Flinders University—New discoveries from Australia’s oldest known underwater archaeological record reveal how First Peoples lived, transported goods and used different places within a vast cultural landscape that was submerged when rising seas transformed the continent after the last Ice Age.
Published in the prestigious journal Quaternary Science Reviews, compelling new evidence* shows that significant Aboriginal cultural heritage survives on Australia’s seabed. It also shows that earlier discoveries at Murujuga, in north-western Australia, were not isolated finds but part of a broader submerged cultural landscape across this World Heritage-listed region.
The discoveries, which include stone artifacts associated with an ancient freshwater spring, provide insights into a world that existed before rising seas reshaped Australia’s coastline.
While the sites were submerged at least 9,000 years ago, the artifacts could be considerably older.
At the heart of this discovery is a partnership between underwater archaeology researchers from Flinders University, The University of Western Australia, James Cook University and University of York (UK) with Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation and its Rangers, who trained as scientific divers and worked alongside archaeologists to locate and document the underwater cultural sites.
“The collaboration demonstrates the value of working beside trained Indigenous Rangers who actively contributed to this challenging scientific research,” says lead researcher and specialist in marine archaeology, Professor Jonathan Benjamin from Flinders University’s College of Human Sciences and Culture.
Malik Churnside and Richard Variakojis – Rangers from the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, Land and Sea Unit and co-authors on the paper – undertook scientific diver surveys and made some of the underwater discoveries.
“The Ngarda-Ngarli people have cared for Murujuga for at least 50,000 years. What this research shows is that our cultural landscape extends far beyond the shoreline and into Sea Country, where important parts of our story remain preserved beneath the sea,” says Vincent Adams, Director, Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation.
“World Heritage recognition brings new responsibilities as well as global recognition. Research like this strengthens our ability to identify, understand and protect the whole Murujuga cultural landscape, including Country that was submerged when sea levels rose thousands of years ago.
More than two million square kilometers of Australia’s continental shelf was submerged as sea levels rose following the end of the last Ice Age. Before that transformation, generations of First Nations peoples lived across landscapes that now lie beneath the ocean.
The newly documented sites reveal two distinct parts of this lost world. One site centers on a freshwater spring, a vital resource that would have been a place where people would congregate. The other is associated with a rocky hill overlooking an ancient river channel, showing how people used different parts of the landscape when the archipelago was still connected by dry land.
Analysis indicates some artifacts were made from stone sourced from around Rosemary Island, about 23 kilometers from where they were found, which suggests people moved valuable resources across a landscape that is now seabed.
Murujuga Project team members are also affiliated with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures, and the study also builds on landmark discoveries reported in 2020 and 2023 made by the Deep History of Sea Country project team.
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Article Source: Flinders University news release.
*Underwater archaeological discoveries demonstrate raw material selection and transport of stone artefacts: new evidence from the submerged cultural landscape of Murujuga, Western Australia, Quaternary Science Reviews, 14-Oct-2026. 10.1016/j.quascirev.2026.110307
Cover Image, Top: Ymblanter, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
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