We Have Always Been Here
The Unbroken Line of Custodianship.
Time Immemorial
We have always been here.
Not just for a long time, not just thousands of years, but forever. Our people did not arrive on these shores; we are of this land. The hills know our footsteps. The rivers carry our stories. The stars still sing the names our ancestors gave them.
This isn’t a metaphor. It’s not poetic language. It’s our reality. Time for us doesn’t begin with a calendar. It begins with the Dreaming, a sacred time when ancestral beings shaped this Country and handed us Law, story, and spirit.
We didn’t write our stories in books. We carved them into stone. We sang them across mountains. We held them in ceremony, in kinship, in the quiet of dusk. Our culture isn’t something we perform. It’s something we live every single day.
140,000 Years Ago: Deep Time & Sahul
Long ago, when the sea was lower and the lands of New Guinea, Tasmania, and Australia were connected, our people lived across the great continent known as Sahul. From the western deserts to the lush north, from coastal mangroves to inland plains, we knew every inch of this Country.
Scientists say our ancestors may have arrived by sea. But we say we have always been here. Our stories speak of creation from the land itself. They tell of the ancestors who shaped the rivers, the skies, and the people.
We shared this land with powerful creatures now gone. Rock art across the continent shows giant kangaroos, wombats as big as cars, towering emus, and enormous goannas. These animals are remembered not through fossil records, but through our paintings and stories. They are not legends. They are memories passed on through generations.
120,000 – 65,000 Years Ago: Sacred Sites and Ancient Stories
On the southern coast, at Moyjil near Warrnambool, fire remains in the form of blackened stones and charcoal lie buried in the earth. These signs of ancient life have been dated to around 120,000 years ago. The land remembers us, even if others forget.
Far to the north, in Mirarr Country, sits Madjedbebe. This sacred site holds layers of history beneath the surface. Tools, ochre, and signs of home reveal that people were living here at least 65,000 years ago. This was not a place passed through briefly. This was Country that held families, ceremony, and knowledge.
Even the Great Barrier Reef is part of our long story. It began forming long ago, and we remember when parts of it were still land. Our Dreaming holds those memories, passed down in stories that still live today.
40,000 – 10,000 Years Ago: Burials, Belonging, and Belief
At Lake Mungo in western New South Wales, the remains of Mungo Lady and Mungo Man remind us that our ancestors lived with deep spiritual connection. Mungo Lady had been cremated. Mungo Man was buried with red ochre. These were not just burials. They were sacred acts of love and ceremony.
These are among the oldest known human burials in the world. They show that we were not just surviving. We were living with reverence, culture, and meaning.
In South Australia, at Roonka Flat on Ngarrindjeri Country, over 200 burials were uncovered. People were laid to rest with shell necklaces, bone tools, and ceremonial adornments. Some were placed upright in deep shafts. Children were buried alongside elders. These practices reveal deep relationships and rituals that connect the living and the dead.
10,000 – 4,000 Years Ago: Flourishing Nations, Living Culture
In this time, our cultures grew even more diverse. On the west coast, carvings of thylacines are found at the Burrup Peninsula. These animals disappeared from the mainland thousands of years ago, but we remember them. We preserved their image in stone, long after they were gone from the land.
In the north, the Torres Strait Islander Peoples established themselves on the islands between the mainland and Papua New Guinea. They developed advanced seafaring skills, grew gardens in the sand, and knew the ocean’s rhythms. Long before the arrival of Europeans, they traded with mainland Peoples. Their stories are distinct but remain part of the First Peoples' songlines that stretch across this continent.
Before 1600: Respectful Exchange
Long before colonisation, others came to our shores, but they came in peace. In 1944, coins were found on Marchinbar Island in the Wessel Islands. Some were Dutch. Others came from the Kilwa Sultanate in East Africa and were hundreds of years old. These objects hint at old connections across the oceans, carried by winds and tides.
Even more meaningful were the visits from Macassan trepang fishers from what is now Indonesia. They came seasonally to Arnhem Land. They traded goods, shared language, and brought tools. They also listened and learned. These visits were based on mutual respect. They remind us that not all contact brings harm. Some brings exchange, understanding, and new relationships.
1606 to 1700s: The Arrival of Europeans
In 1606, the Dutch ship Duyfken landed on the shores of Cape York. Its crew met the Wik Peoples, who had cared for that land for tens of thousands of years. That same year, the Spanish navigator Luis Váez de Torres sailed the waters that now bear his name, recording islands and reefs.
More ships followed. Dirk Hartog left a metal plate in 1616. The first European child was born here in 1623. In 1629, the Batavia shipwrecked, and survivors built a stone fort on the land after a violent mutiny. Over 100 lives were lost.
Explorers came. Tasman in 1642. Dampier in 1688. De Vlamingh in 1696. They mapped and claimed. But they did not discover. The land was already known, loved, and sung.
These arrivals did not begin our history. They interrupted it.
Truth Beyond Time
Science now echoes what we have always said. First Peoples have lived on this continent for at least 65,000 years. But we do not need science to know our truth. Our stories are written in Country, not in paper. Our time is kept in songlines, not in calendars.
We are not a people of the past. We are here today, speaking our languages, walking our Country, teaching our children, and carrying our culture forward.
We are the world’s oldest continuous culture.
We are still here.
And we always will be.
Ready to Learn More? Let’s Walk Together
You’ve just journeyed through a timeline that only begins to tell the story of First Nations Peoples—the oldest living culture on Earth.
Whether you're a student with questions, a non-Indigenous person seeking understanding, or an educator wanting to bring truth into the classroom, you're invited to sit, listen, and learn in a culturally respectful space.