ttbn: 60,000 years, and absolutely nothing to show for it, compared with the advanced societies the natives of other continents had achieved up to 1778 when Britain brought civilisation. Facts outweigh ideology.

I said all that in a previous discussion. But, you are right.

Bazz: You need excess energy to produce inventions and improve knowledge of materials such as metal ores.

Well Australia has an abundance of Metal Ores. I find it strange that they never advanced from a pointy stick for a spear. even 250000 years ago in Africa & everywhere else they put a stone tip on a spear. They did make stone Axes but the polishing of the face didn't start until 10000 years ago & fully polished ones only about 4000 years ago. I have a very Primitative Stone Axe I dug up from underground at Bluewater in Nth. Qld. It was dated at 10000 years.

Bazz: The one thing that is surprising is that they never invented pottery. They had stacks of clay and fire the two ingredients needed for pottery.

The Melanesian type Aboriginal of Tasmania were actually going backwards at a great rate of knots. They had lost the ability to swim & to make clothing & had trouble making fire, relying on forest fires which they kept alive. According to my ex Father-in-law whose father looked after Tugganinne for many years. One famous Anthropologist, a few years ago, even went as far as to say that if white man hadn't come along the last Aboriginal on Tasmania would have died out before 2000.

Cossomby,

Don't bother, I'm not interested in reading anymore of your leftist, feminist garbage. You are wrong, and that's the end of it.

Bazz: Were any Indonesian artifacts ever traded from the north ?

I believe they did. The Macassens brought fruit trees such as Mango's & Tamarind & dogs. The Chinese brought China Apples to the Northern Goldfields later. I believe there was a recorded instance of an Indonesian sword being found with some Aboriginals near Bathurst. apart from some interbreeding (Yellaboys) I don't think they left anything of any significants that I have heard of. I feel that Mango's & Tamarinds were brought with the Macassens as food for the journey & grew naturally from the seeds left scattered around. The local Aboriginals only picked the fruit in season & the Macassens used the fruit for the return journey after they had caught their fill of Sea Cucumber.

Bazz and Jayb,

I would like to make it clear that I have nothing against modern Australians descending from the original inhabitants. You probably feel the same way. What I do object to is ignorant, virtue signalling anti-every-everything-Australian whiteys spewing out rubbish about people who were trapped in the Stone Age when civilisation found them. Australians of aboriginal descent have the same opportunities as the rest of us, and most of them have availed themselves of those opportunities. Dragging up bullshite from two centuries ago, much of which has been proven false, and none of which is our fault is, as Warren Mundine said, vile and destructive. These white renegades are using other Australians in a cynical manner for political reasons. They are the same mob that spat their hatred at anyone against SSM. They won that one with trickery, and are now emboldened by the success to try undermining more of the society they hate. And, they are gutless cowards who use the democracy they hate because they know they can get away with it - more's the pity. If they ever get their way, the rest of us will be in unable to express an opinion.

The Aboriginal people invented the atom bomb in 7635BC, but found it totally useless so they abandoned the project 12 months later. My wise old fart-in-law told me so. Seems if you're an old and crusty right winger on this forum, quoting the wisdom of the fart-in-law is the way to go. I've come across a couple doing so lately. Personally, my old F-I-L knows nothing, can't do anything, makes a cock up of it all, and he's not even black.

All the developments, discoveries, advancements in society come about through the efforts of less than 1% of the population, call them the Einstein types . Even the 1% require to some degree the use of previous knowledge to build on, call them the Edison types. What are the rest of us doing, I'm happy to include myself in the 99%, as far as human advancement is concerned, absolutely nothing. We are busy living, labouring in this Utopian society the 1% have provided for us, call us the drones, workers, plebs, what ever, but don't try and take any of the credit for the efforts of the 1%.

Remember, the next time you bash on your keyboard, or put your mobile phone to your ear, or eat polyunsaturated margarine, the chances are you did nothing to provide those things for yourself, someone else did.

//Technology or the lack of it has nothing to do with 'goodness'.//

Then why did you devote about of your third of your original post listing all the technology Europeans took for granted but Aborigines lacked? Why would you bring it up if it's not relevant?