A WHAT IF BROUGHT TO YOU BY
Tristan Jones

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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