ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage facts for kids
The ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (called CABAH for short) is a special research group. It studies Australia's amazing natural places, its history, and the culture of its First Peoples. Their main goal is to understand the past better. This helps Australia plan for the future and deal with changes.
CABAH officially started at Parliament House, Canberra on June 22, 2017. It was planned to run for seven years. The Australian government gave them a lot of money, about A$33.75 million. The New South Wales Government added A$1 million. Also, 20 universities, museums, and other groups gave A$11 million. This funding helps create about 40 new research jobs and supports over 50 students during the centre's time.
CABAH also has programs for schools and the wider community. These programs aim to get people excited about science. They also train new researchers, especially focusing on helping Indigenous people and women in science. The researchers at CABAH come from many different fields. These include STEM subjects like earth science (studying Earth), climate science (studying weather patterns), ecology (studying living things and their environment), and genetics (studying genes). They also have experts from the humanities, arts, and social sciences. These include archaeology (studying old human history), Indigenous studies, and museology (studying museums).
Who is Part of CABAH?
As of April 2020, the main leader of CABAH is Professor Richard "Bert" Roberts. He is a geoscientist, which means he studies the Earth. The University of Wollongong helps manage everything for CABAH. Many other universities, museums, and groups work together with CABAH.
- Australian National University
- James Cook University (in North Queensland)
- The University of New South Wales
- University of Adelaide
- Monash University
- University of Tasmania
- Queensland Museum
- Australian Museum
- Scarp Archaeology Pty Ltd
- South Australian Museum
- State Library of New South Wales
- Bioplatforms Australia Ltd
- Université Savoie-Mont Blanc (a university in France)
- University of Papua New Guinea
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
- Natural History Museum of Denmark
- Indonesian National Centre for Archaeology
- University of Colorado, Boulder, US
- Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery
What Research Does CABAH Do?
CABAH supports many interesting studies. One important study involved archaeological excavations, which means digging up old things. A team of researchers, including Sean Ulm and Ian J. McNiven, led this work. They also worked with the traditional owners of Lizard Island in Queensland.
In April 2024, they shared their findings. They found pieces of pottery, called sherds, on Lizard Island. This was the first time pottery had been found and reliably dated in Australia. Quan Hua, an expert from CABAH, helped with the radiocarbon dating to figure out how old the pottery was.
This discovery is very important! It shows that people in Australia long ago were not cut off from the rest of the world. Instead, they were connected with other seafaring people. This means they had amazing skills in building boats and navigating the oceans.
