Ancient site · Earthwork
Budj Bim eel traps
Also known as Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, Lake Condah
Around the Budj Bim volcano in southwest Victoria, Australia, the Gunditjmara people built channels, weirs and dams in old lava flows to trap short-finned eels and fish. One of the trap systems at Lake Condah has been carbon dated to about 6,600 years old, making it one of the oldest aquaculture systems in the world.
Stone house bases nearby suggest settled villages. The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019, and the Gunditjmara still care for it today.
- Dates
- from at least c. 4600 BCE (6,600 years ago)
- Still standing
- Yes
- UNESCO World Heritage
- Yes
- Location
- 38.06° S, 141.84° E
How we know
The Gunditjmara kept no written records; one eel-trap system has been radiocarbon dated to about 6,600 years ago, and Gunditjmara oral history describes the landscape.
Nearby sites
- Wairau Bar settled c. 1288–1300 CE (later than this atlas's ancient period)
- Lapita type site (Site 13, Foué) dated to c. 800 BCE
- Murujuga rock art engravings from c. 45,000 years ago onward
- Teouma c. 1100–900 BCE (about 3,000 years old)
- Kuk Swamp drainage from c. 7000 BCE (about 9,000 years ago)
- Nukuleka founded c. 888 BCE; occupied for about 250 years