Australia’s oldest underwater archaeology reveals ancient life within a lost landscape

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 journal Quaternary Science Reviews, new evidence shows that significant Aboriginal cultural heritage survives on Australia’s seabed. It also shows that earlier discoveries at Murujuga, in northwestern 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 the University of York (UK) and 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’s Land and Sea Unit and co-authors on the paper—undertook scientific diving 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 of 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.

“This partnership brings together Traditional Owner knowledge, ranger expertise and world-leading science. It is helping ensure that decisions about Murujuga continue to be guided by the people who have cared for this Country for generations,” he says.

“The Murujuga rangers are critically important to this research. Their knowledge, connection to Country and enthusiasm are essential to working in the submerged cultural landscapes of Murujuga Sea Country, and diving with them is a great privilege,” says Flinders Ph.D. candidate Louise Brooke.

More than 2 million square kilometers (772,000 square miles) 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 where people would have congregated. 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.

“For Traditional Owners, these discoveries are not just about the past. They help strengthen our understanding of a cultural landscape that continues to hold meaning today. The more we learn about how our ancestors used and cared for Country, the better equipped we are to protect it for future generations,” says Adams.

Analysis indicates some artifacts were made from stone sourced from around Rosemary Island, about 23 kilometers (14 miles) from where they were found, which suggests people moved valuable resources across a landscape that is now seabed.

Benjamin says the findings highlight the importance of identifying and protecting submerged Indigenous cultural heritage, much of which remains largely unexplored.

“These landscapes did not simply disappear when they were flooded,” he says. “They remain part of Country and continue to preserve evidence of people’s lives, knowledge and connection to place. We are only beginning to understand the scale and significance of Australia’s submerged cultural heritage. Each new discovery helps reveal another chapter of Australia’s deep human story.”

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Sadie Harley

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Andrew Zinin

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