In a stunning discovery that has caused reverberations through the worlds of both archaeology and anthropology, a team of ANU scientists have uncovered stunning evidence that the race of dwarf human beings, known as the ‘hobbit’ people, did not die out on the Isle de Flores, off the Indonesian coast some 500 years ago.
“Amazingly, it seems they had the technology and skills to build boats and sail south,’ said team leader, Professor Tom Hendriks. ‘Whether by design or accident they made it to Tasmania, where they found a refuge—not unlike the primitive conditions of the Isle de Flores cave—where they could survive.’
Even more incredibly Professor Hendrik’s research shows that this race of very small people with much less developed craniums and inferior mental capacity to homo sapiens, somehow developed an unusual relationship with the local homo sapien population. The hobbits were allowed to become the rulers of the island and the ruled refused to take them seriously. This has led to a unique form of public life that is part carnival, part freak show, and only occasionally competent.
The hobbits’ cave has been slowly transformed over the years into a modest approximation of a Westminster type parliament. This obscures the true and ever strengthening nature of the hobbits’ bizarre rule. In recent year sthey have even managed to institute a height bar on premiers, who are not allowed to even approximate average human height. Potential aspirants now have to be sub-five feet to be taken seriously as leadership contenders.
‘It is a fascinating story,’ said Professor Hendriks, ‘that a demonstrably inferior race like the hobbits would survive because of the great generosity and large heartedness of the Tasmanian population, who seem happy to subsidise at great expense the continuing antics of the smallest people in the world.’
