The continent continued to become drier. The Aboriginal inhabitants were forced to adapt to a desert environment as the lakes and rivers of central Australia dried up.

Aboriginal groups in the Kimberley area of Australia grew yams, clear evidence showing some Aboriginals did grow crops, and some lived in fairly permanent villages, using huts complete with plastered walls. Not all groups of Aboriginals were nomadic hunter-gatherers. While Australia was isolated from most of the world, it was not completely cut off as some people assume. The Kimberley area people were in contact with the islanders to the north and there is some evidence of Indonesian influence