 Trepanging is comparable to clamming, crabbing, lobstering, musseling, shrimping and other forms of "fishing" whose goal is the acquisition of edible invertebrates rather than fish.To supply the markets of Southern China, Makassarese trepangers traded with Indigenous Australians of Arnhem Land from at least the 18th century or likely prior.This Macassan contact with Australia is the first recorded example of interaction between the inhabitants of the Australian continent and their Asian neighbours.