Austronesian colonisation of Australia.

[von mises]

I've been reading about the Austronesians a bit, and basically, I can't work out why they don't seem to have colonised Australia bar the Torres Straight islanders.

You have a set of peoples who have colonised from New Zealand to Indonesia, and even as far as Madagascar, but not that continent sized landmass right between Indonesia and New Zealand. So why didn't they find and colonise it, and what would have needed to change to make it happen?

I know the people's have diverged somewhat, but surely some of the peoples would have found their way to Australia?

 

[OwenM]

I've been reading about the Austronesians a bit, and basically, I can't work out why they don't seem to have colonised Australia bar the Torres Straight islanders.

You have a set of peoples who have colonised from New Zealand to Indonesia, and even as far as Madagascar, but not that continent sized landmass right between Indonesia and New Zealand. So why didn't they find and colonise it, and what would have needed to change to make it happen?

I know the people's have diverged somewhat, but surely some of the peoples would have found their way to Australia?

I think a big part of the difference is just that there were already people there.
Now obviously that's not necessarily going to stop people (gestures at most of human history), but it makes it harder and when they are finding all those previously uninhabited islands... why bother?
I think there is evidence of some trade, but that's probably why it didn't lead to lasting settlements.