The veil of antipodean pre-history -- The colonization of Australia -- Early settlement across Australia -- Extinction of Pleistocene fauna -- Who were the first Australians? -- Life in Pleistocene Australia -- Tasmania isolated -- Technology in the Holocene -- Coastal economies in the Holocene -- Inland economies in the Holocene -- Arid zone economies in the Holocene -- Population growth and mobility -- Social identity and interaction during the Holocene -- The ethnographic challenge : change in the last millennium.