THE endocast of a primitive hominid-like skull was recovered from among the rubble of a volcanic plug in the Bega district in May 2005 The find could suggest that a race of ancestral hominids had evolved in Australia from tree-dwelling primate ancestors by seven million years ago. This is well before our primate ancestors supposedly left the trees for a terrestrial existence in Africa around six million years ago! The fossil was discovered by noted prehistory researcher Rex Gilroy of Katoomba NSW, where he operates the 'Australian-Pacific Archaeological Research Centre'. He discovered the fossil projecting from the base of a volcanic deposit while researching volcanic sites on the NSW far south coast. The fossil, a chance discovery, further supports Rex Gilroy's belief that our Aboriginal people were preceded on this continent by earlier races, principally Homo erectus. "The fossil was formed by fine volcanic ash filling the skull during an eruption. The ash gradually mineralised while the bones disintegrated, leaving the cast," he says. "The remaining fossil has lost a portion of the underside and a shallow section of the skull dome is also gone, giving it a flattish appearance. The remaining endocast measures 15.7cm in length by 9cm in width across the facial section by 10cm in depth. The height of the individual would have been hobbit size, ie around one metre," says Mr Gilroy. As geologists have lately dated the volcanoes of the Bega region as having last erupted around 7 million years ago, this makes the 'Bega Man' the oldest known hominid skull found in the Australasian region. On these grounds Rex Gilroy believes we should begin thinking 'Out of Australia', rather than Out of Africa for our human origins. Over the last forty years he has uncovered several mineralised skull-types with undoubted Homo erectus features. These fossils, found at various New South Wales, Queensland and South Australian sites during his countless fossicking trips, all come from early to mid-Pleistocene times, well before Aboriginal arrival (by around 68,000 years BP at current estimates). "The Pleistocene period dates from around two million to 10,000 years ago, whereas the Bega endocast came from undoubted Pliocene period deposits. This period immediately preceded the Pleistocene, dating back over five million years, placing the origins of the Bega Man at around the beginning of the Pliocene. This implies that the Bega race descended from an, at present, unknown primate form dating back into the earlier Miocene period," he argues. Rex Gilroy is aware that his claims will not be acceptable to the hard-core 'Out of Africa' school of anthropologists, but he believes that this attitude will be changed as further pre-Aboriginal fossil finds come to light in this most ancient of continents. "I believe the Bega endocast represents a race of ancestral hominids, which in time evolved into a proto-Homo erectus race from which Homo erectus proper evolved, here in Australia before he did anywhere else, to in turn evolve into anatomically modern humans, probably by around 300,000 years ago (as suggested by 'late' Homo erectus and 'archaic' Homo sapien mineralised skull-types from a central western NSW site in his possession), well before Homo sapiens 'first' appeared in Africa by around 150,000 years ago according to current evidence. Lately there has been much publicity surrounding the Flores Hobbits who lived a mere 13,000 years ago. "The Bega Hobbits are considerably older than that!" concluded Mr Gilroy.

Oldest hominid skull in Australia found near Bega