History

 

 

 

The prehistory of Australia is a term which may be used to describe the period of approximately 41,000-46,000 years (or up to 68,000 years, as is contended by some studies 1) between the first human habitation of the Australian continent and the first known sighting of Australia by Europeans in 1606, which may be taken as the beginning of the recent history of Australia. This era is referred to as prehistory rather than history because there are no written records of human events in Australia which pre-date this contact.