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GIANTS FROM THE DREAMTIME

The YOWIE in Myth and Reality

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Contents / About the Author / Dedications / Acknowledgements / Forward / Introduction

Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 10 / Chapter 11 Chapter 12 / Chapter 13 / Chapter 14 / Chapter 15 / Chapter 16 / Chapter 17 / Chapter 18 / Chapter 19 / Chapter 20 / Chapter 21

Chapter 4 Below

Dawn People of the Dreamtime

On the basis of recent discoveries by archaeologists in the Northern Territory, conservative scientists suggest that the earliest ancestors of our Aboriginal people arrived on our shores by water craft from island south-east Asia, at some time prior to 176,000 years ago. If this is correct, it would make them the earliest seafarers in the world at current scientific knowledge.

But is the current scientific picture correct? What if, like Captain James Cook, the Australian Aborigines were but mere late-comers on this continent?

That is the hypothesis of this chapter, for it is my intention to present an astounding array of fossil and other evidence to the reader, to demonstrate that far earlier primitive races roamed this continent, even before the dawn of the Pleistocene [ice-age] period, and that some of these races were giants; that the first modern humans [Homo sapiens] evolved in Australia, and that our Aboriginal people evolved here from the admixture of two earlier Java races; and that the Yowie, incredible though it may seem, is our ancestor!!

Many anthropologists accept that more than one race of Java type Man once occupied Australia. Their arrival was aided in remote times, it will be argued, by a vast land-shelf, containing what are now the islands of south-east Asia, until rising sea-levels flooded this 'bridge' towards the close of the last ice-age, forcing any future immigrants to reach Australia by water craft.

The Pleistocene period, which lasted from about 2 million to 10,000 years ago, supported a vast number of animal and hominid forms now extinct worldwide. Much of the northern hemisphere was glaciated, creating extremely harsh conditions which differed considerably to those experienced in the southern hemisphere, which included the Australian region.

For, unlike the northern hemisphere, Australia did not experience extensive glaciation, this being confined to the Victorian/NSW Alps, and also Tasmania, which like New Guinea, was at that time joined to the Australian mainland.

Apart from the southern Alpine region, the rest of Australia remained ice-free, with a warm and temperate climate, the interior being a land of rich vegetation, forests and lakes fed by extensive river systems, all of which supported a vast population of marsupial, bird and reptilian life, which in turn provided an endless supply of food for our stone-age human and near- human inhabitants.

It was the age of the 'megafauna'. Giant kangaroo species ranging in heights of from 3 to 4 metres shared the plains with more than one species of Giant Emu. One of these, Dromornis stirtoni, reached 3 m or more in height, weighing more than 500 kg. Roaming among them was the largest 'mega-marsupial' of all, diprotodon optatum, nearly 3 m long by 2 m tall at the shoulder.

Crocodiles, today restricted to the far northern Australian water courses, in those times enjoyed a distribution deep into South Australia; and the "ancient giant butcher', Megalania prisca, a giant 7 m long, goanna weighing 700 kg preyed upon animal and human life large and small.

Then somewhere around 30,000 years ago, this Australian ice-age world began to vanish forever. The 'megafauna' and many other smaller creatures began to vanish. Scientists suggest two basic causes were responsible for this devastating event; the climatic changes caused by the close of the ice-age, and the hunting activities of Aboriginal Man.

Yet, as evidence suggests there were earlier human inhabitants, the extinction may have been a gradual process over a much longer period, accelerated only by the drying up of the continent.

As the climate turned warmer, the southern ice-sheet retreated and the vast networks of lakes, swamplands and rivers diminished, the forests retreated, turning the interior into a vast, parched wasteland.

Meanwhile, the melting of the worldwide ice-sheets caused the sea-levels to rise, gradually separating Australia from New Guinea, and Tasmania from the mainland; while the remaining land-bridges were flooded to form the present-day islands of southeast Asia and Melanesia. Also flooded at this time, I argue, was an extension of this great land shelf, which linked Melanesia to New Zealand, but more anon.

In 1967, at Kow Swamp in northern Victoria, archaeologists found ancient burial sites between 15,000 and 9,000 years old. The skeletons unearthed display anatomical features distinct to those of modern Aboriginals.

These people were far more robust and heavily built in physical appearance, for their skulls were very thick, longer and larger than any modern Aboriginal types, with receding foreheads and thick eyebrow ridges, huge cheek bones, jaws and teeth.

Soon after these finds, archaeologists made further important fossil human finds at Lake Mungo in south-western NSW. The skeleton of a female excavated here and since scientifically dated to be 68,000 years old, displayed physical features reminiscent of modern humans.

These discoveries demonstrate that two distinct races of people had occupied Australia at the same time, during the last ice-age. Scientists now believe these two races inter-bred to produce the modern Aboriginal.

The evidence thus implies that the robust [Know Swamp] race are descendants of the Java Man [Homo erectus] of 500,000 years ago, while the smaller Lake Mungo race entered Australia from China, probable descendants of the Beijing Man [Homo Beijingensis], and a later Java type, Wadjak Man [Homo wadjakensis].

Scientists have long argued that, at the time modern Aboriginals were developing here, sea levels were much lower than they are today, but that Australia was cut off from south-east Asia, making crossing by water craft necessary.

This conservative scientific view however, cannot explain how, for argument's sake, a race of pre-Homo erectus giant people with no water craft construction skills could have reached Australia [as I shall demonstrate] from Java. The implications are that, at a period earlier than 50,000 years ago, Australia was connected to mainland Asia by a continuous land-bridge between Indonesia and New Guinea.

I believe certain fossil and artefact discoveries made by me could help push back the antiquity of Man in Australia, to a time comparable to that of the old stone-age races of Java and China.

These findings suggest that: before the Aboriginals [Australoids], our continent was shared by a proto-Australoid race of Wadjak Man appearance, and other earlier people similar to solo Man, both of Java; and that besides other, normal-size hominids, Australia was once inhabited by perhaps more than one race of stone tool-making giant beings of around 3 - 4 m and more in height, reminiscent of giant races known to have inhabited Java and China in mid-Pleistocene times.

Excerpts from my 2001 Book "Giants From the Dreamtime-The Yowie in Myth and Reality.
Available Now. To Order Your Copy Details Are On The Main Homepage.

To Continue Reading Click On Image Or Below For Chapter 5

Chapter 5 War of the Giants Chapter 5

Click any Below Chapter (eg: Chapter 1 )

Contents / About the Author / Dedications / Acknowledgements / Forward / Introduction

Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 10 / Chapter 11 Chapter 12 / Chapter 13 / Chapter 14 / Chapter 15 / Chapter 16 / Chapter 17 / Chapter 18 / Chapter 19 / Chapter 20 / Chapter 21

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