Sahul

This article is about the prehistoric continent. For the continental shelf of Western Australia, see Sahul Shelf. For the actual continent, see Australia (continent).

Not to be confused with Sahel.

Map of Sahul with Sunda

Sahul (/səˈhuːl/), also called Sahul-land, Meganesia, Papualand and Greater Australia,^[1] was a paleocontinent that encompassed the modern-day landmasses of mainland Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and the Aru Islands.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Sahul was in the south-western Pacific Ocean, located approximately north to south between the Equator and the 44th parallel south and west to east between the 112th and the 152nd meridians east.^[2] Sahul was separated from Sunda to its west by the Wallacean Archipelago.^[2][7] At its largest, when ocean levels were at their lowest, it was approximately 10,600,000 square kilometres (4,100,000 sq mi) in size.^{[note 1][2]}

Parts of Sahul repeatedly emerged and submerged throughout the Pleistocene epoch, beginning around 2.6 million years ago.^[8] Glacial cycles—initially paced at ~41,000 years and later at ~100,000 years—drove sea-level fluctuations of up to ~120 m.^[9] Each lowstand exposed the Sahul continental shelf, with reconstructions showing land connections dating back at least ~250,000 years ago, and likely much earlier.^[10] The most recent rise in sea level, at the close of the last Ice Age, produced the modern configuration: New Guinea separated from mainland Australia about 8,000 years ago, and Tasmania about 6,000 years ago.^[11]

Sahul hosted a large variety of unique fauna that changed independently from the rest of the world.^[12] Most notably nearly all mammals on Sahul were marsupials including a range of browsers, burrowers, scavengers and predators; bats and rodents represented the only placental mammals.^[12]

It is estimated humans first migrated to Sahul at least 65,000 years ago, making the ocean crossing from Sunda through Wallacea.^[13] From Sahul humans spread throughout Oceania.^[3]

Usage

The name Sahul is used by archeologists, and Meganesia tends to be used by zoogeographers.^[4] The name Greater Australia has been used, and has been criticised as "cartographic imperialism" because it places greater emphasis upon what is now Australia at the expense of New Guinea.^[6]

See also

• Arafura Sea – Marginal sea between Australia and Indonesian New Guinea
• List of paleocontinents
• Wallace Line

Notes

1. The present day area of Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania is approximately 8,500,000 square kilometres (3,300,000 sq mi).^[2]

References

Citations

1. Gillespie, Richard (January 2002). "Dating the First Australians". Radiocarbon. 44 (2): 455–472. Bibcode:2002Radcb..44..455G. doi:10.1017/S0033822200031830.
2. White & O'Connell (1982), p. 6.
3. O'Connor & Hiscock (2018), p. 26.
4. Groves (1996), p. 83.
5. Oliver (1961), p. 5.
6. Ballard (1993), p. 20.
7. O’Connell, Allen & Hawkes (2010), p. 57.
8. Sahul. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved August 23, 2025.
9. Huybers, P. (2007). "Glacial variability over the last two million years: An extended depth-derived age model, continuous obliquity pacing, and the 100,000-year problem". Quaternary Science Reviews. 11 (1): 16707. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-96372-x. PMC 8373940. PMID 34408237.
10. Voris, H.K. (2001). "Maps of Pleistocene sea levels in Southeast Asia: shorelines, river systems and time durations". Journal of Biogeography. 27 (5): 1153–1167. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2699.2000.00489.x. Retrieved August 23, 2025.
11. Kennett, Chopping & Blewett (2018), p. 4.
12. White & O'Connell (1982), p. 12.
13. https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/evidence-of-first-peoples

Bibliography

• Ballard, Chris (1993). "Stimulating minds to fantasy? A critical etymology for Sahul". In Smith, M. A.; Spriggs, M.; Fankhouser, B. (eds.). Sahul in review: Pleistocene archaeology in Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia (PDF). Canberra: Australian National University. pp. 17–23. ISBN 0-7315-1540-4.

• Groves, Colin P. (1996). "Hovering on the brink: nearly but not quite getting to Australia". In Rousham, Emily; Freedman, Leonard (eds.). Perspectives in human biology: volume 2 humans in the Australasian region. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co, Pte Ltd. pp. 83–87. ISBN 981-02-3023-0. ISSN 1038-5762.

• Kennett, B. L. N.; Chopping, R.; Blewett, R. (2018). The Australian continent: a geophysical synthesis. Canberra: Australian National University Press. ISBN 9781760462475.

• O’Connell, James F.; Allen, Jim; Hawkes, Kristen (2010). "Pleistocene Sahul and the origins of seafaring". In Anderson, Athol; Barrett, James H.; Boyle, Katherine V. (eds.). The global origins and development of seafaring. Cambridge: MacDonald Institute for Archeological Research. pp. 57–68. ISBN 978-1-902937-52-6.

• O'Connor, Sue; Hiscock, Peter (2018). "The people of Sahul and near Oceania". In Cochrane, Ethan E.; Hunt, Terry L. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Oceania. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 26–45. ISBN 978-0-19-992507-0.

• Oliver, Douglas L. (1961). The Pacific Islands. New York: The American Museum of Natural History.

• Thomas, Nicholas (June 2021). "From Sunda to Sahul: the first crossings and early settlement of the Pacific". Natural History. Research Triangle Park: Natural History Magazine, Inc. ISSN 0028-0712. Retrieved 7 January 2022.

• White, J. Peter; O'Connell, James F. (1982). A prehistory of Australia, New Guinea and Sahul. Sydney: Academic Press Australia. ISBN 0-12-746750-5.