The Mine Island Aboriginal stone arrangements: spiritual responses to late Holocene change on the central Queensland coast

Abstract

The Mine Island stone arrangement complex is a large ceremonial complex on the central Queensland coast. The arrangements are in excess of 2 km of looping and U-shaped aligned stones. A series of middens, directly adjacent to the stone arrangements, was recently excavated, providing potential chronological insights into the construction and ceremonial use of the stone arrangement. We posit that these stone arrangements represent a shared spirituality linking coastal peoples for over 300 km of coastline, the inception of which was possibly linked to a range of broader changes impacting coastal hunter-gatherers on the central Queensland coast after around 500 BP.