The Wellesley group of islands as seen from space

Once was a grassy plain

What did the Bass Strait land bridge look like during the last ice age and how do we know what and who once lived and journeyed on it?

A view from a small island in Tayaritja/the Furneaux Group of Islands in the eastern Bass Strait. Between about 40,000 and about 10,000 years ago the visible land in this picture was high and hilly country overlooking a vast grassy plain which now lies under the waves. Image by Simon Haberle. CC BY-NC-ND.

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Landforms of the land bridge

Landforms of the land bridge

First Peoples witnessed the most recent transition of Bass Strait from land to sea between 45,000 to 10,000 years ago, but the strait has alternated between being a land bridge and a seaway for more than four million years. Its geological origins reach even further back in time.

Charcoal and pollen from old lakes

Charcoal and pollen from old lakes

Collecting sediment cores from Bass Strait island lakes provides insight into life on the ancient Bassian Plain, and provides evidence of First Nations People effectively using fire to manage these landscapes over thousands of years.

Do memories of the Bassian land bridge survive?

Do memories of the Bassian land bridge survive?

Without the aid of writing, humans could once remember things that happened thousands of years earlier simply through oral communication, as exemplified by memories of when people walked to Lutruwita/Tasmania across the now-submerged Bassian land bridge.

Was the Bass Plain a bridge or a filter?

Was the Bass Plain a bridge or a filter?

Why could wombats and kangaroos cross the land bridge but not koalas? We can tell a lot about the ancient Bass Plain landscape from the types of animals that made it to Lutruwita/Tasmania from mainland Australia.