An article on phys.org provided by Australian National University - Australia's oldest ornament found in Kimberley region - reports that Australia's oldest-known piece of Indigenous jewellery has been unearthed in the Kimberley region of northern Australia by archaeologists at The Australian National University.

Dr Michelle Langley examining the bone ornament. Image: Stuart Hay, ANU

The ornament, a pointed kangaroo bone worn through the nose, has been dated at more than 46,000-years-old. Until now it was thought that bone tools were not used in Australia for thousands of years.

Researcher Dr Michelle Langley of the Australian National University (ANU) School of Culture, History and Language states that this was the earliest hard evidence that Australia's first inhabitants were using bone to make tools and ornaments. She goes on to say that people had bone tools in Africa at least 75,000 years ago. People were leaving Africa roughly at this time and arrived in Australia some 60,000 years ago.

Oldest bone ornament discovered in #Australia https://t.co/CavT61Png0 #Kimberley #kangaroo #archaeology pic.twitter.com/qRka6cF9xp

— Bradshaw Foundation (@BradshawFND) November 22, 2016

Until very recently the earliest bone tools found in Australia dated to about 20,000 years ago - there has been a 40,000 year gap. Had the knowledge of bone tool making been lost on the journey between Africa and Australia?

With this find, it proves that people were making bone tools soon after arriving in Australia.

The bone was dug up at Carpenter's Gap, a large rockshelter in Windjana Gorge National Park. It is a shaped point made on kangaroo leg bone, and at each end there are traces of red ochre. It was found below a deposit dated to 46,000 years ago, so it is older than that date.

Throughout history Indigenous Australians have used kangaroo leg bones for a variety of activities, such as leatherwork, basketry, ceremonial tasks, and bodily decoration. This particular bone is most consistent with those used for facial decoration.

Langley  states that all across Australia both men and women would wear a bone point through their nose identical to this one. Children in some communities were known to have had their nose pierced quite young, while in others only certain individuals were allowed to adorn themselves in this fashion.

This research resulted from an Australian Research Council Linkage grant awarded to Professor Sue O'Connor. The same project previously unearthed fragments from the world's oldest-known ground-edge axe.

This research was published in Quaternary Science Reviews:
Michelle C. Langley et al. 
A >46,000-year-old kangaroo bone implement from Carpenter's Gap 1 (Kimberley, northwest Australia)
Quaternary Science Reviews (2016). DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.11.006

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