I'd never heard of this before !
I've been reading a relative of my wifes book recently
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Thomson
and am struck by how even in the 1930's australia in
the north was an untouched and incedibly brutal place even for
indigenous people, the idea that visitors to this land a thousand or more years back could colonise, thrive, travel , and be up for a little gold and gemstone mining as well is a bit of an ask.