In Australian history, Aboriginal migration is exodus and genesis — exodus from South-east Asia and genesis of the first society and economy in Australia. Economic historians tend to treat countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and USA as ‘areas of recent settlement’. They generally ignore the fact that prehistorians have demonstrated that all these countries (New Zealand is a qualified exception), far from being ‘recent’, are areas of very ancient settlement. The incorporation of Aboriginal history is of interest in a more general record of human presence in Australia. But even for those with no interest in Aborigines as such, the influence that Aborigines had on British settlement (and vice versa) is far from being a minor consideration in the ‘success’ of European settlement after 1788. Indeed, one important way to look at Australian history in the nineteenth century is to view it in part as a takeover bid.

Here, the focus is on migration. Many Aborigines adopt the position that they have ‘always’ been in Australia. As Europeans perceive the origins of Homo sapiens, this is contrary to the evidence. To the extent that Aborigines have been present in Australia for many millennia, perhaps somewhere between 50–100000 years, the distinction between ‘always’ and this extraordinarily long timespan becomes, as a practical matter, shadowy. Exploration of Aboriginal migration may, then, be of interest to Aborigines for at least two reasons.