Late Holocene subsistence and settlement in subcoastal Southeast Queensland

Abstract

Australian archaeologists have been examining the nature of east coast cultural systems for more than twenty years. Many of the studies carried out in that time focussed at least partly on the problem of coast-hinterland dichotomies in Aboriginal adaptive strategies. Despite the relatively long history of research, published opinion remains divided on the question as it concerns the three most intensively researched parts of the eastern seaboard. Some scholars, such as Flood (1982), McBryde (1974), and Poiner (1976), have argued that coastal people ranged inland, in some cases over considerable distances. Their position negates or at least minimizes the possibility of coast-hinterland differences. Others, including Coleman (1982) and Lampert (1971a, 1971b), offer a contrary view. They highlight evidence for specialized marine orientations and (at least in northeastern New South Wales) semi-sedentary occupation of the coastal margins. Such arguments clearly imply that coast-hinterland variation existed.