Australia’s earliest humans? The case for Moyjil

The latest, special issue of the Royal Society of Victoria’s Proceedings concerns itself in detail with a ten-year research program led by a multidisciplinary team from four Victorian universities. The subject is an unusual deposit of shells and burnt stones at Warrnambool, in western Victoria. The site, originally recognised by the late Edmund Gill, is at the mouth of the Hopkins River, known as “Moyjil” by Traditional Owners. It contains the remains of shellfish, crabs and fish in a cemented sand, together with charcoal, blackened stones and features which resemble fireplaces. The dating of the shells, burnt stones and surrounding cemented sands by a variety of methods has established that the deposit was formed about 120,000 years ago, roughly twice the presently accepted age of arrival of people on the Australian continent based on archaeological evidence.