Hobbits may be earliest Australians
`The tiny hobbit-like humans of Indonesia may have lived in Australia before they became extinct about 11,000 years ago.
The startling claim comes from archaeologist Mike Morwood, leader of the team that in 2003 uncovered remains of the 1m-tall hominid at Liang Bua cave on Indonesia’s Flores island.
They believe the pint-size person – known officially as Homo floresiensis and unofficially as the “Hobbit” – was wiped out by a volcanic eruption that spared their Homo sapiens neighbours. [..]
He suggested that the Hobbits may have been pushed out by the bigger people, in part because their population was too small to compete.’
