Warning – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following video may contain images and voices of deceased persons.

(gentle music)

Ivan Johnston, Discovery Ranger, Mungo National Park

In our language when we welcome people out here, in my Paakantji language, we say (speaks in Paakantji). So, what I said then was, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Country."

Sheri

Southern Cross School of Distance Education acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which this video is filmed. We pay respect to elders both past and present of the Mutthi Mutthi, Ngyiampaa and Paakantji peoples and extend our gratitude for their generous sharing of knowledge and expertise about the importance of this site of significance for all Australians.

(upbeat music)

List of sources and acknowledgements

• Acknowledgement. Southern Cross School of Distance Education acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which this series of videos were filmed. We wish to pay respect to their Elders – past, present and emerging – of the Paakantji, Ngyiampaa and Mutthi Mutthi peoples. We acknowledge their integral role in the production of these videos and express our gratitude for their deep generosity in welcoming us onto their country and sharing their knowledge and expertise. We recognise their tireless ongoing work to maintain and share this country, its significant sites and the deep and important history which it holds for all Australians.
• Acknowledgement. We wish to thank Ivan Johnston, Discovery Ranger, for his deep knowledge of the country and its history. Ivan gave unique insight into traditional lives during his tour of the Walls of China at Lake Mungo National Park.
• Narration. Voice over by Sheri Hennessy, Southern Cross School of Distance Education.

Credits

NSW Government Public Schools, Learning Systems, DART connections, Southern Cross School of Education. Virtual Excursions 2017.

[End of transcript]

Warning – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following video may contain images and voices of deceased persons.

Melissa Ellis – Geography teacher, Southern Cross University

Standing here where I am at this moment, just over here to my left is where the remains of Lady Mungo and Mungo Man were found. It's just very exciting to see that environment, learn about the animals, the plants, and the formation of that environment. And also, the history that lays beneath the soil here.

Amanda Ritchie – Science teacher, Southern Cross School of Distance Education

It's about experiencing and seeing and believing and learning from others.

Sheri Hennessy – Aboriginal studies teacher, Southern Cross School of Distance Education

We’ve just had an incredible immersive experience here at Mungo and the youth forum.

Melissa

Welcome to your virtual excursion of Lake Mungo situated in the Willandra Lakes Region. Southern Cross School of Distance Education created these resources in collaboration with the Mungo Youth Project representatives from Mutthi Mutthi Paakantji and Ngyiampaa people, National Parks and Wildlife, World Heritage, and the Department of Education and community.

Amanda

Being surrounded by experts in many different fields, scientists, educators, archaeologists, geologists, indigenous elders, national parks people, and to have everyone working together with the youth of today in such a warm, friendly, supportive, collaborative environment has been really eye opening for me.

Ivan Johnston – Discovery Ranger, Mungo National Park

Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Ivan Johnston. I'm a Discovery Ranger from Mungo National Park.

Daniel Rosendahl – Executive Officer, Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area

So, I'm the Executive Officer for the Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage area.

Ian Wakefield – Land holder, Top Hut Station, Willandra Lakes Region

I'm Ian Wakefield, I'm a local land holder of Top Hut Station

Sheri

We're here today meeting with Jo Gorman, the Area Manager for National Parks and Wildlife. Thanks so, much, Jo, for coming along and talking to us.

[Screen reads: Jo Gorman, Area Manager, Lower Darling NSW National Parks and Wildlife]

[Melissa and Sheri sitting together on a log]

Melissa

There's been the opportunity to learn about science, climate change, Aboriginal heritage and stories from elders. Even though I'm here focusing on my subject area of geography, I'm constantly learning and hearing about other aspects of subject areas in content knowledge that are opportunities here for learning for students.

Sheri

I'm taking back, lot of hope and a lot of inspiration to keep working as an educator, to inspire young people, to understand Aboriginal culture and seeing it as a living vibrant culture and the significance that it has for us as a nation.

Ross O Shea – Principal consultant, Mundi Consulting Services

I mean the young people that are here are the people that will be learning about what people like Harvey and I have learned and understand they are in essence, they're our tomorrow. And it's important that we, that we use opportunities to bring young people into this environment.

The real pleasure has been the journey. The journey of watching people come together, watching people as they have learnt the things that we have learnt, watching people as they've come to acknowledge the special-ness and the importance of this place to Australia and all Australians.

List of sources and acknowledgements

• Acknowledgement. Southern Cross School of Distance Education acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which this series of videos were filmed. We wish to pay respect to their Elders – past, present and emerging – of the Paakantji, Ngyiampaa and Mutthi Mutthi peoples. We acknowledge their integral role in the production of these videos and express our gratitude for their deep generousity in welcoming us onto their country and sharing their knowledge and expertise. We recognise their tireless ongoing work to maintain and share this country, its significant sites and the deep and important history which it holds for all Australians.

