Budj Bim (Australia)

Earlier this year, I was in Victoria, Australia, to view the World Heritage Site, Budj Bim Cultural Landscape.

I couldn't find much information online back then, even though it had become a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2019, though I missed some sites like Budj Bim National Park and there seems to be a bit more now (e.g. Cultural experiences at Budj Bim - Visit Great Ocean Road). I am still writing up my experience:

Budj Bim can be combined into a multi-day trip with the Great Ocean Road; it's just over an hour from Allansford, the end of the Road.

One complication when visiting Budj Bim is that there's no cellular reception in many areas (or at least I didn't on have any on my cheapskate SIMBA plan). So you need to do your research and definitely download an offline map before going there.

There're a few sites in the area. We first visited the Budj Bim National Park Picnic Area (because Google led me there - this is good for Park purposes, but not UNESCO purposes. But there was some information about the site in general here). Then we went to Tae Rak (Lake Condah). Finally we visited the Tyrendarra IPA (Tyrendarra Indigenous Protected Area).

Map:

"Welcome to Budj Bim - Gunditjmara Country

Budj Bim Cultural Landscape is on Tungatt Mirring (Stone Country) created by the eruptions of the Budj Bim volcano.

More than 6,600 years ago, the Gunditjmara people built a complex network of aquaculture systems among these lava flows, and settled here in permanent villages of wuurn (stone houses).

Now recognised as one of the world's largest and oldest freshwater aquaculture systems, Budj Bim was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019 for its Outstanding Universal Value.

We welcome you to visit and learn, and to experience the hidden secrets of this extraordinary place."

"YOU ARE HERE (picnic area)
Budj Bim National Park
Budj Bim exploded some 37,000 years ago, spreading its waves of lava across the land, altering the course of streams and rivers."

Sites of interest in Budj Bim:

"Tae Rak (Lake Condah)
Ingeniously engineered aquaculture systems were built here by the Kerrup Gunditj clan of the Gunditjmara Nation."

"Lake Condah Mission
Lake Condah Mission is full of memories ... of sorrow and joy, dispossession and pain, resilience and hope."

"Kurtonitj
Kurtonitj contains a complex aquaculture system, managed with care and precision according to the changes of the seasons."

"Tyrendarra Indigenous Protected Area (IPA)
The Tyrendarra area is a traditional meeting place for the Gunditjmara people - stone house villages and aquaculture systems were spread across this important ceremonial site."

We did not visit Lake Condah Mission or Kurtonitj; the lady at Tae Rak (the aquaculture centre) recommended the Tyrendarra IPA.

As is usual in Australia, aboriginal religion is stated as fact:

"The area surrounding Budj Bim National Park is the traditional homeland of several clans of the Gunditjmara Nation. One of the ancestor Creation Beings brought life to the. land during the Dreaming. The mountain named Budj Bim is his forehead, the stones his teeth. The land is part of Dreaming trails and an important ceremonial site."

Importantly, the picnic area had toilets. There were also some multi-hour hikes and a cave (we did none of these).

"Budj Bim - revealed
The oral history of the Gunditjmara people talks about the land and trees dancing as one of their ancestral creators revealed part of himself in the landscape as Budj Bim

Budj Bim revealed
'At the dawn of time, it was the ancestral beings - part human, part beast - who brought what was previously barren land to life. At the end of their Dreaming journeys, the ancestral beings left aspects of themselves behind transformed into part of the landscape'. Gunditjmara people witnessed an ancestral 'Creation Being' revealed in this landscape. In the traditional story passed down by the elders for the thousand or more generations fountains of frothy scoria lava spewed high into the air, settling back as a 50 metre high cone representing the forehead of Budj Bim and the stones are interpreted as Budj Bim's teeth.

