They had no navigational skills - no skills to read their position from the stars, for example - as they came from what is now south-east Asia across wide stretches of ocean.

So far the likely path of island hopping has been unclear but now researchers at the Australian National University have devised a clever method to work out the probable route.

They've used computer models to recreate the terrain and configuration of islands as they would have been tens of thousands of years ago when the migration happened.

They've then calculated the easiest route along the islands and sea, which stretch from Southeast Asia to the tip of Arnhem Land.

They looked at the detail on the ground as they think it would have been around 60,000 years ago - how easy it would be to hike across a particular island and how close to fresh water it might be. Migrants, they reckon, would have made the least-difficult trek with the most access to drinking water.

And the researchers computed models of sea-levels tens of thousands of years ago to work out where the islands were. They then analysed how these first-ever serious sea-farers might travel so they could see the island they had just left but also the next one in the chain, navigating island by island eventually to what is now Australia.

The study showed that the most likely route from Southeast Asia was through Indonesia’s northern islands into New Guinea and what is now Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.

The next step is to look at the new route and try to identify places where they may have stopped. There may be caves where these original Aboriginal migrants cooked or painted or burnt material and the residue would then tell us more about our past - and therefore who we are today.

One of the principle researchers at ANU, Shimona Kealy, said, “These people hopped their way along these islands, probably looking for a place to live where they would have access to reliable food staples and other resources – the visibility between islands would have been very favourable in terms of enabling this adventurous spirit.

“We’ve created a treasure map of sorts with the likely route across land and water that these incredible people took to reach Australia.

“Archaeologists have yet to explore most of Indonesia’s northern islands for human settlements predating the oldest sites found in Australia. These islands could hold the key to the mystery of how the first humans made it to Australia’s shores.”

So the next step is to study the land on tiny islands along the likely route. They will look at satellite images and geology to work out the most likely places to find caves that may contain signs of human use.

She said their first target would be an island called Obi. It looked promising as a site to start the hard digging and exploring on the ground.

If it all works out, objects used by the very first Australians may be discovered, perhaps their remains.

We are a step closer to understanding the ways of the great sea-farers who became the first people in this land.