Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 109
You can make out the distinct stripes on the rear end of this petroglyph repre-
sentation of a Tasmanian tiger at Kakadu National Park. The petroglyph, protected by a rock
overhang, must be at least 3,000 years old, because this is when these marsupial predators
disappeared from northern Australia.
impassable southern ocean. New Zealand lay beyond, but it was separated
from Australia by 3,000 kilometers of treacherous water. Humans would
not arrive there, by island-hopping from the north, until 750 years ago.
The Great Migration's route out of Africa
The spread of peoples from New Guinea through Australia and fi nally to
Tasmania was the last stage of this most extensive of all early human jour-
neys. From the evidence that we have, this migration penetrated even further
into the unknown than the migration of
Homo erectus
from Africa into Asia
