Trade and trading routes have developed and existed for many thousands of years all over the world. In the period when Europe and Asia had the Silk Road and Spice Trade, Australian Aborigines were also using trade routes along overland pathways. These trading routes connected Aboriginal groups throughout the entire landscape of the country including the Torres Straits. Routes intersected and criss-crossed at significant sites such as waterholes and rivers, where a particular material, such as red ochre was found in abundance, and at places created by the spirit ancestors.
Whilst there were caravans of camels and horses loaded with silks and spices and maps to guide the traders in Europe and Asia, the Aboriginal people developed a thriving bartering and exchange system by using their sacred pathways and songlines to guide them in their trade exchanges.
For the Aboriginal people, trade wasn’t just associated with physical objects but included songs, dances and art, stories, rituals and ceremonies. These connected the people to the land and sky and animals. Trade exchanges happened either with just one person or with large groups at market places and trading centres. A flourishing economy existed through the people trading their commodities for items they didn’t have.
Mining for much sought after items as red ochre occurred around north western South Australia. Greenstone was needed to create stone axes and this was obtained from Mount Isa and Cloncurry district and then transported and exchanged along the trade routes.
Research and artefact evidence suggests that the Baler shells Melo amphora or northern baler shell, from the East Coast of Australia was exchanged at trading centres, such as Lake Nash and Camooweal for ironwood spears, wooden shields, ochres, fish hooks, Spinifex gum resin, stone axes or boomerangs.
Just as marketplaces and trading centres were central points for the European and Asian civilizations these too were pivotal to the Aboriginal people. The sight, sounds, smells, tastes and colours of a bustling marketplace was just as vibrant in the Australian landscape during ancient times.