The ancestral group of Aboriginal Australians is believed to have left the African continent over 85,000 years ago (Foster & Matsumura 2005). Around that time, what is now the continent of Australia and the countries of Papua New Guinea and New Zealand made up a single continent, Sahul. This mega continent continued to break apart into the geographical components they are today. It was initially believed that the ancestral group of indigenous Australians avoided Europe based on the lack of Neanderthal DNA in their genetic strands. If they had traveled through that region due to what was called “Neanderthal domination” in the European region, there would have been traces of interbreeding (Forster et Al. 2007). Based on this assumption, it was believed the group moved along the Arabian Peninsula into India, then down to the Sahul region (Forster & Matsumura 2005).

However, it was discovered through genetic testing that the Australian ancestral group left Africa, went through the European continent to India, and then went down to Papua New Guinea and Australia (CNAG 2022). In a test done by the Center for Genomic Regulation, there is a close genetic relationship between indigenous Australians and Papuan New Guineans (referred to as ‘Australo-Papuans’) (CNAP 2022). The study said that the most common genome in the mentioned groups was the European genome which shows that the group entering the Sahul area separated from the European genome around 58,000 years ago (CNAG 2022).

On the other hand, more in-depth research reported in the article “Revealing the Prehistoric Settlement of Australia by Y Chromosome and mtDNA Analysis” suggests that the Australo-Papuans descended from a single group that left Africa about 70,000 years ago (Foster et Al. 2007). This claim is supported by a single mtDNA strand that is not found anywhere else in the world. Nearly all Aboriginal Australians, New Guineans, and Melanesians have this strand. Based on this nucleotide sequence, the groups didn't branch out until around 8,000 years ago, which is around the time Australia and New Guinea would have separated (Foster et Al. 2007). This information gives a backbone to the belief that this ancestral group most likely left Africa around 70,000 years ago before Neanderthal domination in Europe and settled in the Sahul region, where they were eventually separated geophysically.

With this information on the believed migration routes of Aboriginal Australians, why are indigenous Australians and their neighbors, the Maori of New Zealand, so phenotypically different? Did they originate from the same group that exited the African continent? Genetic testing and tribal history say no. According to the Te Ara New Zealand Encyclopedia, the Maori arrived on the island from East Polynesia around the mid-13th century (Wilson 2005). The ancestors that settled in the Polynesia area are believed to have traveled different routes than the Australo-Papuans. Their group is believed to have left Africa and traveled through Europe to Asia. They then populated the Polynesian islands by canoe and eventually reached what they called Aotearoa or New Zealand (Chambers, Marshall, & Whyte 2005). Despite the initial conjoinment of Australia and New Zealand landmasses, genetic mixing is not likely due to such drastic differences in locations and migration patterns where Australians followed through Melanesia and the Maori from Polynesia. This makes it more clear as to why the Maori phenotypically resemble Samoans and Tonga people rather than Aboriginal Australians or New Guineans.

As mentioned, it was predicted that the first people to inhabit Australia most likely arrived on the continent at least 50,000 years ago. This number originated from an archeological site called Lake Mungo in New South Wales. In the late 1960s and 70s, the remains of a young woman and man were found buried in the mud of this dried-up lake. Both skeletons showed signs of being burnt before being buried, which scientists believe is the oldest evidence of cremation in the region (Broome 2019: 6). These remains were carbon-dated to being around 42,000 years old at the time, making them the oldest known human remains in Australia (Broome: 6). Discoveries like these allow scientist to have a better understanding of how long humans have been inhabiting the continent Australia and how they might have lived. More recently, “footprints petrified in the mud” have also been discovered, which points to the belief of a thriving community on this inland beach (Broome: 6). To read more on Lake Mungo, refer to the wiki page of the same name.