The Budj Bim Landscape
A truly fascinating place Budj Bim is one of several places in this rich cultural landscape formed by powerful creation forces. 'Every aspect of the landscape is imbued with meaning and a sense of purpose. In the absence of the law men, Budj Bim's site is guarded by the gneering or (weeping) she-oaks that stand like sentries close to the summit'. Only the law man of a clan can stand on top of Budj Bim. From the top of Budj Bim a Clan's law man can trace a straight line of peaks from the northern Serra Range at Gariwerd (the Grampians ranges), down to Mutt Te Tehoke (Mt Abrupt) at the southern end of Gariwerd, closer to Tappoc (Mt Napier) and then south to Cape Bridgewater on the coast. These sites mark a journey of the creator beings. Off the coast are the forbidding cliffs of Deen Maar (Lady Julia Percy Island) guarding the final resting place of the spirits of Gunditjmara people."

"Geology- another story
The traditional creation story is parallel to the scientific explanation of violent volcanic eruptions of gas and lasa that gare rise to this place; known originally as Budj Bim and more recently as Mt Eccles

A landscape Shaped by wave after wave of lava flows
Budj Bim (Mt Eccles) and Tappoc (Mt Napier) are among the youngest of some 400 volcanoes that erupted across south-west Victoria, starting around four million years ago. Pouring out of gaping holes on top of a gentle rise, the sight of glowing red basalt lava forming Budj Bim must have caused consternation, as well as awe, among the Gunditjmara people. Until the last ice age ended some 12,000 years ago, the sea was much lower and Victoria was connected to Tasmania by land. Through all these dramatic changes, the Gunditjmara bore witness, adapting their way of life to the rhythms of the evolving land and sea.

Budj Bim is a fissure volcano
Budj Bim's (Mt Eccles) many volcanic features can be discovered on the walking tracks including lava canals, collapsed tunnels, lava caves, a natural bridge, stony rises, scoria cones and volcanic vents. Lake Surprise is a crater-lake hiding three submerged vents. Tappoc (Mt Napier) is a separate, single volcano to the north. Lava spilled from Tappoc and Budj Bim to flow, blocking and diverting watercourses in it's path. New rivers, creeks, swamps and lakes were formed. Local volcanic features include Tumuli Blisters, Byaduk Caves, Tyrendarra Lava Flow and Lake Condah."

"Managing Country together
The idea of a Co-operative Management Council with the Gunditjmara as Traditional Owners working in partnership with government, was a long held aspiration ... The park has a dedicated ranger oerseeing its management including visitor safety, koala management, fire protection, maintenance of camping and picnic facilities and a host of walking, driving and cycling tracks.'"

"Budj Bim (Mt Eccles) is the first national park to be Co-managed in Victoria
On 30 March 2007 in an outdoor courtroom in Mt Eccles National Park, also known as Budj Bim, the Gunditjmara rights and interests to their traditional lands were recognised for the first time under Australian law. The Federal Court of Australia recognised the Gunditjmara People's Native Title rights over 140,000 ha.
Budj Bim Council
The Budj Bim Council forms part of the Native Title Settlement Agreement between the Gunditjmara and the Victorian Government and formalises the Co-operative Management Agreement for Mount Eccles National Park (Budj Bim). The Co-operative Management Agreement covers all of the Mount Eccles National Park (Budj Bim) area and gives the Traditional Owners a formal body to represent them on issues of management of this land, and input into any future planning."

"Nature of Country
"This was like a supermarket. But it was also a chemist's shop. Fish, plant life, medicinals that fed and looked after each and every one of these peoples in the Country, that stretches from Budj Bim all the way down to the Sea" Uncle Ken Saunders

Kangaroos, wallabies and possums are plentiful and provided protein for a healthy diet and skins for warmth. Birds and insects also provided a source of food. Plants and animals also provided many materials used in daily Gunditjmara life including resin from wattles used as a glue and the sinews from kangaroos used as a binding agent."

"A wealth of biodiversity
The Gunditjmara people flourished in this bountiful landscape. The Budj Bim landscape abounds with a broad variety of plants and animals both edible and medicinal."

There was also a Natural Bridge and a Lake Surprise Lookout. We saw at least the latter later.

We then went to the Tae Rak aquaculture centre.

