Sandblow sites in the Great Sandy Region, coastal southeast Queensland: implications for models of late Holocene rainforest exploitation and settlement restructuring

Abstract

Excavations and surface collections undertaken at four large stone artefact sites situated within huge, active parabolic dunes at Cooloola are described. I argue that these sites, along with similar sites on Fraser Island, represent elements of an Early Phase of Aboriginal use of the Great Sandy Region between at least c. 5500 to 2300 BP. Demise of the Early Phase is seen as a response to climatically-induced, regional decreases in rainforest distribution. This response is set within broader scale increases and decreases in rainforest exploitation seen across SE Queensland around 3000-2000 BP. The implications of complementary responses to resource restructuring in terms of reconstructions of past settlement patterns and population size are discussed.