Introduction

The Central Australia Archaeology Project is a research program developed by Judy Birmingham and Andrew Wilson from Sydney University's School of Archaeology. Since 1992 it has located and investigated archaeological sites from Adelaide to Darwin, identifying and recording evidence of Aboriginal-European interaction during the last stage of the European invasion of Australia.

Project Overview

The project is designed to examine a diverse range of sites established by Europeans across the arid central region in the century after 1850. Central Australia was chosen because many of the sites are remote and much of the evidence, including artefacts, survivals above ground. The integrity of these sites is now being threatened by four-wheel-drive visitation. The sites were selected to include different forms of interaction with different Aboriginal groups, and to encompass a variety of environmental regions.

The aims of the project required survey and mapping methodologies that would provide locations for remote sites, plans of sites and their topographic context and give the positions of structures and artefact concentrations within sites. In realising these aims we have, during the course of the project, moved from traditional manually recorded optical survey techniques to a fully integrated digital Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) and Geographic Information System (GIS).

For more detailed information please visit the CAAP website.