Lardil man Goobalathaldin (also known as Dick Roughsey) finished writing his autobiography, "Moon and Rainbow," in 1970. In it, he told the tales of his ancestors. One of them recounted a time when the Australian mainland was connected to the North Wellesley Islands.
Sea levels surrounding Kangaroo Island and Fleurieu Peninsula.
According to current estimations, the North Wellesley Islands last had terrestrial contact at least 10,000 years ago.
This is only one example, according to Professor Patrick Nunn of the Sustainability Research Center at UniSC, among a growing body of evidence that demonstrates that First Nations Australia's oral histories go back farther than those of practically any other country in the world.
According to Professor Nunn, Australia contains legitimate examples of information that has been transmitted orally for nearly 400 generations in order to reach us now.
Geologist and geographer Professor Nunn's most recent research has looked at how tales from First Nations people all around the world may provide hints about a place's geographical past. Consider Lake Eacham in North Queensland, which was created more than 9,000 years ago by a volcanic eruption.
Indigenous people in the area tell tales of two men who defied their laws—with disastrous results—long before geologists arrived and figured out its roots, according to Professor Nunn.
However, submergence stories may provide the clearest hints as to the extraordinary durability of Indigenous Australians' storytelling.
Reports mentioning the post-last ice age rise in sea levels.
In order to compile these submersion accounts and date them in accordance with the water levels mentioned within, Professor Nunn began working with Associate Professor Nick Reid, an expert in linguistics from the University of New England, several years ago.
He pursued them along the south coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula, finally catching sight of them as they were crossing a strip of land connecting it to Kangaroo Island across Backstairs Passage, according to legends about Ngurunderi, a historical figure from South Australia whose two wives fled from him. He was so furious that he raised the sea to drown them, and the women and their possessions ended up as The Pages, a group of islands. The sea never retreated once more.
"There, the water is around 30-35 meters deep. The last time it would have been possible to walk from the Fleurieu Peninsula to Kangaroo Island was 10,100 years ago, according to our calculations. That kind of antiquity is what we're referring to, said Professor Nunn.
"I've been gathering all the many accounts of it with the help of local Ngarrindjeri people and archaeologists from Flinders University.
"I believe it's amazing that people are still recounting stories today that have been passed down for the majority of that period orally rather than in writing. It is a real story.
Professor Nunn and Dr. Reid have so far assembled more than 30 submergence tales from all points around the coastline of Australia, creating a picture of an earlier, very different Australia.
Professor Nunn noted that Dr. Adrian McCallum, a colleague at UniSC, is researching accounts of the time when K'gari was still connected to the mainland and travelers could cross on foot.
There are many tales of times when the Great Barrier Reef was dry land and people walked out to its edge if you travel north.
It was at least 10,000–11,000 years ago, according to the clock.
A tale of perseverance
Professor Nunn thinks Australia has a claim to having the oldest oral history, even if it is by no means the only nation to have one.
"The continent and the inhabitants remained essentially isolated for about 70,000 years. Australia had nearly the finest conditions for preserving these legends since there were so few foreign groups to dilute them, according to Professor Nunn.
Due to the geography of Australia, these tales have been able to persist in oral traditions, recollections, songs, and artistic expression.
But the opposite is also accurate.
These tales also aided those who told them in surviving in one of the world's most harsh environments.
Anthropologist Donald Thompson spent several weeks with the Pintupi people in the Central Desert in 1957, during which time he developed an interest in a spear-thrower (lankurru) with ornate decorations.
The knowledge found in the oral stories is no different.
"Thousands of years ago, our predecessors didn't only make up tales for amusement. They were designed to be means of information sharing", according to Professor Nunn.
"If you wanted your bloodline to survive, you had to pass that knowledge down the line so that the next time a flood does come along—there's a story about how to survive it."
"We may examine purportedly old myths and legends and discover meaning in them. That's significant. It affects both our understanding of the present and the future."
