New ages for human occupation and climatic change at Lake Mungo, Australia

New ages for human occupation and climatic change at Lake Mungo, Australia

Australia's oldest human remains, found at Lake Mungo, include the world's oldest ritual ochre burial (Mungo III)1 and the first recorded cremation (Mungo I)2. Until now, the importance of these finds has been constrained by limited chronologies and palaeoenvironmental information3. Mungo III, the source of the world's oldest human mitochondrial DNA4, has been variously estimated at 30 thousand years (kyr) old1, 42–45 kyr old5,6 and 62 ± 6 kyr o…

In the outback, climate change widens Australia’s racial divide

Nowhere is the divide more evident than in Coober Pedy, a remote outback community of about 1500 people in South Australia that is effectively split in two.

An enchanted garden reminds us how civilisations are built on taxes

Only 3000 people lived in Melbourne when Charles La Trobe became superintendent, but he envisioned a great city, and reserved vast areas for today’s gardens.

In the Australian outback, climate change widens the racial divide

In the scorching Australian opal mining town of Coober Pedy, White people live in cool “dugouts” while their Aboriginal neighbors suffer above, often without AC.