Researchers found thousands of artefacts and bone fragments, which enabled them to date the shelter's occupation to a number of periods between 49,000 and 10,000 years ago.
The finds include the earliest evidence in Australia of the development of bone and stone-axe technology, the use of ochre, and interaction with megafauna such as Diprotodon.
[3] Its discovery came about by chance during an exploratory trip into the Flinders Range by Clifford Coulthard, an Adnyamathanha elder, and Giles Hamm, an archaeologist from La Trobe University.
They found over 4,300 artefacts including bone fragments from sixteen species of mammal and one reptile,[4] as well as eggs from emus[2] and an extinct giant bird, Genyornis newtoni.
[6] The animal remains included bones from the extinct Diprotodon, a wombat-like creature the size of a rhinoceros, which had probably been killed and brought to the shelter to be cooked and eaten.
It is possible that humans migrated into the interior at a very early date by following river systems and settled around inland springs such as the one at Warratyi.