An extended late Quaternary vegetation record from north-eastern Queensland and its implications for the seasonal tropics of Australia.

Pollen analysis and associated studies on sediment cores from Lynch's Crater reveal a continuous vegetation and environmental record through about the last 200 000 yr. Climate exerted a major control over vegetation, with complex rainforest communities existing under high precipitation and temperature levels alternating with araucarian rainforests under low precipitation and cooler temperatures. Fire became a prominent factor within the last 38 000 yr, probably as a result of Aboriginal burning, and led to a replaceent of cooler and drier types of rainforest by sclereophyll vegetation.-from Author