• Acknowledgement. We wish to thank Ivan Johnston, Discovery Ranger, for his deep knowledge of the country and its history. Ivan gave unique insight into traditional lives during his tour of the Walls of China at Lake Mungo National Park.

• Narration. Voice over by Sheri Hennessy, Southern Cross School of Distance Education.

Credits

NSW Government Public Schools, Learning Systems, DART connections, Southern Cross School of Education. Virtual Excursions 2017.

[End of transcript]

Warning – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following video may contain images and voices of deceased persons.

Narrator

This is Mutthi Mutthi, Ngyiampaa, and Paakantji Country, otherwise known as Lake Mungo.

Ivan Johnston – Discovery Ranger, Mungo National Park

Out here, we got the three tribal groups working together. We got the Mutthi Mutthi people. They come from that direction, which is Balranald. Also my tribe, the Paakantji tribe, that come from Wentworth, and it goes along the Darling River towards Bourke and Brewarrina. We also got the Ngyiampaa tribe. They come from that direction from Ivanhoe and it goes further back in the southernly direction.

Narrator

Mungo is a site of rich cultural and scientific value. It's also a meeting place of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal ways, and a site of great contestation. Situated in the far south-west of New South Wales, the lakes are the resting place of many Aboriginal ancestors.

It was here that the remains of Lady Mungo and Mungo Man were revealed in 1968 and 1974 respectively. When they returned from the deep past, Mungo Man and Mungo Woman rewrote the book on Australia's ancient human history and put this country on the world stage. Mungo Man and Woman enabled Western science to validate what Aboriginal peoples have been saying all along. Australian history didn't start with Captain Cook.

[Screen reads. Question. How do Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal ways of knowing land/Country differ?]

A study of the histories that intersect at this important site reveal some of the key differences between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal ways of knowing land or country.

[Screen shows image of Aboriginal Ontology. Country or land at the centre, surrounded by, spirituality, Identity (personal and cultural), kinship ties, lore and laws, languages, knowledge]

Aboriginal ontology sees land as alive and themselves as part of the land, whereas Europeans have historically viewed land as a resource, something to be possessed, tamed and colonised.

[Screen reads: Fact. Dispossession means people being taken away or forced from their land]

Initially, it was the Frontier Wars and the expansion of pastoralism that dispossessed the Mutthi Mutthi, Ngyiampaa, and Paakantji peoples from their country. Pastoralists set about taming and possessing this land by clearing and fencing and using large-scale European agricultural techniques.

The introduction of cattle, sheep, and then rabbits in the 1880s caused immeasurable and permanent damage to this country. Throughout this invasion, Aboriginal people fought to remain on country often by taking up work on the stations. These early colonial relations saw some strange alliances created between the pastoralists and the local Aboriginal people due to their mutual attachments to country.

But the 1960s and 1970s saw a new wave of dispossession for the three local groups. The unique geography of this site and its rich historical value drew the attention of conservationists, archaeologists, scientists, and then tourism. The archaeologists and scientists approached this country with the same sense of European imperial entitlement as the earlier pastoralists.

[Screen reads: Fact. Ethnocentric is the use of one’s culture as the ideal standard against which all other cultures are judged and (usually) negatively compared.]

Through their ethnocentric worldview, this country could only be understood in its entirety through the colonisation process of mapping and recording it as a geography.

Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing were invisible to these early scientists. Their voices were silenced. Their rights to maintain and protect and access their spiritual and cultural sites were denied in the name of protection and scientific discovery.

Given these power relations, it is not surprising that the dominant versions of history of this site, that Mungo Man and Mungo Woman, were discovered by archaeologist Jim Bowler and his scientific colleagues.

Sound familiar? At the time, they thought nothing of removing the ancestral remains from their burial grounds without consultation, and taking them to the Australian National University, where their bones were then mined in the search for the knowledge about the origins of Homo sapiens on the Australian continent for more than 40 years.

Sheri

What do you see now as the most important elements of ethical research?

Dr Jim Bowler – Geologist, University of Melbourne

Well, you see, we are talking to an old man here who interviewed Murray Black. Murray Black collected human skeletons by the truckload. As a student in the university, I interviewed Murray Black. I was never to know that another 20 years later I'd be coming out here and collecting... Being responsible for collection of skeletons, which the Aboriginal people saw as the continuation of the Murray Black disrespectful collecting phase.

