Communal hunting by Aboriginal Australians: Archaeological and ethnographic evidence

There is no archaeological evidence that Australian Aboriginal people killed large mammals in mass numbers. This may reflect a lack of preservation, sampling problems or lack of recognition of such events in closed sites. However there is ethnohistoric information that Aboriginal people communally caught large mammals and other animals. Such communal hunts indicate social investments in both labour organisation and associated technology, such as traps and nets. This investment was paid off by reliable and efficient collection of food supplies that, at some times of the year, allowed large gatherings of people for ceremonial purposes. Archaeological evidence of mass kills of fish in particular, point to the antiquity of some of these communal practices.