When Indigenous Australians crossed from the Indonesian peninsula to the Australia/Papua New Guinea continent ~50,000 years ago, they were confronted with a sight to behold: carnivorous kangaroos, birds taller than a man, and a 6m-long snake that regularly took on marsupial lions in combat. Over the millennia, however, circumstances led to the deaths of hundreds of species across the Australian continent, leaving only the ones we know today.

Join Holly and Matthew as they explore the world of Upper Paleolithic Australia, and the monsters that once roamed our land...


Main Theme music – Kevin MacLeod
"Slow Ticking Clock" – Kevin MacLeod
Used under a Creative Commons license.

Sources cited:
Arthur, Chrissy. 2012. "Giant marsupisals' graveyard unearthed in Queensland." ABC News, June 21. Accessed August 25, 2021. https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-21/giant-marsupial-fossils-found-in-queensland/4083158.

Musser, Anne. 2014. Procoptodon goliah. December 4. Accessed August 25, 2021. https://australianmuseum.net.au/learn/australia-over-time/extinct-animals/procoptodon-goliah/.

Gibbens, Sarah. 2017. "Human arrival in AUstralia pushed back 18,000 years." National Geographic, July 20. Accessed August 25, 2021. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/07/australia-aboriginal-early-human-evolution-spd/.