So that we've broken through that phase, and now with the long dialogue with Aboriginal and archaeological colleagues, that unity of sitting down on the same sand dune and learning from each other, that's the dynamic now that is driving present research and present understanding. We are walking across this landscape together in harmony, science and traditional people. That's a tremendous new agenda on the Australian landscape.

Narrator

Perspectives of Aboriginal people, such as Mutthi Mutthi elder Mary Pappin, expose a very different relationship or way of knowing country. From this perspective, the land is an active participant. The land is alive.

In her words, "It's the land that revealed those people. "Mungo Man came back by natural erosion "to tell us their stories. "Stories of their own land, and they didn't reveal themselves for nothing.", she says. "It was to tell the story of Aboriginal occupation and strong societies within our countries."

[Screen displays multiple images of Aboriginal people peacefully protesting]

And so, they did. Mungo Man and Mungo Woman helped give Aboriginal people back a voice. They revealed the sophistication of pre-contact societies, and validated the unimaginably long history of Aboriginal occupation of this continent at a time of great social change, and helped propel the Aboriginal Rights Movement into the era of self-determination.

List of sources and acknowledgements

• Image: Shell Middens. Provided by Dan Rosendahl

• Images: Trackway Site. Provided by Matthew Cupper

• Image: Lake Mungo National Park Location. Source image retrieved from www.geoscienceaustralia.com

• Image: Recreation of Lake Mungo. Provided by Geovanni Caselli

• Image: Mungo Man archaeological dig site. Provided by Jim Bowler

• Image: Timeline Mungo man in history. Source facts retrieved from www.abc.net.au/news

• Image: Mungo man skeletal remains. Provided by Jim Bowler

• Image: The founding of Australia. Retrieved from commons.wikimedia.org

• Image: Down on his luck. Retrieved from commons.wikimedia.org

• Images: The foundations of Perth. Retrieved from commons.wikimedia.org

• Image: Cooks landing at Botany Bay. Retrieved from commons.wikimedia.org

• Image: Historical photos of Willandra Lakes region and people. Retrieved from Mungo National Park conservation management and cultural tourism management plan

• Image: Mungo Man archaeological dig site. Provided by Jim Bowler

• Image: Landholding maps. Retrieved from Mungo National Park conservation management and cultural tourism management plan

• Image: Mungo Lady repatriation. Provided by Maggy Bradie

• Narration. Voice over by Sheri Hennessy, Southern Cross School of Distance Education.

Credits

NSW Government Public Schools, Learning Systems, DART connections, Southern Cross School of Education. Virtual Excursions 2017.

[End of transcript]

Warning – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following video may contain images and voices of deceased persons.

(upbeat music)

Melissa

The Willandra Lakes region covers 2,400 kilometres squared of semi-arid landscape in the Murray Basin area of New South Wales. Mungo National Park is situated in the Willandra Lakes region.

It is 110 kilometres northeast of Victoria, New South Wales border towns of Mildura and Wentworth and 140 kilometres northwest of the New South Wales town of Balranald.

Mungo National Park covers an area of 90,256 hectares and is included within the Willandra Lakes Regional World Heritage Area.

List of sources and acknowledgements

• Image: Willandra Lakes Region Area. Source image retrieved from www.geoscienceaustralia.com

• Image: The Murray Darling Basin. Source image retrieved from www.geoscienceaustralia.com

• Image: Lake Mungo National Park Location. Source image retrieved from www.geoscienceaustralia.com

• Image: Lake Mungo National Park Area. Source image retrieved from www.geoscienceaustralia.com

• Narration. Voice over by Melissa Ellis, Southern Cross School of Distance Education.

Credits

NSW Government Public Schools, Learning Systems, DART connections, Southern Cross School of Education. Virtual Excursions 2017.

[End of transcript]

Episode 5 – Landscape formation

Warning – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following video may contain images and voices of deceased persons.

(gentle music)

[Screen reads: Question? What makes the Willandra Lakes and Lake Mungo landscape unique?]

Narrator: Melissa

The region contains a system of Pleistocene lakes formed over the last two million years. These lakes are now dry. There are five large, interconnected dry lake basins and 14 smaller basins.

Today the lake beds are flat plains vegetated by salt-tolerant low bushes and grasses. Most of the Willandra Lakes are fringed on the eastern side by crescent-shaped dunes referred to as lunette that was created by layers of sediment being deposited between 40,000 and 15,000 years ago.

The original sources for the lakes was a creek flowing from the Eastern Highlands to the Murray River. When the Willandra Billabong Creek ceased to replenish the lakes, they dried in a series of south to northwest over a period of several thousands of years, becoming more progressively saline.

