Dear mhaze,

You are misrepresenting the debate. Pascoe is pushing back through the use of explorer diaries against the notion that all aborigines were nomadic. You are now saying he is claiming none were. I have read his book and it doesn't prosecute that argument at all.

However he says that the perceptions of a wholly nomadic race are wrong and he backs it up with first hand accounts.

“These journals reveal a much more complicated Aboriginal economy than the primitive hunter-gatherer lifestyle we had been told was the simple lot of Australia's First People.”

Who after reading the first hand records he gathers in his book would disagree with that?

Equally you can't claim that “In the main they were nomads and no amount of sleight-of-hand will alter that fact.” because it isn't a proven fact at all. You don't present any evidence to support a notion that ultimately better allows justification for the extensive land theft which occurred.

and still be transient within that section.
ALTRAV,
Yes, once a place was saturated with landmines etc. camp was shifted to cleaner areas until it was over-used again & camp was shifted again & again. Calling that nomadic is an overkill but calling it settled is too ! Once a place got too messy they moved a few miles. Eventually, they returned to former camp sites & the whole process repeated !
Even animals move on once an area is grazed out ! It makes perfect sense.

"You are now saying he is claiming none were [nomadic]."

When did I say that?

Who after reading the first hand records he gathers in his book would disagree with that?
SteeleRedux,
So, because YOU happen to like something you suddenly agree with first-hand reports ?

MHaze - we can only hope - Pascoe is entrenched in the psyche of many and especially education - so it will be many, many years.

"But Pascoe is telling people what they want to hear, and they won't and don't dare look at his facts too closely. He'll be a passing fade and then the facts will reassert themselves."
Posted by mhaze, Friday, 12 July 2019 1:24:16 PM

Researchers Christopher Johnson and Barry Brook from the James Cook University and the University of Adelaide have developed a new population growth model for the Aboriginal population of Australia. Australia’s Aboriginal population grew rapidly over the last 3500 years and could have continued to grow had European settlement not occurred, the research shows.

“It’s the first time we have evidence that a hunter gatherer society can experience large scale increases in population density. Usually that is done in societies that feature agriculture. There’s also evidence that Aborigines were becoming more sedentary. There’s evidence in Victoria that they were developing elements of an agricultural society. So it’s possible that the population increase could have continued were it not for the introduction of Europeans.” said Professor Brook.