Coastal Archaeology In Australia; Developments And New Directions

Abstract

Having been asked to provide a retrospective review of coastal archaeology in Australia after 20 years, we asked ourselves the obvious questions: what major changes have taken place in the last 20 years in Australian midden studies? what were the burning issues then and now? This seemed a particularly appropriate time to ask such questions as Australian midden studies may be having something of a renaissance after a fairly long Dark Age. This year Brisbane is hosting a conference with the theme 'Coastal Archaeology in Australia'. The last such conference was held not far south of Brisbane, at Valla, 14 years ago.