Origin of the Aboriginal Peoples

It now seems a nearly impossible trip to travel in primitive boats and cross the sea straits round the present-day Indonesia. During the different ice ages in the Pleistocene, the sea level was considerably lower than it is now, because lots of water were stowed in the ice caps. Java, Sumatra and Borneo were attached to the Asian continent. Australia and New Guinea were one: the Sahul Shelf. When travelling from Asia to the south-east, one needed to cross the full sea over a short distance. The migrants took their time and left their genetic traces. The genome of the Aboriginals resembles the genome of the inhabitants of New Guinea and the Mamanwa, the original people of the Philippines. This shows that the migrants did not move to Australia in one go, but that on the way some of them stayed behind.