History and occupation of Australia
When Australia's early explorers and cartographers mapped this continent, they encountered Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. These groups had already gained an intimate knowledge of the country including its natural features and resources.

Both of these groups had established individual land territories and boundaries over the continent and offshore areas, during a process that had occurred over thousands of years. 

Information regarding their land territories had been passed from one generation to the next under traditional law and custom. This was done by means of word-of-mouth, paintings and ceremonies. 

The work of anthropologists such as Norman Tindale and Nancy Williams has shown that Aboriginal Australia was characterised by hundreds of different languages and land holding groups. The history of human settlement in Australia is characterised by a long and continuous occupation by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This probably occurred from the north during the Weichsel glaciation around 50,000-70,000 years ago when Australia and New Guinea were a single land mass known as Sahul (see diagram). 

This view has been supported in recent years by archaeological evidence from sites including Devil's Lair in Western Australia, Lake Mungo in New South Wales, and the Purritjarra rock shelter in the Northern Territory. The evidence demonstrates that Aboriginal settlement of Australia occurred at least 40,000 years ago. 

Evidence of early Aboriginal lifeways has been noted within the archaeological record. This was by the preservation of stone and bone artefacts along with charred faunal remains. This represents the discarded food of people. 

Other features of Aboriginal material culture,such as rock art, were noted as early as April 1788 at sites near Port Jackson, New South Wales. This was just months after the British colony was founded. Other items of material culture that have been preserved through time include bora grounds, stone arrangements and scarred trees to name a few. 

Their occupation of Australia is defined by a hunter-gatherer society. This meant that their population was distributed across vast geographical regions of Australia including Tasmania. During this time, Tasmania was connected to the mainland by a land bridge. 

Aboriginal society and culture
From 1788 when early Europeans began colonising Australia, it was estimated by some that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population exceeded 300,000. Their society incorporated a rich culture based upon religious beliefs derived from the Dreaming Stories. Their culture also included a complex social structure with a system of rituals and ceremonies, law and custom, and kinship with social ties and obligations. 

Aboriginal people have a spiritual relationship with their country and by the acknowledgement and practice of these rituals, Aboriginal people were linked to the country on which they lived. 

The traditional laws and customs were passed from one generation to the next to form a continuous link between the living and the ancestral beings that created the country and its features. These activities continued successfully through time because Aboriginal people had acquired an in-depth knowledge of their country and its resources. This allowed them to maintain equilibrium with the environment. 

Land boundaries
In addition, Aboriginal people were experts in the making and use of stone tool technology. These tools were used to exploit the natural resources of the different environments in which they lived.    

The belief in ancestral beings provided their society and its members with language, songs and associations to mythical features. These associations were within the landscape and tracts of territory known as estates to which they belonged. 

In this way, spiritual ties were formed between patrifilial family groups and their estates. Focal places located across their territory defined the extent of their estates, rather than delineated lines or marked boundaries. 

The estates were linked to form estate clusters, also known as contiguous estates. 

The estates varied in size and location and by the number of inhabitants who occupied them. At different times of the year, estate groups would come together to participate in trade, ceremonies and subsistence activities.   

Additionally, estates varied dramatically by the variety and availability of natural resources that existed during the different seasons of the year. Because of these variations, different resources were often sought and traded between social groups. 

The right to access another group's estate or to acquire the natural resources made it necessary to gain permission from those people who spoke for and held rights to the particular country. This is a tradition that continues among certain Aboriginal groups today.         

A number of anthropologists and linguists, including Alfred Howitt, Alfred Radcliffe-Brown, Norman Tindale, Donald Thomson and William Stanner, conducted ethnographic fieldwork with Aboriginal communities over the past 140 years. This group of people have also detailed the kinship relationships within Aboriginal society and their connection to land.   

From their work it has become evident that there are hundreds of individual languages and land estate groups within Aboriginal society. Members of these estates were able to range over their territory. The rights that controlled this process were inherited by descent. 

At times these estates would be linked through kinship ties to form contiguous estates. As a result of these kin ties, individuals could be granted rights within a variety of estates. This allowed family groups to have ties of association with neighbouring estate groups. 

By this process, individuals would increase their territory range and their ability to conduct activities over a broader region.