1 Australia is an amazing island continent some call the "Land Down Under." Australia's original inhabitants, known as Aborigines, have the longest continuous cultural history in the world. Their origins go back to at least 40,000 years ago. The first ancestors of Australian Aborigines may have crossed land bridges and made short sea journeys to reach the continent from Southeast Asia.
2 These early people left behind an abundance of rock art. Some are among the oldest known engravings in the world, pre-dating the cave etchings of Europe. The Aborigines were great hunters. Using dingoes (native dogs that arrived in Australia from Asia some 3,500 years ago) and hunting tools such as the spear, woomera, and boomerang, the Aborigines hunted large marsupials nearly to extinction.
3 By the time of European contact, the Aborigines had developed trade and cultural links with Asia and had formed into different communities, spreading across the whole continent into distinct and separate peoples. Each group had its own territory, traditions, beliefs, and language.