This map shows the spread of Homo sapiens out of Africa and across the globe, with very approximate dates.
Author: Altaileopard in 2006
this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2026
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Anthropology
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I think it's such a funny quark of history that the Polynesians, despite their incredible sea exploration abilities, just apparently completely missed Australia.
I don't think they "missed" it. I think it happened with Australia the same as here in South America: Polynesians were aware of the existence of those lands, sometimes even traded with the locals, but long-term settlements would be impossible because those locals would kick them out. And the locals couldn't invade Polynesian lands either because the "lands" in question were the sea, and they'd rather focus on land tech instead.
I don't know. There is linguistic, archeological and genetic evidence that the Polynesians traded with the South Americans, but I don't think there is nearly as robust evidence for Australia.
Current evidence as I understand it is really just as that map depicts it. That they went straight from Indonesia to New Zealand, and just missed Australia.
Well, it's also possible they simply missed it out. But I find it unlikely given how skilled they were at navigation, and the East Australian Current:
A third possibility is that they were aware of those lands, but for some reason didn't bother with them. Either due to conflict with the locals, or because neither side had anything to benefit the other.
I personally think your third possibility is the least likely. I just find it unimaginable that there would not have been any cultural exchange at all of the two peoples knew about each other.
I can imagine human beings, even extremely capable ones, just missing things. In fact that happened a lot. There were many European cultures that had the technical capability to sail to the Americans for thousands of years before they did it. And there were clothes in the Americas that had the capability to go the other way, but they didn't.
As someone else pointed out, there is a similar story for Madagascar. There were plenty of cultures that could have discovered it for centuries that just didn't. Similar stories with countless other islands.
Honestly, I think it's more surprising that the indigenous Australian peoples discovered the continent when they did. They were the only animals to make the jump across the straight.