How would the colonisation of Australia be different if it were settled by the Māori?

[Jared]

Oh no doubt, regarding the Moa I was merely being fanciful and dreaming, regarding the Emu however I was thinking more along the lines of just penning herds in in enclosures rather than actual domestication.

That's still a good way to get killed by a bird.

Not at all. This is exactly how emus are farmed today. There's about 1 million farmed emus in the US alone.

 

[Bobbbcat2]

Not at all. This is exactly how emus are farmed today. There's about 1 million farmed emus in the US alone.

I'm not denying that this could happen, but emu attacks are not unheard of. Does emu farming bring any benefits over just hunting wild ones?

 

[Jared]

I'm not denying that this could happen, but emu attacks are not unheard of. Does emu farming bring any benefits over just hunting wild ones?

Emus are no worse than other farmed animals for attacking people.

In terms of benefits for farming them: Greater reliability of food supply, less travel time to find them/ hunt them, instant supply of manure for fertiliser if doing other farming, eggs available for food (much harder to gather wild eggs) etc.

 

[Revachah]

To add an example of large-scale transportation of plants, the plant known as the black bean (Castanospermum austral) was native to a small area of far northern Australia, Cape York Peninsula. Aboriginal people traded or otherwise carried the seeds more than halfway down the eastern seaboard, and planted the trees in all sorts of locations where they could come back and harvest them later. The black bean produces large amounts of seeds (seasonally), and was used for this purpose. Other kinds of plants were moved around, too. These kind of processes go far beyond "gathering". See the link here for more details of this example.

Or the history of Cycad horticulture, the bush "pumpkin" sweet potsto relative, the tilled fields of murnong and true yams, etc...

After reading your arguments I'd definitely have to agree with this statement. I thought the indigenous people of Australia had a lifestyle more similar to that of the San or what we know of the Sentinelese, but clearly I was wrong and you really can do a lot more with 60,000 years on a huge continent.

Any books you'd recommend on the topic?

The various people known as San also used fires and tended gardens of Marama Bean and gemsbok cucumber.

 

[Flashman]

Emus can get very aggresive, I don't think moa would be any different.

Emus live in a continent where there are a lot of nasty predators who could do them great harm, whereas the Moas had basically one natural predator. Plus, emus are omnivores, Moas were not

 

[Bobbbcat2]

Emus live in a continent where there are a lot of nasty predators who could do them great harm, whereas the Moas had basically one natural predator. Plus, emus are omnivores, Moas were not

I'm pretty sure the only animals that prey on fully grown emus are dingoes and to a lesser extent the wedge tailed eagle.

 

[Flashman]

I'm pretty sure the only animals that prey on fully grown emus are dingoes and to a lesser extent the wedge tailed eagle.

Not the case prehistorically, or even precontact.

 

[Bobbbcat2]

Not the case prehistorically, or even precontact.

Are you saying that emu would be more dangerous because of different behaviour or because of physical adaptions?

Precontact? What animals are you referencing? I know the tasmanian tiger, but that was only present on Tasmania, which has no dingoes.

 

[Jared]

I'm pretty sure the only animals that prey on fully grown emus are dingoes and to a lesser extent the wedge tailed eagle.

And crocodiles, in the north. And humans, for the last 40,000+ years. Before humans were around, there were all of the other large predators which vanished around the time humans arrived.