First Footprints

As the first people out of Africa, they made the first open-ocean crossing in history, conducted the world's earliest ritual cremation, invented technologies such as the hafted stone axe and boomerang, etched the earliest depiction of the human face, engraved the world's first maps, made the earliest narrative paintings - all pre-dating the Cro-Magnon of Lascaux. Australia is home to the oldest living culture in the world. Over fifty thousand years ago, when Neanderthals still dominated Europe and well before people reached America, people were spreading across this vast southern continent. That's a continuous culture stretching back ten times the antiquity of ancient Egypt. Across Australia there are over 10 million prehistoric paintings, engravings and archaeological sites. The continent is one giant canvass telling an epic story of endurance in the face of terrifying megafauna, catastrophic droughts, rising sea levels, and massive climate shifts that cause both conflict and phenomenal cultural output over tens of thousands of years. At all of the key sites a strong bond has developed between Aboriginal Elders and archaeologists who share knowledge about the ancient past. For the first time on television new archaeological discoveries, stunning rock art, a wealth of never-before-seen archival footage, and cinema-quality CGI reveal the epic story of 50,000 years of life in Australia.