"Welcome to Budj Bim Cultural Landscape

Gunditjmara Country

Always was.
Always will be."

I'm guessing you're not allowed to do archaeological research to find out if there was anyone here before them, or when they migrated there.

Curiously, it's still (also) known as Lake Condah.

"Tae Rak is the traditional home for the Kerrup Gunditj clan of the Gunditjmara Nation.
Our ancestors engineered 13 large aquaculture systems around Tae Rak to harvest kooyang ( short - finned eels ) as they migrated through the creeks and rivers

GUNDITJMARA COUNTRY

Care for Country
Please treat this special place with respect.
Learn from your experience.
Leave only footprints."

The aquaculture centre area was quite nicely done up, though the centre itself was small.

"Budj Bim Provides

Tae Rak (Lake Condah) and the Budj Bim landscape together form the oldest freshwater aquaculture system in the world.

LAKE CONDAH IS THE HEART OF GUNDITJMARA COUNTRY. WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN WITH THE LAKE AND IT HAS ALWAYS LOOKED AFTER US ... IF THE LAKE IS GOOD THEN WE ARE GOOD.
KEN SAUNDERS, GUNDITJMARA ELDER"

Aquaculture centre

Most of the centre was taken up by a cafe, and we were just in time for the last of the cooked food. And they had WiFi too.

Menu

Lake from centre

We had the Eel (Kooyang) Tasting Plate Small. It was mostly good.

Cafe interior

Hooked knives (for the eel I guess)

On the eels: "The amazing world of kooyang
The kooyang of this area are actually born and die in the Coral Sea near Vanuatu.

Juvenile kooyang (elvers) travel from the Coral Sea to Tae Rak (Lake Condah), where they grow and live for up to 20 years. Mature kooyang then journey back out to sea to spawn and die - beginning the cycle again.

Channels created as part of the Gunditjmara's aquaculture system funnel the kooyang into tightly woven grass nets.

The Gunditjmara know that when the wattles bloom, the kooyang are on the move and can be easily netted and trapped.

After trapping, they are stored in ponds for later use."

Eel life cycle:

SPAWNING: The old 'silver' kooyang migrate some 4,000km to the Coral Sea, where they spawn and then die.

EGGS: Their eggs hatch and become gum leaf-shaped larvae that drift on equatorial ocean currents, reaching the Australian continental shelf where they transform to become 'glass eels'

LEPTOCEPHALUS

GLASS EEL: Tiny transparent wriggling 'glass eels' hitch a ride south on the East Australian Current, leaving the sea at six months old to head upstream into an estuary or river.

ELVER: Juveniles eels known as 'elvers' whose pigment darkens from clear to brown as they swim upstream over the next.3-5 years, grow from 60mm to become some 30cm long.

YELLOW EEL: Their final home is in the still waters of lakes, ponds and swamps where they enter maturity as a yellow eel (actually olive green/brown to be precise) and live out the next 10-15 years.

SILVER EEL: Turning silver and migrating downstream during early summer and autumn, they head back out to sea to breed."

Eels in tank

Path to lake

"Perfect spot for aquaculture

At Tae Rak, the Gunditjmara built a network of aquaculture systems that operated all year round, whatever the season or level of water.

They modified more than 100 square kilometres of wetlands, by engineering interconnected channels that allowed them to move water, eels and fish around at will.

The output from the aquaculture system would have fed many thousands of people."

"Kooyang (eels) - water cleaners

Every kooyang in the wetlands acts as a cleaning agent.

They eat snails and insects, and the remains of larger animals that have fallen in the water. The Gunditjmara also feed them with meat to ensure they have plenty of food.

Kooyang need the presence of lakes and wetlands like this to grow and survive. Droughts and the draining of the lake have significantly reduced kooyang numbers in Tae Rak."

"Sustaining life Many living things rely on the water systems around Tae Rak.

Swans and ducks sail on the water while platypus swim beneath. Wildlife such as kangaroos, bandicoots and echidna wander through the wattle and gum trees.

