2025 Tom Austen Brown Lecture

Australia’s oldest high-elevation occupation – new results from Dargan Shelter, Blue Mountains.

Dr. Amy Mosig Way (Sydney), Wayne Brennan (Sydney), Dom Wilkins, Emily Nutman (ANU), Marilyn Rose Carroll, Paul Glass, and Bec Chalker.

Thursday, 7 August | 5:30pm doors for 5:45pm start

Australia’s Eastern Highlands have traditionally been viewed as a cold-climate barrier to Late Pleistocene (~35,000 – 11,700 years ago) mobility, with older evidence restricted to elevations below the periglacial zone. However, this model has not been adequately tested with regionally specific, high-resolution archaeological data.
Here we report excavation results from a high-altitude (1,073m) cave, Dargan Shelter, in the upper Blue Mountains, which indicate that occupation first occurred ~ 20,000 years ago, during the last glacial maximum (LGM), making this the highest elevation Pleistocene site so far identified in Australia. Findings include multiple in situ hearths and 693 stone artefacts, several of which were sourced from sites along the mountain range providing evidence for previously undetected interactions to the north and south and the repeated use of this cold-climate landscape during the Late Pleistocene. Our results align the Australian continent for the first time with global sequences which indicate that cold climates were not necessarily natural barriers to human mobility and occupation.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Dr. Amy Mosig Way (Sydney) is a research archaeologist in a jointly held position between the Australian Museum and the University of Sydney. Amy works closely with First Nations communities to create culturally meaningful archaeological projects. She specialises in the archaeology of social change, with particular expertise in stone artefact analysis and technological adaptation to socio-cultural and environmental shifts. Amy is Chair of the Tom Austen Brown Indigenous Archaeology committee.

Wayne Brennan (Sydney), local custodian and rock art specialist, has nearly three decades of service with NSW Parks and Wildlife leading ranger training programmes, school education, and fighting bushfires. Wayne is currently Indigenous Mentor, Archaeology at the University of Sydney, supported by the Tom Austen Brown bequest. Wayne has also worked with the Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit (PERAHU) at Griffith University for many years and has a profound knowledge of rock art in the Blue Mountains.

Dominic Wilkins is a proud saltwater / freshwater Dharug, Wiradjuri and Dja Dja Wurrung man. Dominic is a member of the Dharug Custodian Aboriginal Corporation (DCAC), an organisation that represents the Dharug People, the local and traditional Aboriginal people of the Sydney Basin extending into the Blue Mountains.  He continues to actively work in the cultural heritage space, advocating for his people and culture through respect and safety on Ngurra (Country). Dom was a key member of the fieldwork team for the Dargan Shelter project and co-authored the publication of results.

Emily Nutman (ANU) is a PhD candidate in Archaeology at the Australian National University. She has a background in both geology and archaeology, and uses both to trace the movement of stone artefacts from archaeological sites around Sahul (the Australia-New Guinea continent). Emily conducted the stone sourcing analyses for the Dargan Shelter project and is co-author on the publication.

Marilyn Rose Carroll is a Ngunnawal woman who currently resides in the Blue Mountains, and is a heritage consultant for a not for profit for the preservation of our people’s culture and heritage. Marilyn was on the advisory committee for the Dargan Shelter project and co-authored project results, and her brother Lee Carroll was an important member of the fieldwork team.

Paul Glass is a Kamilaroi man who has lived and worked with the Blue Mountains community his whole life. He was born to and is deeply connected to this Country. He appreciates and is humbled by this unique place where he lives with his children, partner and extended family. Paul was a member of the Indigenous Advisory Committee for the Dargan project, a key field team member and co-authored several project outputs.

Rebecca Chalker is a Dharawal woman and Heritage Consultant at Dharawal Environment and Heritage with extensive experience in archaeology and land management in a traditional and contemporary capacity. Bec was on the advisory committee for the Dargan Shelter project, and was a member of the fieldwork team and co-authored project results.

Please join us for refreshments after the lecture.

ABOUT THE TOM AUSTEN BROWN LECTURE
This annual lecture is made possible through the generosity of University of Sydney graduate Tom Austen Brown (LLB ’46 BA ’74). In his early professional life, Tom was a lawyer but had the heart of an archaeologist after seeing Aboriginal artefacts in the sand dunes and desert flats around Broken Hill, where he lived. He completed archaeology studies at the University of Sydney in 1973 and put together one of the most significant bequests for the study of Pre-colonial Indigenous archaeology.

During his life, Tom gave $1.6 million to the University, and on his passing in 2009, left a $6.9 million bequest to the Department of Archaeology. Tom’s bequest has created the Tom Austen Brown Research and Grants Program which aims to improve the representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and community in archaeology and support research in First Nations and other Indigenous archaeologies. Tom has helped create a future for Australia’s past.


Image: Artist’s impression of Dargan Shelter as it would have looked during the last Ice Age. Painting by Dharug Custodian Leanne Watson Redpath.