Adventure Ausrama Blog

The long held "belief" that humans came out of Africa 60,000 years ago has now been officially announced as wrong by scientists. Migrations had been regularly been pushed back as far as 120,000 years before the present. It seems migration was constant not in waves. New research methods detect Homo sapiens in Asia very early, particularly in China. Genetic traces of these people are very low in modern humans. This indicates that the initial movement was slow from Africa. Later it became of a flood of Inquisitive searchers of new regions beyond. The early arrivals interbred with Denisovans and Neanderthals. These humans were taller and slender than those who came later. Neaderthals made tools from large flakes while humans technology involved lighter, finer cutting blades and spear heads. This was probably because Neanderthals were more muscular and tended to bash the quarry to death. Humans were more creative, carving antlers and bone. They made ivory flutes. C...

In the 1930s Australian sugar cane was being destroyed by the grey-backed cane beetle and the French beetle. They are both native to Australia. Scientists looked abroad for a solution. They made the biggest mistake in Australia's history. Cane toads were brought in from Hawaii in 1935. They bred impressively in captivity: this should have been a warning sign. Beetles in Hawaii are not the same as Australian types. Ignoring potential danger 102 young toads were released In Innisfall, Cairns and Gordonvale. Entomologist, Walter Froggatt announced that there would be a disaster - he was right. Their population exploded across the country. Cane toads did not eat the beetles damaging sugar cane. They devoured native insects, other amphibians and reptiles. Furthermore, creatures that eat them die because they are poisonous. Fortunately, there has been a breakthrough that could see the end to the dangerous pest. Their DNA has been sequenced. Three viruses have been identified t...

Captain Cook discovered Australia in 1770. If you believe this you are living in dreamland. The Portuguese took Malacca, a small Malaysian state, in 1511. Spain controlled part of the Philippines from 1521. Indonesia "welcomed" the Netherlands from 1596 and the Southeast Asian country was later ruled by the Dutch from 1825. France sent emissaries to Siam in 1600. The question is did any of the sailors from these countries land in Australia before the British arrived in Singapore in 1819: note Britain had been around in India since 1612. It is obvious that Dutch sailors landed on the north coast of Australia because Indonesia is just next door. Why didn't they claim it? Why didn't Portugal claim it? The Portuguese colonized East Timor from 1613 and that is even closer. The truth is they didn't want it because they couldn't find any advanced societies there. No trade was on offer. In those days trade was everything. There was no welfare state in those days. Y...