The Land Bridge
Timeline
The dates in this timeline reflect the current understanding from the perspective of Western scientific knowledge. All dates are approximate.
There are many gaps in Western science. Sea levels, shorelines, climate changes, and movement of people have been modelled and hypothesised by scientists based on the interpretation of available evidence.
The archaeological record should not be taken to be representative of human settlement on the land bridge or Bass Strait islands.
Deep time stories of First Nations Peoples contain important context and contribute to our understanding of long-ago events.
115,000 years ago
Palaeoclimate records indicate the world enters an ice age.
Evaporated sea water, which is usually returned to the sea by rain and river systems, turns into snow more often than before. When snow falls in the coldest places, like the poles and mountains, it builds up as ice. As there are now more cold places, the ice grows and stays frozen in massive ice sheets and glaciers. This means there is less water returned to replenish the oceans. As a result, sea levels slowly begin to sink across the globe.
This doesn’t happen evenly or all at once. Sea levels fluctuate. They rise and fall, but mainly fall. [1][2]
75,000 years ago
Australia is gradually becoming a larger landmass, called ‘Sahul’ by scientists. New Guinea is connected to the Australian mainland in the north and Lutruwita/Tasmania is connected to mainland Australia in the south. [3]
The extended coastlines of Sahul will periodically emerge and then be resubmerged as sea levels rise and fall.
Many scientists, including geneticists, propose that people (modern humans like you and me) begin migrating around the world from Africa at about this time (the exact timeframe is unclear, perhaps it happens earlier, perhaps it happens later). This is known as the Out-of-Africa theory.
Many Aboriginal people hold a different world view. First Nations communities do not necessarily agree with the hypothesis that people migrated solely from Africa to populate the world. People are of Country, having always been here.
65,000 years ago
As parts of this crossing were by sea (models indicate Australia and Asia were never connected by land, even at the point of lowest sea level), it is likely these people possessed sophisticated watercraft knowledge. [4] [5]
Currently, the earliest archaeological evidence of modern humans in Australia dates to between 65,000 and 50,000 years ago. This evidence indicates that people were living at a rock shelter called Madjedbebe in Arnhem Land in Australia’s north. [6]
Sea levels continue to fall. Scientists estimate that at points, beginning probably about 65,000 years ago, sea levels drop far enough in the Bass Strait for a land bridge to exist between Lutruwita/Tasmania and Victoria. Then sea levels fluctuate, and the bridge is submerged again.
It is not believed that people cross over to Lutruwita/Tasmania until the longest time the land bridge is exposed, beginning around 43,000 years ago. [7]
43,000 years ago
The waters of the Bass Strait have receded and the land around Lutruwita/Tasmania and Victoria has expanded into low lying plains.
Sea levels fall far enough for a continuous land connection, or land bridge, to form between Victoria and Lutruwita/Tasmania.
This bridge is sometimes also called the Bassian Plain.
It begins as an isthmus, or narrow strip of land, in the eastern Bass Strait.
The land bridge connects Yiruk/Wamoon/Wilsons Promontory in Victoria to a promontory extending from Lutruwita/Tasmania through the area of the Furneaux Group of Islands.
Based on current archaeological evidence it is estimated that this is when people cross to Lutruwita/Tasmania.[8]
40,000 years ago
Sea levels continue to fall. The land bridge expands.
Archaeological findings indicate that people are living in southern Lutruwita/Tasmania near modern day Hobart, perhaps as early as 40,000 years ago. [9]
35,000 years ago
29,000 years ago
At around this time, perhaps earlier, perhaps later, the ice age enters the coldest phase called the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). [11][12]
Ice sheets reach their greatest extent. Sea levels are at their lowest point, 125-130 metres below the present level. [13] [14]
The land bridge becomes very broad and connects the entire north of Lutruwita/Tasmania to a large swathe of southern Victoria extending from Cape Otway to east Gippsland. [15]
A vast freshwater lake (Lake Bass) lies in the centre of the Bassian Plain, fed by the Kanamaluka/Tamar River and possibly the Toulerm/Tarwin River.
23,000 years ago
The land bridge is broad and expansive. Archaeological evidence shows people living on the Bassian Plain at this time.
