Holocene environments and prehistoric site patterning in the Victorian Mallee

North‐western Victoria is a semi‐arid region of low sand dunes and dense mallee vegetation cover. Except for possible hearth sites in Pleistocene deposits at Lake Tyrrell, Aboriginal occupation of this area, known as ‘the Mallee’, does not appear to have occurred until the terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene, when the region was much less arid than at present. Occupation then was restricted to the northern part of the Mallee; more widespread occupation did not occur until long after the favourable conditions of the Holocene ended. The later occupation was probably triggered by an increase in population in inland south‐western Victoria.