For many years it was believed that Dingos were brought to Australia by Aboriginal people, but this theory has now largely been discarded. Instead, it seems more likely that Asian seafarers transported Dingos from mainland Asia, through South-East Asia to Australia and other parts of the Pacific, during their voyages over the last 5000 years. Fossil evidence suggests that Dingos arrived in Australia around 3500 - 4000 years ago, and quickly spread to all parts of the Australian mainland and offshore islands, with the exception of Tasmania.
The arrival of Dingos is often considered to have caused the extinction of Thylacines from mainland Australia. Aboriginal paintings and fossil evidence indicate that Thylacines once inhabited the entire Australian mainland but then disappeared suddenly about 3,000 years ago. As Dingos are thought to have arrived around 500 years earlier this was considered ample time for them to impact on Thylacine populations, either through competition for food or through the introduction of diseases. The fact that Thylacines survived until the 1930s in Tasmania where Dingos were absent was often put forward as further indirect evidence that they were a major cause for the disappearance of Thylacines from the mainland.
The role of Dingos in the extinction of the Thylacine has recently been questioned. Evidence presented by Robert Paddle in his book The Last Tasmanian Tiger points to alteration of the environment and competition with humans as the main cause. The timing of their disappearance is also challenged by the discovery of records from early naturalists and interviews with Aboriginal people from South Australia that indicate Thylacines may have persisted on the mainland until much more recently.
Sandy Ingleby
Mammals
Australian Museum
Copyright © Australian Museum, 2003
This page: http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/dingos.htm
