Review of "The Sea People: Late Holocene Maritime Specialisation in the Whitsunday Islands, Central Queensland" by Bryce Barker, Pandanus Books, Canberra, ACT, Australia

Terra Australis 20 publishes Barker's 1995 doctoral thesis of a similar title. It is an important contribution to the growing corpus of regional studies conducted over the last two decades which provide near-complete coverage of the Queensland coast from Townsville south. The cover teases the reader with azure waters bounding deserted tropical islands and promises the 'details of the two oldest sites of Aboriginal occupation on the tropical east coast of Australia, as well as formulating a model of late Holocene change for the wider region'. The Sea People essentially consists of three parts: introductory chapters which review models of coastal use; the Whitsunday Islands case study covering ethnohistory, palaeoenvironments, methods and the excavations themselves; and final chapters synthesising results and presenting a model for Holocene culture change in the region. Excavation reports are presented for four sites excavated between 1988 and 1992: Nara Inlet 1 and Nara Inlet Art Site on Hook Island; Border Island 1 on Border Island; and Hill Inlet Rock Shelter 1 on Whitsunday Island. The South Molle Island Quarry is also described and preliminary results of petrographic analyses presented