Investigating past environments on Barrow Island in North-Western Australia: Stable isotopic analyses of archaeological macropod tissues from late Pleistocene, Holocene, and historical contexts

This thesis demonstrates the exceptional but previously unfulfilled potential of macropod based isotopic studies in archaeology. It presents new high-resolution results obtained for bone and tooth enamel carbonates recovered from unique late Pleistocene, Holocene and historical age deposits on Barrow Island in the northern Carnarvon bioregion of northwest Australia. Shifting coastal conditions are examined from the earliest occupation of the area at approximately 51,000 cal. BP through early Holocene abandonment (~ 7,000 cal. BP) and up to the more recent colonial era re-use of the island as a place of incarceration for Aboriginal pearling labourers.