Australia - The Next 54 Million Years

At the end of the Pleistocene, the grip of a great glacial cycle, known as the Last Glacial Maximum, came to a close, and gave way to another interglacial cycle. Although seemly ordinary, this interglacial period would turn out to be the Age of Man - although humans had already spread across the globe and greatly changed ecosystems by this time, it was during the short Holocene that their dominance over the planet became truly complete.

However, in the grand scheme of things their time on earth was very short. During their time they changed habitats, ecologies, climates and even the very atmosphere, but nonetheless, not long after the beginning of the '31st century' as they would call it, humans disappeared from this world. What happened to them is not important, all that matters was that they were gone, and the Age of Man had come to an end. Although it had the potential to be catastrophic, compared to what had come before, the extinction was relatively minor, and within a few thousand years of the disappearance of man most terrestrial ecosystems at least had completely rebounded. With natural functions restored, it was time for the next chapter of life in the Quaternary to begin.

This work focuses on the small continent of Australia, an isolated landmass which during the Holocene sat south-east of Asia, bordered by the Pacific ocean in the east and the Indian to the west. For millions of years, this continent had remained separated from all others, and fostered the evolution of unique fauna and flora unlike that found anywhere else in the world. The arrival of humans, first in the late Pleistocene and later during the early Holocene, would alter the continent greatly, but it was nothing compared to the change that was to come.

Man was gone now, but this is the story of what happened next.

Over the next 50 million years or so Australia would continually go through dramatic change. Continental movement and changing climates would take the life aboard this wandering ark through ice ages and hothouses, cool forests and fiery deserts, interchange and isolation, until it would reach its final resting place in the northern reaches of the Pacific. This is the story of the future of Australia, the great island continent of the Quaternary.

Contents

The end-Holocene Climatic Optimum (6,000 years hence)

Return of the Ice (70,000 years hence)

The New Pleistocene (6 million years)

An Asian Collision (12 million years)

The Ark Continues (37 million years)

The Land Up Over (54 million years)

About this project
This is a speculative evolution project detailing the future of the Australian continent, first started on the Speculative Evolution Forum on Jcink back in 2019. It covers 4 different time periods, or "chapters", from the near future at 6 million years hence all the way up to 54 million years, when Australia ends its journey as part of a great new supercontinent in the Northern Hemisphere. Currently the project is nearing the end of chapter 1.

Find me on the Speculative Evolution Forum, DeviantArt, or Reddit