Hi Nick,

Yes, and there is a story from up that way about an event when Australia and India were joined together as part of Gondwana - that the Indian and Aboriginal tribes were always fighting, until one extremely wise elder advised the Aboriginal men to knock off the turbans of the Indians (all being Sikhs, mostly banana and sugar growers), which they did, upon which the Indians ran away in defeat.

We forget that India and Australia separated only in the past five hundred years - more specifically, between 1500 and 1788. They are still moving apart at about ten km per year.

I just love true stories like that one.

Joe

Yes the WA earthquake proves that.
However , the languages of Bundjalung and Dharawal show evidence of Indonesia loan-words just as in north Oz.

Oh Joe, they separated much longer ago. Perhaps you are doing a nickname nick thing !
Afterall many navigators went that way without carrying their ships overland.

Not at Alice Springs Todd river except in a tsunami year.

Bazz,

What, do you mean thousands of years ago ?

And of course goods were carried overland, since - until Columbus discovered the world was round - any ship trying to reach far-off places would obviously fall off the edge. Without Columbus, we probably would still be doing that. Traditionally, Aboriginal people knew that too, which is why they didn't get too close to it: that way, they survived for sixty thousand years. Ancient wisdom.

Joe

Several authors have discussed Bugi ( Indonesian) ships sailing to east Africa , Madagascar around 1500 years ago.
History of Madagascar - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Madagascar
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