ABSTRACT
Evidence along the H u o n Peninsula suggests people first entered this part of the world about fifty thousand years ago, when the environment was much colder and New Guinea and Australia were connected by land. A "general resemblance" (Laycock 1973:58) between log-idiophone melodies sung by speakers of languages of the N d u family of East Sepik Province and didjeridu melodies sung by Australian Aborigines, plus other cultural and genetic similarities, could prove links between arts of the Purari River basin and those of the Australian Aborigines. Because N e w Guinea and Australia have been separated from Asia for about fifty mi l l i on years, local animals are distinct from those of Asia, and the first local people must have come by sea.
