From Prehistory to History: Landscape and Cultural Change on the South Alligator River, Kakadu National Park

Through an inter-disciplinary research program involving archaeology, palaeoecology and social history, this project will document the occupational and environmental histories associated with the South Alligator River from the mid Holocene to historical times. It will examine regional Aboriginal prehistory and history against dramatically changing environmental and social conditions and explore the impact of fire as a major environmental force and management instrument according to past evidence of its natural and anthropogenic origins. The major outcome will be a greater understanding of the implications and management challenges associated with climate change, by contextualising threatened change in a history of past change.