Excavations reveal people were living in a cave on Hunter Island, which at that time was a hill on the western edge of the Bassian Plain. [16]
There is also evidence of people living in the east in the Furneaux Group of Islands region (Badger Island and Prime Seal Island), which at this time were points of high land on the eastern edge of the Bassian Plain. [17]
18,000 years ago
The coldest phase of the ice age is over. [18] The temperature warms, the ice begins to melt, and sea levels begin to rise. The land bridge starts to shrink as low-lying areas are inundated by the sea.
At around this time, or perhaps a little later, the northwestern edge of the Bassian Plain starts to be reclaimed by the sea. The region around what is now King Island becomes disconnected from mainland Victoria, first by tidal marshes and then open sea. This brings salt water into Lake Bass, making it brackish and estuarine. [19]
The archaeology suggests that people stop using the Hunter Island cave in the western Bassian Plain at about this time. [20]
However, the evidence indicates people are still living in the region of Tayaritja/ the Furneaux Group of Islands in the east and using the resources more intensively there now than during earlier periods. [21]
15,000 years ago
From this point on sea levels rise quite rapidly with a series of what are called ‘meltwater pulses’. [22]
Across the very flat lowland areas of the Bassian Plain the shoreline begins to recede comparatively quickly. At its fastest the sea water reclaims over 20 metres of land per year. [23]
What was once Lake Bass has become a central bay open to the Southern/Indian Ocean in the west. The Bassian Plain continues to recede until the remaining land connection between Victoria and Lutruwita/Tasmania shrinks to a narrow isthmus southeast of Yiruk/Wamoon/Wilsons Promontory.
Even though the sea has grown, there remain broad coastal lowlands around the Furneaux Group of Islands and the promontory of King Island.
Oral accounts held in the knowledge systems of coastal First Nations Peoples around Australia reference great inundations and the submergence of land. These accounts plausibly date to the end of the last glacial period, from this point onwards. [24]
Stories related to climate shifts and sea level change on the Bassian land bridge include Palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) oral traditions which reference Lutruwita/Tasmania as having a past era of being surrounded by icebergs, and stories of great floods of sea water swamping the land to the north from which people escape by canoe. Stories from Gunaikurnai (coastal eastern Victorian people) recall a time when the coast stretched farther seawards. [25]
14,000 years ago
(Some estimates say the point of separation happens a few thousand years later at around 12,000 years ago. [27])
The land bridge connection is first broken near the Victorian coast southeast of Yiruk/Wamoon/Wilsons Promontory. [28]
Archaeological records show a person dies and is buried on King Island at around this time. The area was still a broad promontory connected to the Lutruwita/Tasmanian mainland. [29]
At first Tayaritja/the Furneaux Group of Islands in the east and King Island in the west remain landlocked and connected to Lutruwita/Tasmania as promontories. [30] Eventually, over the next few thousand years as sea levels continue to rise, they become separated from Lutruwita/Tasmania and turn into islands.
10,000 years ago
There is evidence that people visit King Island which is now separated from the mainland. [32] [33]
But after this date there is currently no known archaeological evidence to suggest that human occupation of King Island was ongoing after the sea level rise, until it is revisited about 2000 years ago. [34]
8,000 years ago
Seas have risen to close to their present level. [35]
The Bass Strait looks much as it does today. Tayaritja/the Furneaux Group of Islands have lost their lowlands and the large islands – Truwana/Cape Barren Island, Flinders Island, and Lungtalanana/Clarke Island – have become separate islands. [36]
There is archaeological evidence of people living on Tayaritja/the Furneaux Group of Islands on Flinders Island and Badger Island. Badger Island is probably at this point still connected to Flinders Island. [37] [38]
6,500 years ago
Sea levels continue to rise until they reach a peak height of a little higher than they are today. [39]
Archaeology shows that people visit Hunter Island, which lies close to the Lutruwita/Tasmanian mainland in the western Bass Strait. [40]
The archaeology also indicates people are still living on Flinders Island in Tayaritja/the Furneaux Group of Islands in the eastern Bass Strait, which are now separate islands.
It is difficult to research whether the Old People residing on Tayaritja visited mainland Australia or Lutruwita/Tasmania by travelling across the sea after the land connection was severed. Remains of any watercraft that may have existed during this period would most likely have perished long ago.
