People have been living in Australia for 40,000 years. This book, written for the bicentenary of European settlement, is about the people in the years up to 1788. In 1788 the entire continent and many adjacent islands were occupied by Aboriginal societies. These societies probably differed as much from each other as did the states and countries of Europe at the same time. To achieve this Australia-wide perspective, each author has focused on a specific region or a particular theme