The sea people: late Holocene maritime specialisation in the Whitsunday Islands, central Queensland

Abstract

This monograph describes research from the Whitsunday Islands, a group of 73 offshore islands on the central Queensland coast in north-eastern Australia. The work presents evidence of maritime hunter-gatherers from the tropical east coast of Australia. The specific aims of this research were: to ascertain if archaeological changes such as have been observed during the mid- to late Holocene in other parts of Australia were also evident in the Whitsunday region; if this was so, to examine the role of the physical environment in this process of cultural change, specifically the effects of post-glacial sea-level rises; and to develop a model of change in the Whitsunday Islands which acknowledges the great complexity of cultural systems and also the role of internal social processes in bringing about change.