Despite archaeological surveys, no evidence of occupation has been found on nearby small islands dating to this time period when the only way to access them was over the water. This suggests that the Old People living on Tayaritja’s largest island may not often have ventured across the sea during this time. [41] [42]
(Some close by Tayaritja/Furneaux Group islands do have archaeological markers of occupation, but these date to lower sea level phases when those places could be accessed by walking overland.)
4,000 years ago
After this date, there is currently no known archaeological evidence of people living on Tayaritja/the Furneaux Group of Islands until the present day. The Old People who resided on Tayaritja for thousands of years after sea levels rose appear to have stopped regularly using the islands. It is possible the islands couldn’t sustain them because at this time the environment became hotter and drier. This would have meant fresh water and food resources would have become scarcer. [43] However, there may also have been societal reasons for the islands to fall out of use.
Despite this, the Palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) community of Lutruwita/Tasmania maintain strong cultural and spiritual connections to Tayaritja. The islands are part of the songlines and stories of the First Peoples of northeast Lutruwita/Tasmania. Tayaritja/the Furneaux Group of Islands are known as a place of the Ancestors and a place people go to when they die. [44]
2,500 years ago
Archaeological remains show people on Hunter Island in the western Bass Strait. Since it is now an island, they arrive across the water. [45]
2,000 years ago
Archaeological evidence shows people on King Island in the western Bass Strait. Since it is now an island, they arrive across the water. [46]
200 years ago
European seafaring visitors believe Tayaritja/the Furneaux Group of Islands to be empty of inhabitants because they see no fires, no people, and no evidence of settlement, unlike the coastal mainland areas of Lutruwita/Tasmania and Victoria, which had abundant evidence of people living on and managing their Country. [47]
Europeans invade Lutruwita/Tasmania and Victoria. Tayaritja/the Furneaux Group of Islands are colonised by international seal fur traders.
The invasion and colonisation devastate First Peoples of the former land bridge area.
People of the Nations of Lutruwita (mainland Tasmania) are massacred, die of European illness they have little resistance to, and are forcibly removed from their Country. Few survive. The Bunurong and Gunaikurnai of coastal Victoria are heavily impacted by similar acts of violence. [48]
A complex series of events, including frontier conflict, war, genocide, broken treaties, and abduction of women by seal fur traders and whalers, leads to the Bass Strait islands becoming places of both incarceration and refuge for Tasmanian and some coastal Victorian First Peoples.
Despite the mass killings and removals, much Palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) culture survives on Tayaritja/the Furneaux Group of Islands alongside multicultural communities of Europeans and others. [49] [50].
Present day
The coastal and island places of the former land bridge area of Lutruwita/Tasmania and Victoria are inhabited by a combination of European-descent settlers, First Peoples, and people from migrant cultures around the world.
The Bass Strait islands are no longer a centre for the sealing industry as the seals were exploited to the point of near extinction. The islands are used for farming, muttonbirding, food manufacturing, fishing and tourism.
Many descendants of the eastern Bass Strait land bridge First Peoples live on Gunaikurnai Country (Victorian east coast/Gippsland), Bunurong Country (Victorian southeast coast), Lutruwita/Tasmania, Truwana/Cape Barren Island and Flinders Island. But people also live throughout Australia and around the world.
Tayaritja/the Furneaux Group of Islands symbolise the resilience of Aboriginal culture. Most contemporary Palawa (Tasmanian Aborigines) trace their Aboriginal heritage through links to the Bass Strait islands. Tayaritja is Palawa Country, but the Bunurong (southeast Victorian coastal People) also have family links to the islands because some of their daughters were taken there by sealers.
After generations of subjugation and denial of their existence, a political movement grew out of the Tasmanian Aboriginal community that survived within Tayaritja/the Furneaux Group of Islands. In the 1970s they rose to reclaim their identity and the nationhood of Palawa people throughout Tasmania, asserting their stolen cultural and political status as the rightful owners of Lutruwita.
Lungtalanana/Clarke Island, Badger Island, Big Dog Island, Mount Chappell Island, Babel Island and most of Truwana/Cape Barren Island have been returned to Palawa ownership and management.

