Agriculture in Australia
The most likely region
where agriculture would first developed in Australia would be the Murray
River Valley in Northern Victoria and Southern New South Wales. The
main reason is the regular snow melt from the snow covered Australian
Alps every spring, which brings floods and rich soil down to the river.
This could be the center of a Great Civilization of Australia. The
Mural River would serve as a highway for this civilization.
Tim Flannery in his book
"Future Eaters" has said, if it was not for the El Nino/La Nina cycle bringing
unreliable rainfall to Australia, he sees no reason why agriculture could
have not developed in Australia. It did in central highland valleys
of Papua New Guinea (where El Nino’s effect is somewhat soften by heavy
rainfall). I would say the development of agriculture could come
very early to Australia, beginning in Murray Darling Valley
around 10,000 years ago. Soon it would spread to most of Australia.
We might get one language family which
in OTL was only spoken in Murray Darling Valley, which instead would
be spoken through most of Australia.
Climate:
This region would be
center of farming in Australia. The climate in this region has hot
dry summers and mild winters with some rain. This region is pretty
much Semi- Desert and irrigation of crops would be necessary. However,
a need for irrigation did not stop the people of Ur, Indus valley and Egypt
from being a great civilization. Visit http://www.ozemail.com.au/~michaelt/murray.html
for more detail on the climate of this region.
Crops to
farm:
There a relative of Millet
that grows is this area, it would be good as a stable crop to start farming.
In the indigenous flora of Australia there is yams, taro, nardoo and various
grasses too, relatives of most of which have been cultivated elsewhere.
There are various members of the plant family Solenance (the family including
the
tomato, tobacco, potato, capsicum and other species which have been
widely cultivated.) In addition, various
tree species such as Macadamia, Terinmala and Acauria, produce nut
crops which are important crops in
Pacific and elsewhere. Visit http://farrer.riv.csu.edu.au/ASGAP/APOL18/jun00-1.html
for more information on Australian Crops.
Nardoo
Animals
to farm:
The same mountain people
of Papua New Guinea tamed cuscus (Possum like Animal), a species of wallaby
and cassowaries (a relative of the Emu) to eat. There they are popular
pets even today. I see no reason why Aborigines could tame Emu's
and Wallabies and possibly even Possums. There was also contact with
Proto-polynesian people with Aborigines and around a few thousand years
after agriculture was developed, they would get dogs and pigs from the
Proto-Polynesians. How this civilization would develop would be interesting
and how the Europeans react to a more advanced civilization in Australia,
when they discovered it.
Links:
Enclyclopedia
of Aboriginal Information
Dale Cozort's
Australian Aborigine Alternate History
World History
of Food: Australia and New Zealand
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