Current scholarship posits that Australia’s entry into the Anthropocene began not with the continent’s British invasion and colonisation but instead when coal was adopted as the colony’s primary source of energy. Recent developments in Anthropocenic studies, however, suggest that the prevailing wisdom needs to change. Firstly, the environmental impact exerted by Indigenous Australians now fits within broader notions of the Anthropocene and so needs to be conceived accordingly. Secondly, European colonisation is also now widely considered to be ground zero for the Americas’ and for Australia’s entry into the modern Anthropocene. Understanding colonisation and the Australian Anthropocene as two aspects of one historical moment has important implications for how we think about the past as well as about present-day debates relating to climate policy and reconciliation.