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References
[1] K Lambeck & J Chappell, ‘Sea Level Change Through the Last Glacial Cycle’, Science, 2001, Vol. 292, 27 April, pp. 679-686.
[2] J F O’Connell, J Allen & K Hawkes, ‘Pleistocene Sahul and the Origins of Seafaring’, In Anderson, Athol, Barrett, James H., Boyle, Katherine V. (eds.), The global origins and development of seafaring, Cambridge, MacDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 2010, p. 57-68.
[3] O’Connell et al, 2010, pp. 60-62.
[4] I J McNiven & L Russell, Innovation: Knowledge and Ingenuity. First Knowledges. Port Melbourne: Thames & Hudson, Canberra: National Museum Australia, 2003.
[5] O’Connell et al, 2010, p. 63.
[6] Clarkson et al, ‘Human occupation of northern Australia by 65,000 years ago’, Nature, 2017, Vol 547, 20 July, pp. 306-326.
[7] Lambeck & Chappell, 2001, p. 685.
[8] Lambeck & Chappell, 2001, p. 685.
[9] S Bowdler, ‘The Bass Strait Islands Revisited’, Quaternary International, 2015, No. 385, p. 212.
[10] Bowdler, 2015, p. 212.
[11] H Cadd et al, A continental perspective on the timing of environmental change during the last glacial stage in Australia, Quaternary Research, 2021, 102, pp 5-23.
[12] AN Williams, S Ulm, T Sapienza, S Lewis and CSM Turney, ‘Sea-level change and demography during the last glacial termination and early Holocene across the Australian continent’, Quaternary Science Reviews, 2018, 182, pp. 144-154.
[13] Lambeck & Chappell, 2001, p. 684.
[14] Williams et al, 2018.
[15] Lambeck & Chappell, 2001, p. 684.
[16] Bowdler, 2015, p. 208, 2011.
[17] Bowdler, 2015, p. 211.
[18] Cadd et al, 2021.
[19] Lambeck & Chappell, 2001, p. 684.
[20] Bowdler, 2015, p. 209.
[21] R Sim, ‘The Archaeology of Isolation? Prehistoric Occupation in the Furneaux Group of Islands, Bass Strait, Tasmania’, PhD Thesis, Australian National University, 1998, p.iii.
[22] Lambeck & Chappell, 2001, p. 683.
[23] Williams et al, 2018.
[24] P Nunn P, & N Reid, ‘Evidence that Oral Stories of First Nations Australians May Be Thousands of Years Old’, Agora, 2023, 58:2, pp. 9-13.
[26] Lambeck & Chappell, 2001, p. 684.
[27] Williams et al, 2018.
[28] J Hope, G Brown & BS McIntosh, ‘Natural History of the Hogan Group’, Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 1973, Vol. 107.
[29] Bowdler, 2015, p. 213.
[30] Bowdler, 2015, p. 210.
[32] Bowdler, 2015, p.210.
[33] R Sim, ‘Prehistoric Archaeological Investigations on King and Flinders Islands, Bass Strait, Tasmania’, MA Thesis, Australian National University, 1991, p. 226.
[34] Bowdler, 2015, p. 210.
[35] Lambeck & Chappell 2001, p. 683.
[36] Sim, 1998, p.307.
[37] Bowdler, 2015, p. 213.
[38] Sim, 1991, p. 18.
[39] Lambeck & Chappell, 2001, p. 684.
[40] Bowdler, 2015, p. 213.
[41] Bowdler, 2015, p. 211.
[42] Sim, 1998, p.2.
[43] Sim, 1998, piii.
[44] Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, tayaritja Our islands, our history, TAC, Hobart, 2020.
[45] Bowdler, 2015, p. 209.
[46] Bowdler, 2015, p. 210.
[47] Sim, 1998, p.1.
[48] L Ryan et al, Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia 1788-1930 Newcastle: University of Newcastle, 2017-2022, http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1340762 (accessed 16/03/2022).
[49] L Ryan, Tasmanian Aborigines: A history since 1803, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2012.
[50] P Cameron, Grease and Ochre: The Blending of Two Cultures at the Colonial Sea Frontier, Fullers Bookshop, Hobart, 2016.