Australian dig finds evidence of Aboriginal habitation up to 80,000 years ago

Artefacts in Kakadu national park have been dated between 65,000 and 80,000 years old, extending likely occupation of area by thousands of years

A groundbreaking archaeological discovery in Australia's north has extended the known length of time Aboriginal people have inhabited the continent to at least 65,000 years.

The findings on about 11,000 artefacts from Kakadu national park, published on Thursday in the journal Nature, prove Indigenous people have been in Australia for far longer than the much-contested estimates of between 47,000 and 60,000 years, the researchers said. Some of the artefacts were potentially as old as 80,000 years.