This book challenges traditional perceptions of Australian Aboriginal prehistory. The natural environment has been seen as the major determinant of hunter-gatherers and Australian Aborigines have been understood to have been egalitarian and culturally homogeneous. Such an interpretation suggests that their prehistory shows few significant economic and demographic changes.

Harry Lourandos argues however that hunter-gatherer societies and their socio-economic processes were more complex than previously thought.

In his presentation of a range of prehistoric data, the author reviews archaeological and ethnohistorical evidence together with environmental, demographic and socially-oriented perspectives. Lourandos synthesises previous findings before presenting an original hypothesis.

Key debates addressed in the book include the nature of initial colonisation, the role of Tasmania, the role of fire, the cause of faunal extinctions, the intensification debate, horticultural origins in New Guinea and plant exploitation in Australia.