Brian MacWhinney, age 11, of Riverside, Calif., or his question;
Who are the natives of Australia?
For countless ages, the island continent of Australia had no contact with the other great land masses. Its plants and animals lived peacefully in a warm, sunny climate just south of the tropics. No taloned, sharp toothed cats or bears developed. So the rather defenseless pouched animals thrived and multiplied.
The native people also thrived in their island paradise. Life was easy. In most places, the climate was tropical. The worst weather resembles California ‑ which is wonderful. Game was plentiful and easy to catch. But it seems that hardship forces mankind to advance and improve himself. The natives of Australia had no reason to go beyond the Stone Age way of life. This is how they lived when visitors from Europe discovered them.
The original Australians are tall, slender, dark skinned people. They have wide noses and long, straight or wavy black hair. They are friendly people and just about the best hunters in the world. In appearance, they do not resemble any other people and so far as we‑:know they are not related to the other races of mankind.
In the old days, the Australian natives roamed all over the continent. In the friendly climate there was no need for homes or clothes. They built no shelters and wore no clothes. Family groups of 20 or 30 shared in a wandering existence:.
A boy was trained for hunting as soon as he could toddle. His first toy was a curved stick called a boomerang. We tend to think that anybody can throw a boomerang and it will return. This is not so. The young native boy practiced the special throws necessary to control a boomerang throughout his childhood.
Some boomerangs were not intended to return. They were curved to angle through the air, bring down a bird in flight and fall with it. A skilled hunter carried several different types of boomerang for different jobs. A boy learned all the tricks and skills while he was growing up.
Another of their hunting weapons was the spear, The men used a bamboo pole yards long and sharpened at one end: With it they could spear crocodiles and other big game:. The women used a short wooden spear with one end hardened and sharpened in the fire. With it they dug up yams and maybe a few burrowing animals,
A few of the aborigines, or original Australians, still live as they always did, Since they can no longer roam the whole continent, certain areas have been set aside for them as reservations. There they go on living in their old Stone Age way. Some have settled and found work on the huge sheep and cattle ranges. Others mixed with the white visitors and their descendants now make up half of the aboriginal population.
The native Australians welcomed the white; visitors from Europe. They seemed glad to share their beautiful home. They showed the Europeans how to hunt, track game and find water and were very ready to help them settle the continent that had been so lonely for so long.