With above average rainfall, a mild climate, and wetlands teeming with aquatic plants and wildlife, the Budj Bim landscape provided a rich environment in which many creatures thrived."

"Lost waters of Tae Rak

The arrival of whalers and pastoralists in the 1830s cut off access to land and water, and began decades of resistance by the Gunditjmara people.

Tae Rak (Lake Condah) was drained in the late 19th century and the construction of a rural drainage scheme in 1954 finally ended the bounty of the wetlands.

We have been different since the lake was drained by authorities, but with water soon to return, we will achieve an important healing for the Country and for ourselves.
KEN SAUNDERS, GUNDITJMARA ELDER"

UNESCO sign: "Awarded in 2019, UNESCO World Heritage status is the culmination of years of effort to protect the ancient freshwater aquaculture system of the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape.

Our determined struggle has led to the restoration of Tae Rak (Lake Condah) and the construction of a new weir - which regulates water levels in the same way initiated by our ancestors.

Budj Bim bears testament to the rich cultural traditions and practical ingenuity of the Gunditjmara people."

Lake landscape

Next, we went to the Tyrendarra Indigenous Protected Area. This was interesting as there were some archaeological remains.

Sign. I'm not sure what was protected, or how.

"The Tyrendarra area is a traditional meeting . place for the Gilgar Gunditj clan of, the Gunditjmara Nation.

Living around the abundant wetlands of Budj Bim, our ancestors developed a deep understanding of their environment and the skills required to sustainably manage it."

Path

Birds in stream

"Welcome brothers and sisters to Gunditjmara Country"

Stream

There was some information in the pavillion the metal path led up to:

"Welcome to Budj Bim - Gunditjmara Mirring

Tungatt Mirring (Stone Country)
This rich volcanic landscape is part of the traditional lands of the Gunditjmara people.
Our ancestors enjoyed comfortable, sociable and spiritually.rich lives here with stable year-round food supplies. They engineered ingenious aquaculture systems and built sturdy stone house villages. They were farmers, traders and conservationists - and warriors of great renown.

Ancient aquaculture system
These extensive aquaculture networks have been dated to 6,600 years old, making them some of the oldest in the world.
In July 2019, Budj Bim was formally recognised for its Universal Cultural Value and inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List."

"Tyrendarra - where rivers meet

A perfect place for a village
Here at Tyrendarra, Fitzroy River and Killara (Darlot Creek) join to create ponds and the vast Palawarra Wetland.
This was the perfect site for a village, sitting on top of a well-drained ridge and surrounded by an abundance of food and other resources.

A myth busted
Permanent villages were dotted throughout the area beside each aquaculture system. These included Lake Gorrie, Allambie, Kurtonitj, Tae Rak (Lake Condah), and here at Tyrendarra.
This demolishes the myth that all Aboriginal people were nomadic hunter-gatherers. The Gunditjmara were - and continue to be - a nation of farmers, traders and conservationists."

"Budj Bim - the creative force

Volcanic landscape
An ancestral Creation Being, is the creative force that formed Budj Bim and made this resource-rich wetland terrain.
Budj Bim translates as 'High Head', and is the Gunditjmara name for one of Australia's youngest volcanoes.
Budj Bim's eruption began some 37,000 years ago. A tongue of lava blocked natural drainage systems, locking up water across 100 square kilometres in lakes, ponds and swamps.

Vibrant wetlands
The wetlands and stony rises created by Budj Bim teem with native wildlife, including kooyang (eels), turtles, and more than 100 species of birds.
Aquatic plants provide rich delicacies, including water ribbons for salads and tubers for roasting, as well as materials for basket-making, mats, string and eel traps."

"Villages of stone houses

Secrets revealed
The Budj Bim area is covered with hundreds of stone circles - the foundations of dome-shaped wuurn (houses).
One of the largest wuurn in Tyrendarra village measures five metres in diameter - large enough to house three families.

Return to the earth
In the 1830s and 1840s, the Gunditjmara fought many battles to protect their homelands during the long Eumeralla War.
While their bravery and blood delayed defeat, the survivors' villages were destroyed and they were exiled from their land into a single, tiny mission reserve.
The signs of our people soon returned to the earth, leaving few traces."

