Bassian Plain (Bass Strait land bridge)
The land that joined Tasmania to mainland Australia in the last ice age, now the floor of Bass Strait. People walked across it to Tasmania; rising seas cut Tasmania off between about 14,000 and 8,000 years ago, leaving its hills as the Bass Strait islands.
Dated events and their evidence
- 38,000 BCE mainstream
Aboriginal people reach Tasmania about 40,000 years ago, across the land bridge of the Bassian Plain source - 12,000 BCE mainstream
rising seas make Tasmania an island around 14,000 years ago, by Davidson and Roberts' account source - 6,000 BCE mainstream
the sea floods the last of the Bassian Plain to form Bass Strait, about 8,000 years ago by Wikipedia's account source - 2,000 BCE mainstream
Aboriginal people live on Flinders Island until around 4,000 years ago source
Where
39.8000° S, 146.5000° E
The point is the middle of Bass Strait. The plain ran from the Victorian coast between Wilsons Promontory and Cape Otway to northern Tasmania between Cape Portland and Cape Grim.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_Strait
- https://doi.org/10.1071/bt9780493
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-024-02358-6
- https://doi.org/10.24199/j.mmv.1946.14.06
- https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/4240
- https://ozgeology.com/blogs/news/australia-s-atlantis-the-bassian-plain
Each event carries Aion's own evidence grade (mainstream, disputed or speculative). This page repeats what the globe shows for this place.