Seen from the air, Channel Country resembles a vibrant and vast tapestry, with a network of waterways crisscrossing the land. Spread across more than 280,000 square kilometres in outback Australia, it is one of the world’s last free-flowing desert river systems.

In the heart of Channel Country, in southwest Queensland, live the Mithaka people whose ancestors over at least the past 3,000 years played a key role in the development of a transcontinental trade and exchange system. Plants were a central part of the economy of Mithaka people, with at least 200 different species used for food, medicine, materials and ceremonial purposes.

In a new paper published in Nature Communications, we reveal important new information about the genetic complexity of one particular food source from the region: channel millet (Echinochloa turneriana).

The traits we found are often associated with domestication.

Deep importance of plants in Mithaka life

How people managed and interacted with plants is an area that’s slowly starting to gain momentum in Australian archaeology.

Genomics has played a fundamental role in increasing understanding of relationships between people and plants in several regions of the world, including the Americas and Asia. It has the potential to shed light on how humans influenced vegetation communities in Australia, though much of the detailed research is yet to be done.

The few genetic studies undertaken in Australia working with Aboriginal people on understanding their history of plant........

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