Australia

Abstract

Aboriginals have occupied the Australian continent for at least 50,000 years (Head 1993). Their culture had therefore, prior to European settlement in 1788, developed a deep understanding of the interrelationships between the environment and its influence on the seasonality of fauna and flora (Davis 1989). This is partly because their survival depended heavily on their understanding of phenology or seasonality of food resources (Reid 1995). Aboriginal calendars recognize between 5 and 10 seasons, varying in length from 2 weeks to 4 months (Davis 1989; Baker 1993; Jones et al. 1997). Each season is defined by the changes in flora and fauna as well as the strength of wind, amount of rain and t..