The time when humans arrived in Australia has been an evolving story of its own. Early ideas in the 1970s were that the first people arrived in Australia just a few thousand years ago. Then with the discovery of remains at Lake Mungo in NSW the date was pushed out to 40,000 years. More recent remains pushed it to beyond 50,000 years. Now sites east of Darwin from the edge of the Arnhem Land escarpment date the first humans at 65,000 years. So were the early arrivals modern humans or another earlier species?

ABC INTERVIEW WITH PROF BERT ROBERTS