"An ancient legacy

A landscape transformed
Over the millennia, our ancestors built vast aquaculture systems to take advantage of every lake, pond and swamp at every conceivable water level.
Channels were excavated to direct water into fish traps.
Barrier weirs, V-shaped traps and narrapeen (woven baskets) were used to channel and catch kooyang (eels) and other fish."

"Budj Bim provides

Boundless food
A steady supply of high-protein foods and reliable water supplies made a settled lifestyle at Budj Bim possible.
Shallow swamps provide perfect habitat for vast numbers of migrating kooyang (eels) and many other fish. The seasonal swamps also provided Gunditjmara with staple plant foods and bird eggs."

Map of village: "Tyrendarra Village
The stone circles that you can see from the boardwalk are the surviving footings of wuurn (stone houses) that once made up this village at Tyrendarra."

Remains

"Perfect place for a village
The village was ideally positioned on high ground above the flood levels of Killara (Darlot Creek) and nearby Fitzroy River."

"Wuurns also featured a series of connected rooms. Gunditjmara have complex kinship 'arrangements. The linked houses were used to accommodate extended families."

Superimposed huts

"Domed Huts - strong and warm
In front of you is the base of a wuurn's circular stone walls.

The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape has many small villages, small clusters and singular houses scattered along the lava flow. These houses provide warmth and shelter from the cold winds and rain, and provide a cool place to rest during the heat of the summer.

Wuurn sizes varied, with the larger ones up to five metres in diameter.

Image: Robert Brough Smyth (1878)"

Foundations

"Life of the wetlands

Killara (Darlot Creek) is a major route for kooyang (eels) and other fish migrating in and out of the Budj Bim wetlands.

Killara provides many staple foods such as rush tubers, kooyang (eels) and birds eggs.

Killara means 'never dry' or 'permanent' in the Dhauwurd wurrung language. It is continuously fed by springs on its journey from Lake Condah (Tae Rak) to the ocean."

"What's Cooking?

The Gunditjmara enjoyed lots of good food here.

Food was prepared, placed into grass-lined baskets, and covered in underground oven-pits with heated stones at the base. Then as now, meats were chargrilled on the fire."

"Village of stone houses

Beehive-shaped domed dwellings called wuurn were made with tree limbs, earth and stone, and covered with grass.

Openings faced to the east or northeast to avoid the bitterly cold winter winds.

Wuurn were clustered together to create villages."

"Ancient and ongoing

For more than a thousand generations, the Gunditjmara have lived on this land.

They have seen the lava from volcanoes flow, all the while painstakingly digging out channels and building weirs - transforming the landscape into a giant fish trap.

These engineering feats were crucial for providing sufficient eels and fish to sustain a village the size of Tyrendarra."

"The Engineerirg of Budj Bim

Engineering Leads to a Stronger Society
The work made possible by the Budj Bim landscape is a unique Australian example of the link from engineering through permanent food supply to cultural change
The permanent food supply led to a settled society in villages of stone huts, some interlinked for families, the development of a trading economy and the establishment of higher levels of governance through the hereditary succession of chiefs
Recent archaeological investigations have shown how the channels, ponds and fish trap weir structures were developed continually to account for changing water levels with the seasons and longer term climate changes.

Budj Bim Landscape
Eruptions of the volcano at Mt Eccles last took place about 30,000 years ago. The lava diverted the water courses, creating Lake Condah and Condah Swamp, and provided an ideal resource for building and engineering structures.
The traditionally engineered aquaculture of the Budj Bim landscape extends throughout the Mt Eccles lava flow and its wetlands. The Gunditjmara engineers developed and managed the hydraulics required to farm and harvest kooyang (short-finned eel) and other fish.
Archaeological research is continuing, but present estimates suggest that the first structures date from 6600 years ago and were in use until the 19th century.

