continent began a general Christian dogma against the concept of a southern landmass, which continued past the foal of the Western Roman Empire. There are a few writers who do continue to ponder the question of a southern continent though. Is a door of Sevelle, in the six and seven centuries, suggested in his etymologies that there may be a fourth inaccessible landmass, possibly inhabited by those Antipodes, that they were more likely living in the Libyan desert. Microbius, in the fifth century, described there as being a fourth continent as well, similar to that of Pythagoras and Ptolemy's thinking. And it is his description of such a continent that is forward to have perhaps influenced the first maps which were betrayed the southern continent. The most well known of these is the 11th century, Mappy Mundai, known as the Osma Betas. Showing the fourth continent completely separate to the three of Asia, Africa and Europe, and containing monsters from Herodotus' work known as the Skierpod. Being one of the first visual depictions of the southern continent, it is far more abstract than based in reality, as with all Mappy Mundai. And presents this southern continent as a semi-circle, taking up a quarter of the earth. It should be noted that the inclusion of the Skierpod, instead of an Antipode, does not have any basis in any work describing the southern continent prior to the maps creation. And is likely the first of many imaginative creations, given to those artists attempting to visualize that which have never been seen by Europeans. These depictions continue to develop throughout the Renaissance. As Europeans rediscovered the culture and dignity, they too began to rediscover the concept of a great southern continent. The teacher of Thomas Aquinas, a Buddhist magnus, argued that humans would thrive throughout the 24 parallels north and south of the equator. This idea was fervent by the travels on Marco Polo, who mentioned legendary kingdoms such as Beach, Lucache and Melatur beyond Indonesia around where Western Australia currently is. These ideas became more concrete through the maps and art of the time period. The woodcut of Tolemies Geography made in the late 1400s, and Orons finds Nova Eintegro, Universi-Auribis Descripto map from the early 1500s both depict a more elaborate southern continent than before, though both are far more fanciful than reality. However, as Europeans began to explore past the Cape of Good Hope and into the region of South Asia, the concept of Australia started to become more concrete. The Portuguese would first find the islands of Java and other such ones in the region. Amigelans' siding of the northernmost extremities of Antarctica on his travels renewed interest in the grey southern continent further, though it is time with the idea that it was far more desperate than first four. Ladder cartographers, such as those in France during the middle of the 60th century, would depict Australia in more detail, though still without much knowledge or any knowledge of the continent itself. Its new name, being considered as Java Grande, would represent the belief of it being a much larger melee mass near Java. Mass-moume Jon Vrotz in the mid 1500s would represent this, as a large continent jutted south of Java, though while it did not like detail, it did like much station in reality. Those in the de-ep school of photography viewed Java as at least some extension, or perhaps more than extremity, of this continent. While these maps did represent the extremities of Java, and possibly even new Guinea, though that is unlikely, and therefore finally reached the edges of all the Sunsahul. Those maps made by people such as Pierre de Céliès portrayed the southern continent generally incorrectly, calling to the complete mystery that Australia remained to the Europeans. Despite this, more and more explorers would suggest that they had reached paradise that was meant to be found on the southern continent. One such, known as Maxim Milanus, Transylvanus, suggested that he had found the birth of paradise there, which was capable of converting nocy listen to it to Islam or at least some type of god. The idea of a massive paradise south of Java would slowly decay by the 17th century, but a few people remained to add onto this concept. In the end, here is the projection fame, represented terror strollers in his 1569 world map. With the borders far less to fight. and detailed, then those French cartographers from before him. Petrus Plainicus's 1594 world map took much from Mercatus and established a very vague but similar border for terrorist wars. Though it was now connected to the frigid-savoured Magalanica, all what the Europeans viewed as what we now know as Antarctica, his closer charm of the east in these archipelago from the year prior, did show the northernmost extremities of New Guinea properly, and as such, maybe some amongst the first maps to properly represent a part of Sahul. These were the concepts which the Dutch and British explorers would take with them as they sailed towards Australia. A massive continent, simultaneously a paradise but also cold and desolate. The many European explorers before them told of indigenous populations of the islands north of Australia, suggesting they were both noble and barbarians. This concept of contradiction, as it were, when it came to the missing southern continent, more than anything else, was the main foundation the oncoming explorers had to try and decipher what they would soon find. The story of first contact with Australia's indigenous peoples is one of uncertainty. Though we know that Dingo was brought by humans, we do not know which people brought them. And while we do know of Maxi contact, while influential to those people it did touch, it was short compared to what may have been happening millennia prior. And 40 Europeans, the southern continent shifted in change, as their imaginations became slightly more grounded in new discoveries. And yet, despite this grounding, their concepts of Australia were far off from what they'd find, at least in the view of those first Europeans which saw it. Next week, we will look towards the first European discoveries of Australia, and how to touch, and the British first understood the continent and its inhabitants. We will also discuss some of the lost caravels and mythic expeditions which may have first discovered the continent before our recorded history. Though this will only be a short but fun part of the episode. Episode 7 will begin the start of the history of British colonisation and settlement of Australia. So be certain to check it out when it comes out. In preparation for what may be a month's worth of episodes, as I described why the British chose to colonise Australia, how they did it, and what it was like to be a part of those first European expeditions too. Australia.