  Kutikina Cave location in Australia Show map of Tasmania Kutikina Cave Kutikina Cave (Australia) Show map of Australia | |
| Alternative name | Fraser Cave |
|---|---|
| Location | South West Wilderness |
| Region | Tasmania, Australia |
| Coordinates | 42°31′42″S145°46′8.4″E / 42.52833°S 145.769000°E /-42.52833; 145.769000 |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1980s |
| Archaeologists | Don Ranson andRhys Jones |
Kutikina Cave (orKuti Kina orFraser Cave) is arock shelter located on theFranklin River in theSouth West Wilderness, aWorld Heritage Area in the Australian state ofTasmania.
Originally referred to as Fraser Cave, it was important in the establishment of the antiquity and range ofAboriginal occupation in Tasmania during thePleistocene.[1]
The cave was discovered in 1977 bygeomorphology student,Kevin Keirnan and investigated by a team led by archeologistsDon Ranson andRhys Jones in the 1980s. Excavations were undertaken in 1981 by Jones and Kiernan at the height of the protests over the proposedFranklin Dam construction.[2] The cave has important archaeological deposits relating to human occupation in thePleistocene, with evidence ofwallaby hunting at a time the landscape was an opentundra and it was the most southerly human occupation in the world during thelast ice age. The archaeological evidence showed that this was one of the richestartefact deposits ever found, in Tasmania and in Australia. over 250,000 fragments of bone and 75,000 stone artefacts were recovered from a relatively small excavation area comprising only 1% of the artefact-bearing deposit in the cave. The bone fragments were predominantlyBennets Wallaby long bones which had been split along their length to extract themarrow.[3]
Kutikina played an important role in theFranklin Dam controversy. It was initially named "Fraser Cave" by Kieran, afterPrime Minister,Malcolm Fraser, with the aim of drawing attention to the significance of the Tasmanian wilderness andFranklin River, which were under threat from a dam proposed byHydro Tasmania.[4]