Australia's First Works of Civil Engineering?
For the first charter of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1828, Thomas Tredgold provided the definition "... the profession of a civil engineer, being the art of directing the greet sources of power In nature for the use and convenience of man." Nowhere is this better exemplified early in human history than at these sites.
Stone channels, weirs, traps and ponds were corstructed from te readily available basalt stone from the Mt Eccles lava flow.
The stone infrastructure was activated by the fluctuating height of the water moving in and out through the aquaculture systems at different levels.
Gunditjmara people would herd and move the kooyang and othe fish through the systems for storing in ponds or harvesting the kooyang through the stone traps and into woven baskets.
The benefit of a stable climate and intimate knowledge of the Budj Bim landscape enabled the Gunditjmara clans to lie and work alongside their aquaculture systems for thousands of years.
The traditional practice of engineering the infrastructure to maintain its integrity and purpose requires a continuing knowledge of climate, hydraulics and the Budj Bim landscape.

Secret of the Wetlands
' ... this is a work of undoubted antiquity, but to what remote period of time it owes its origin no one will ever know. It stands as a dateless monument of incredible labor visible through the volcanic debris discharged from Mount Eccles and Napier, and the work and its design were worthy of their builders'.
- Thomas Worsnop, The Prehistoric Arts, Manufactures, Works, Weapons, etc. of the Aborigines of Australia, 1897.
Alexander Ingram (1841 - 1913) was the Surveyor ho supervised the first major drainage works of the Condah Swamp and Lake Condah starting in 1887. Ingram had visited and documented the traditional aquaculture systems during the last part of the 19th century.
The Surveyor had sought information on the hydraulics of the engineered landscape from Gunditjmara people still living along the swamp and lake. Thomas White (ca. 1832-1892) of the Gunditjmara lived and died at "Allumyung" on the Louth Swamp arm of Condah Swamp and provided Ingram with intimate knowledge of the aquaculture."

"NATIONAL HERITAGE LIST

Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape

The Budj Bim story began around 30 000 years ago, when the Gunditjmara people witnessed the volcanic eruption of Mount Eccles and the ancestral creation being Budj Bim revealed himself in the landscape.

The lava flow from Mount Eccles changed the drainage pattern in this part of western Victoria, creating large wetlands. The Gunditjmara people engineered a highly sophisticated system of weirs, channels, water races and fish traps for growing and harvesting fish, particularly eels. These achievements illustrate the advanced trade and social systems that Indigenous society had established before European settlement.

The remains of this aquaculture system are still visible today, and tell the story of a great chapter in the history of Indigenous Australia. Budj Bim received Australia's highest heritage honour on 20 July 2004 when it was included in the National Heritage List.

This 1872 possum skin cloak depicts the Gunditjmara clan areas, Some of the panels illustrate the aquaculture landscape."

There were some recreations/diagrams of traps:

"Eel Trap

TRADITIONAL EEL BASKET

A woven eel basket would have been placed in the gap between the rocks to trap the eels."

"Wooden Fish Trap

TRADITIONAL WOODEN FISH TRAP

This type of fish trap would have been constructed where stones were unavailable on deeper and wider waterways. More than one eel basket could be used."

"Villages of wuurn
Wuurn (stone houses) were sturdy dome-shaped dwellings constructed on low stone walls, with roofs made from raised tree limbs clad in mud."

I saw a wallaby, but it ran away

Kangaroo hunting silhouette

Bird in stream

Cows in field

We then went back to the Picnic area to look at the scenic view of Lake Surprise (Mount Eccles Lake). It was okay.

There was a digital experience centre, but it was closed.

"Budj Bim Dreaming story

The Earth was once flat and barren.

A Dreaming story depicts the act of conception or birth that determines everything about a place and the way things are. It was here at Budj Bim that one of our most important Creation Beings emerged from the land, his head arising as a frothing fountain of lava."

As with Si Thep (see upcoming post), Budj Bim is not a top tier UNESCO (some tier I might come up with a ranking of the ones I've been to). However, if you're not going to be far away, it could be worth a visit. It's definitely not as out of the way as Si Thep.