A mid-holocene depopulation of the Australian Southwest

Abstract

This thesis is an exercise in regional archaeology. It focuses on the Australian Southwest, one of the continent's clearly recognizable natural and cultural areas; and it attempts to provide am explanation for a region-wide archaeological phenomenon, one which could not be explained by either traditional site-oriented research or reference to pan-Australian archaeological phenomena. Evidence is presented to suggest that during the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene periods this extreme southwest corner of the continent was progressively abandoned by its formerly large human population, and that from about 6000 BP to about 4000 BP the entire region was virtually depopulated. It is the result of six years of research undertaken to verify the author's prediction that such an event was likely to have occurred (Ferguson 1961:632-4).