It was Captain Cook in 1770 who first brought the outside world to Australia – well perhaps. However, this article from Australian Geographic presents the possiblitity of earlier contact and trade. This is one of the ninth century Kilwa coins found on a beach in Northern Australia in 1944. It raises the possibility that the Aboriginal people were part of a trading network hundreds of years before Cook, which reached to East Africa. Nothing is certain yet, and research continues. Indeed, there are certainly plenty of other ideas about how the coins got there. However,if this was the case it would a significant change in our understanding of the history of Australia.
Mr Kydd.
