New Research Initiatives on Australian Submerged Landscapes

The Australian Research Council (ARC) is funding a new three-year project (2017-2020), the Deep History of Sea Country, dedicated to mapping submerged landscapes and the search for underwater archaeology off the coast of Western Australia.

The project team is led by Jonathan Benjamin, a former Early Career Researcher with SPLASHCOS, and now Senior Lecturer at Flinders University. Other project partners include Jo McDonald, Mick O'Leary, Peter Veth and Ingrid Ward (University of Western Australia), Sean Ulm (James Cook University, Cairns and Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage), Geoff Bailey (University of York and Flinders University), Jorg Hacker and Peter Ross (Flinders University), and Mads Kahler Holst and Peter Moe Astrup (Moesgaard Museum, Denmark).

The research involves the deployment of airborne LiDAR, underwater remote sensing and diver investigation to explore the submerged landscapes of the Dampier Archipelago, Western Australia and search for underwater archaeological sites. The Danish work involves excavation of a known underwater shell midden and the application of remote sensing techniques to establish guidelines for the discovery of such sites elsewhere.

For further information see the attachment below and the project website at https://deephistoryofseacountry.com/