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One little problem with the "drifted and washed ashore" theory: Note that the modern occurrence was fisherMEN. There's no reason to assume that women were out on fishing expeditions which were blown off-course.

On the other hand, if like the Polynesians the purported Aborigines were trying to retreat from enemies they might have loaded whole families into boats and tried to find new uninhabited lands.

Did you know that the Lombok Straits between Bali and Lombok (both in the country of Indonesia) separate the Indo-Malayan realm from the Austro-Malayan realm? Bali and west: elephants, orangs, tigers (once), cattle, rhinos. Lombok and east: kangaroos, birds-of-paradise, parrots, eucalyptus trees, platypus.

The animals, birds, and trees did not or could not cross the deep, treacherous Lombok Straits. But humans did, maybe as long ago as 50 or 60,000 years. The date is definitely subject to speculation; that humans DID cross the Straits long ago is not. Maybe they made the 40-mile crossing on rafts or in dugout canoes (outriggers?). Who knows? The thing to remember is, "Primitive doesn't mean stupid".

People got around in prehistoric times; we're interrelated to a greater degree than almost any other species.

"The animals, birds, and trees did not or could not cross the deep, treacherous Lombok Straits. But humans did, maybe as long ago as 50 or 60,000 years."

Yes, I did know that.

You must be talking about Mungo Man and his gang (68,000 years ago), huh.

BTW, recent DNA analysis indicates that he has a modern human body but is not related to any human alive today. (A dead end human line?)

On the other hand, if like the Polynesians the purported Aborigines were trying to retreat from enemies they might have loaded whole families into boats and tried to find new uninhabited lands.

I've been to Australia, New Guinea, and a number of the islands that make up Melanasia. As you go farther east, the inhabitants change from very dark Melanasians (aboriginals) into lighter Polynesians. However, there is no line where it is obvious, only a gradual change in form and hue. As far as culture goes, the Polynesian culture and Melanasian culture also melds from one to another. In some cases, they are identical in such things as art, canoe types, and navigation/settlement of their islands. So it correct to say that Aboriginals not only were "like" the Polynesians, but were the Polynesians.

Did you know that the Lombok Straits between Bali and Lombok (both in the country of Indonesia) separate the Indo-Malayan realm from the Austro-Malayan realm?

Yes, you are correct! That is known as Wallace's Line, named after the British naturalist who first noticed that. There was a thread on the "Hobbit" people discovered earlier this year on Celebes (Sulawesi) earlier this year.

The word fisherman applies to both sexes, regardless of actual sex. In 30 years of commercial fishing, I never met a female fisherman who wanted to be called a fisherwoman ... although I heard from I guy I knew back then that he had attempted to call a gal a fisherwoman and got a resounding slap in the face for his PC efforts ...