Sean Ulm

Time for a very special science show.

Why is it now good to know how long ago people first arrived in Australia?

Much earlier than once we thought.

Well, it not only gives a finer, even exciting view of the wide brown land, such knowledge has even changed the law, monumentally with land rights, as with Wick and Mabo at the High Court.

And as for knowing about our glorious animals, they're not leftovers at the arse end of the globe.

They are unique, special.

Wait till you hear about the big surprising brain of the echidna in next week's science show.

Meet my country.

Poet Dorothea McKellar was right about the sunburnt country 100 years ago.

And this week, in that spirit of recognition, another work, the first inventors, a book, How People Shaped a Continent, is published summarising the new discoveries, showing again that Australia is so very special.

The authors are Billy Griffiths of Deakin University, Larissa Berent presenting Speaking Out on ABC Radio National, and Distinguished Professor Sean Alm at James Cook University in Cairns.

But we begin at Cambridge with Professor Jack Ashby and Richard Feidler.

Was, is Australia really maligned?

It's pretty unlikely, unfortunately.

And then Richard Feidler reads Professor Ashby a poem about a roo, and it's another blatant insult.

Dr Jack Ashby, professor of zoology at Cambridge, famous for his book Platypus Matters.

And that was on Conversations with Richard Feidler, ABC Radio National.

But what about people in Australia, once thought to have arrived almost by accident so recently?

One of our authors of the first inventors, Larissa Berent, puts it this way.

Boyer lecturer Larissa Berendt, one of the three authors of the first inventors, published this week.