Marsupials (which give birth prematurely due to poorly developed placentas and suckle the young in the pouch) lost out to placental mammals everywhere but Australia. The sabre-tooth marsupial cats of South America could not compete in the end with their placental counterparts; now there is only the small genus of caenolestes (rat opossums) left. Of all of Northern America's marsupials, opossums are the sole survivors. A few small marsupials persist in isolated Malaysian and Indonesian islands, and in Papua New Guinea, but it is in Australia that they triumphed.

There even developed a different type of marsupial known as the monotreme. These are egg-laying mammals that suckle their young. There are only two animals that are monotremes in the whole world, and they live in Australia. They are, of course, the platypus and the echidna. Both are related from a common ancestor at least a million years ago. There may have been, at one time, other species of montreme, but there is no record.

Marsupials continued to diversify, adapting forms similar to their placental counterparts in Eurasia and the Americas. Marsupial cats, moles, dogs, etc, began to appear, free from competition. These evolved to fill niches that placental animals occupied elsewhere - cats and dogs, for example. Marsupial mice play the same role as other mice, and Kangaroos fill the niche occupied by deer on other continents.

But the marsupials got much bigger in Australia than anywhere else, the largest (in terms of weight) being Diprodoton. This was a wombat-like creature often the size of a hippo or rhinoceros, but covered with fur. Early Aborigines hunted this animal thousands of years ago, and it is possible they hunted it (like others) to extinction.

Kangaroos, which can grow taller than 2 metres (Red Kangaroos), used to be taller than 3m. They had short snouts compared to today, and were at one stage carnivorous. So at one period of their evolution, kangaroos as tall as houses chased other animals for food. This may seem strange, but it has to be remembered that even deer were carnivorous at one time as well. There even exists today a small species of deer that still sports two fangs which protrude from the top jaw. However, these kangaroos stopped being carnivorous while still in that form, and they in turn became prey to the marsupial cats and dogs. All kangaroos evolved from this huge macropod.

Wombats came in two distinct species thousands of years ago. The larger ones were much bigger than pigs, while the small ones were as they are today. The small ones survived as they needed less food. 

Other large marsupials existed in those days as well, but certain factors spelt the beginning of their demise.

It is now apparent that the Aborigines did damage to certain areas with their agricultural techniques, such as burning off. Humans, placental mammals, had made their way into Australia over 40, 000 years ago. However, this is seen as a conservative estimate by many, and certain artefacts have been dated to about 100, 000 years.

During this time, a massive swamp, Lake Mungo, covered the centre of Australia. It now appears that there were two distinct tribes inhabiting opposite sides of the huge lake. Although they moved around it for thousands of years, they never met - or so it is thought. Evidence seems to suggest they never knew of each other, one being at the south end and only migrating east and west along it, the other confined to the north.

No one is really sure as to who was there first, but the one which seemed to die out, the Lake Mungo tribe, seems to have been a different race altogether.

Aborigines are a unique race, one that is not really related to others of the areas between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, except perhaps distantly to the Melanesians. Many feel they were Dravidian in origin, and migrated from the Asian continent in prehistoric times. That is to say that the races in India and the Aborigines shared common ancestors. It is even thought by some that they are the last surviving remnant of an earlier incarnation of Homo Sapiens (Homo sapiens neanderthalsis), commonly known as Neanderthal.

The Lake Mungo tribe seem to bear more resemblance to early Africans, but nothing is certain. Native Tasmanians (now extinct) were thought to be Negroid rather than Australoid (the term given to the unique Aborigines), so it could be possible they were the survivors of the Lake Mungo tribe.

The Aborigines became the masters of the land, and even hunted a few species, like diprdoton possibly, to extinction. They also introduced the first placental predator - the dingo - a dog related to Asian species.

Aborigines used fire carefully, but made mistakes as humans do. Certain areas never grew back, so small ecosystems were destroyed.

But it is not man which proved to be the worst aggressor against the vast marsupial population, and the vast oasis that supported it. It was the Ice Age.

The seas of the world became shallower at this time, due to so much water being drawn in to glaciers. The seas dropped to 200 feet below present levels, which made it easier for humans to migrate here. But as the seas pulled away, the shorelines going ever further out, with it went the fresh water from the interior. The seas had, in effect, held the water in, and now that water was bleeding from the land.

Over thousands of years, the centre dried up, with the result that many species died out, while others had to adapt. Australia was now the sunburnt country.

The agricultural habits of Aborigines, which had served both man and nature well, now spelt disaster for certain areas. Yet, for the most part, they lived in perfect harmony with the land. They developed a close bond with the drying land and it shows in their legends and art.

The Aborigines concept of the Dreaming seems to go back many thousands of years, as they changed little in the many millennia since arriving. They adapted to the land, and became extremely skilled in extracting its resources. But beyond that, they changed little. They did not have empires rising and falling like in the Old World surrounding the Mediterranean. They did not have the warring tribes like in North America, nor the brutal conflicts of the South American city-states and empires. Even Papua New Guinea saw more blood, with its feuding mountain tribes.

But in Australia, the tribal conflicts were few. With more room to spread out, no one needed to fight for breathing space. Aborigines adapted to so many different areas of Australia, from the tropical rain forests of the north to the dry interior, from the isolated coast of Western Australia to the wind-swept isle of Tasmania.

In whatever area they found themselves in, they adapted beautifully. Along the coasts, and especially in Queensland and the Kakadu area of the Northern Territory, they developed fishing cultures. In the Outback, they were nomadic and resilient, and to this day they there are still those who live on the Walkabout (a concept in the Dreaming as well as a necessity). Aborigines of the scrub thrived in the forests of Victoria and New South Wales, and even made the relatively cold Tasmania their home.

To them it was just a matter of knowing the land, of feeling it and becoming part of it. When you look at their legends, which also tell you of the origins of our animals, you get the impression that they didn’t really see themselves as much more than the other creatures of the continent. They apologised from the heart to all animals they killed, and they only killed for food (and never more than they needed).

And so these different Aboriginal cultures existed in harmony and in isolation for countless generations. They lived simple but fulfilling lives, and had no worries in the world…that is, until white man came…

Latest News On Thylacine Origins