EduNETConnect.com - Time Machine

Please select a historical period:

25 years ago / 50 years ago / 80 years ago / 125 years ago / 150 years ago
250 years ago / 400 years ago / 700 years ago / 1,200 years ago
1,500 years ago / 2,000 years ago / 3,000 years ago / 4,000 years ago / 5,000 years ago / 10,000 years ago

5,000 Years Ago in Australia & Oceania

The first pet! Aborigines had domesticated the dingo, or wild dog of Australia. The origin of the dingo is not certain, but they likely came from India-Southeast Asia. It is thought the dogs were mostly kept as pets, because in ancient rock paintings of hunting scenes no dogs are shown, although dingos were painted in other scenes. Some people think the dingo is the ancestor of all modern dog breeds.

This map shows Australia after the ice age. As the ice caps melted and sea levels rose, the island of New Guinea was created. The lakes of central Australia, still visible here, began to shrink. Most of these lakes and rivers now no longer exist, except for a few times every century during very heavy rainfalls when they will fill up for a few days before drying up again.

On New Guinea, people are clearing forests and using irrigation to grow yams, bananas and taro root.

The Lapita people of the Bismarck Islands make first extensive use of ocean-going double-hulled canoes, carrying a well developed inter-island trade in food, obsidian rock, seashells and pottery.

back to map