Indigenous rangers join WA's Burrup Peninsula underwater heritage survey

By Charlie McLean and Alistair Bates
1h ago

Caleb Pitt-Cook is drifting just above the ocean floor, running his fingers through the soft sand.

The 24-year-old Ngarluma man is searching for the stone tools his ancestors used thousands of years ago.

"If you told me I'd be doing this work two years ago, I would have laughed in your face," he says.

"It's one of the coolest parts of our job. I'd say it's my favourite part right now."

. . .

When humans first populated the Australian continent about 65,000 years ago, the sea level was much lower.

"There's a huge area of archaeological landscape that's been lost to sea level change," Dr McCarthy says.

"[Back then] you could have walked all the way to Indonesia."