[Varangian (John)]

Yes agreed, but getting the facts using archaeological data is the hard part. The archaeological footprint of these people(s) in Aus/NZ would be very faint indeed. We are hard at in in Aus trying to find good, datable subsurface archaeological deposits that contain Aboriginal cultural heritage sites, let alone trying to find evidence of another civilisation here. I would support research on this topic, but I think that the archaeological signature of these visiting people would be that faint that I think the grant money could be used to answer other big questions in Australian archaeology. I would prefer to see more research undertaken to assess when exactly Australia was first colonised, we need good data to address this issue.