AC9HH7K04 Year 7 Humanities and Social Sciences

Content descriptor how First Nations Australians have responded to environmental processes and changes over time

Elaborations

• • Elaboration explaining the effects of environmental changes on First Nations Australians across Australia, such as rising sea levels (for example, the loss of the land bridge to Tasmania and the formation of the Torres Strait Islands from an existing land bridge) and the aridification of some landscapes, such as Lake Mungo
• • Elaboration investigating how accounts of rising sea levels that occurred between 18,000 and 7,000 years ago have been passed down through the oral traditions of First Nations Australians; for example, stories in the Boonwurrung (Port Phillip) Country about the loss of kangaroo hunting grounds, and those in the Nukunu (Spencer Gulf) Country about the sea swallowing up the land
• • Elaboration investigating the megafauna that inhabited Australia in the Pleistocene epoch and discussing how it may have impacted on the sustainable harvesting of game by First Nations Australians, both prior to and after the extinction of megafauna
• • Elaboration exploring evidence of how First Nations Australians responded to environmental changes in the Holocene epoch; for example, archaeological evidence that people maintained seasonal presence in the Willandra Lakes region at times when water was available, the maritime specialisation of those on the Torres Strait Islands and Cape York around 2,500 BP, and the de-population of islands such as Rottnest, Kangaroo and Flinders islands when cut off from the mainland
• • Elaboration investigating the water management techniques used by early First Nations Australians in environments with scarce supplies of fresh water, such as islands and deserts