“Molecular clock estimates, genetic studies and archaeological data all suggest the initial colonisation of Sahul and Australia by modern humans occurred around 48,000–50,000 years ago. Over the last few decades, a significant number of archaeological sites dated at more than 30,000 years old have been discovered.
When did modern humans get to Australia? – The Australian Museum“
The quote above was crudely copied from a Google search. I don’t know if the Australian Museum is right, but this view supports my favoured theory that humans explored the coasts of Africa and Asia following the northern shores of the Indian Ocean before the continents themselves were penetrated or at least densely populated. This wouldn’t have been a planned adventure or campaign, but people moving gradually over hundreds of thousands of years.
In any case there were people settled in Australia, and all over the world, living in harmony with nature and their surroundings long before Europeans spotted the Australasian territory in the early 17th century.
from Wikipedia. ..
“People first arrived on the Australian mainland by sea from Maritime Southeast Asia between 50,000 and 65,000 years ago, and penetrated to all parts of the continent, from the rainforests in the north, the deserts of the centre, and the sub-Antarctic islands of Tasmania and Bass Strait. The artistic, musical and spiritual traditions they established are among the longest surviving such traditions in human history.”
In 1770 James Cook charted the east coast of Australia, and reported it fit for colonisation. 18 years later the 1st fleet arrived at Botany Bay, and the 1st penal colony was established.
This last, and the plight of aboriginal people thereafter is recent history.
Now people arriving in small boats from Southeast Asia, or anywhere else, will not be welcome, but will be incarcerated offshore. Despite its dire vulnerability to climate change Australia’s record on ecology is bad.
Yet no one threatens to displace the Australian government or people. This is not because they have any natural right to be where they are, or to consume the islands resources, nor to refuse the same rights to any newcomers, but because they are wealthy, powerful, and well connected. They are also lucky not to have a larger bulley for a near neighbour.
Ukraine is in a very different situation. People have moved across Europe from Asia also for hundreds of thousands of years. When humans began to settle and plough the land, that lead to colonisation, which, in turn lead to the concept of any European war being a “world war”.
Ukraine has been a colony of Russia, and now seeks to be a colony of the more prosperous and, (comparatively), free western aliance of the EU and Nato.
I can’t deny them this aspiration and would support them in the same way that I would support people escaping from Soviet controlled East Germany. But they need, at the moment, to make that escape as individuals, not as a nation. Nationalism has no good part to play in this situation. Let Putin bang the nationalist drum, and let us play the music of humanity, of respect for people, peace, and the environment.
This is not appeasement, Russia needs to know where the line is, and needs to be treated with respect, and not vilified. The policy of sowing seeds of insurrection is a very dangerous one, it is an antidiplomacy, and is not compatible with diplomacy. So if it fails, it leaves us staring down the barrel of a nuclear gun, with nothing but a nuclear gun for”protection”.
Please feel free to contest anything I have said, this is not a product of any great study, but simply the world as I see it this morning. Now I must do the washing up, and get off down the allotment.
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