Abstract
Archaeological evidence indicates that the continent of Sahul has been continuously settled for almost as long as modern humans have lived outside of Africa. The relative isolation of the continent, and the difficulty involved in getting there, have meant that the populations have not been subject to the large-scale population replacement seen in other parts of the world. Recent advances in DNA sequencing technology, including the ability to sequence full genomes in both ancient and modern populations, have revealed that the genomes of the Indigenous peoples of Australia and New Guinea, and the local fauna, can contribute significantly to our understanding of early human migrations from Africa, human impacts on environments, as well as human evolution more broadly. Given the power of genomic data, it is of the utmost importance that genomic research of ancient and modern samples is conducted ethically, with full community consultation and engagement at all stages.