[Screen reads: Fact. Saline soils are soils with a high concentration of salt]

The ancient shoreline is stratified into three major layers of sediment that were deposited at different stages in the lake's history.

[Screen reads: Fact. Stratified soil is arranged into different layers called strata]

The earliest sediments are more than 50,000 years old and are orange red in colour. Above are clays, clean quartz sand, and soil that were deposited along the lakes' edges when the lakes were full.

The top layer is composed largely of windblown clay particles heaped up on the lunettes during periods of fluctuating water levels before the lakes finally dried up.

[Screen reads: Fact. Glaciated means covered or having been covered by glaciers or ice]

The Willandra Lakes Region is particularly important because it has not been glaciated whereas sediments in other regions have been removed by glacial processes. Here they have remained undisturbed for many thousands of years.

(gentle music)

List of sources and acknowledgements

• Image: Willandra Lakes Region formation. Source image retrieved from www.geosciencesaustralia.com

• Image: Willandra Lakes Region lake names. Source image retrieved from www.geosciencesaustralia.com

• Image: Willandra Lakes water sources. Source image retrieved from www.geosciencesaustralia.com

• Video: 45,000 years at Lake Mungo. Provided by National Parks and Wildlife www.visitmungo.com.au

• Image: Section of three major sediment layers. Source provided by Professor Jim Bowler.

• Narration. Voice over by Melissa Ellis, Southern Cross School of Distance Education.

Credits

NSW Government Public Schools, Learning Systems, DART connections, Southern Cross School of Education. Virtual Excursions 2017.

[End of transcript]

Warning – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following video may contain images and voices of deceased persons.

(piano music)

Melissa

Lake Mungo and the surrounding Willandra Lakes region bare testimony to a past civilization.

[Screen reads: Question? What does the evidence from Mungo tell us about ancient Mungo life]

Indigenous people have lived in the region for at least 50,000 years.

Harvey Johnston – Archaeologist, NSW Office of Environment and Heritage

Clearly, they were moving around the landscape. They were eating the foods that I've described. We know that they'll bring stone artefacts in from other parts of the region, and perhaps the much broader ridge, it's a hundred, 200 kilometres. Time is broadened it.

We know here in this area, people are even using stone axes that came from quarries in Victoria. So, they're trading and exchanging those materials from the south, and they're also bringing in grinding stones from the north.

There's hard rock quarries here at Mungo as well, where they could make their own artefacts. And we've had some demonstrations today. Stone knapping, people were knapping stone from the natural outcrops here at Mungo.

Ivan Johnston – Discovery Ranger, Mungo National Park

There is a quarry in that direction. Where they, were ancestors would have made all these stone tools. You cannot make a stone tool using the same material. so, what they would have had to do was trade in another stone tool, or a hard rock. And that's the only way they can knap it.

[Screen reads: Fact. Knapping is the act of shaping stone into tools or weapons using other stronger stones]

Melissa

The artefacts or remains have been found preserved in sediments dating back 40,000 years.

Ivan

They would have traded cloaks, stone tools, hardwood, all your spears would have come from a different area. Cloaks is made out of kangaroo skin, possum skin as well. At the time too, there would have been giant wombats, so, they would have used them cloaks too as well

Melissa

In 2003, nearly 460 fossilized human footprints were discovered. the largest collection of its kind in the world. The prints were made by children, adolescents, and adults, 19,000 to 23,000 years ago in wet clay. The clay containing calcium carbonate hardened like concrete and a layer of clay and sand protected the prints.

When archaeologists first studied the fossilized footprints, they observed some interesting characteristics. National Parks Discovery Rangers shared with us a story relating to the footprints.

Ivan

There was a young lady by the name of Mary Pepin, Jr. She was doin' some survey in that area, she came across the footprints on a clay pan. She went back and told the area manager that, "Can you come out and have a look at these tracks?" Because it was near a station, they said, "Well, maybe it could be station playin cricket on the clay pan." She said, "No, there's too many foot tracks. And they were bare feet."

So, the elders went out with them. They checked the footprints. The old people, they knew that these were very old footprints. So, what they done they invited trackers from the desert area and they came out and had a look at it. And they said, "This is greenton."

So, there was a group of women and children. They were walking in one direction and they said that there was a lady with a baby on her hip walking in one direction because of the weight on the side. It was lighter this side. She turned the baby over further in the track way.

And also, one of the kid must have mucked up with the thought mum was going to eat it. She took off around, she met them further down the trackway. They also was a group of men. There was also one person with one leg. Chased after this kangaroo. Did wonder now, what kind of man with one-foot chase kangaroo, but then they noticed a little thing gone along a little hole goin’ along. So, this person would have had a hook, just like crutches and hold himself up and he's runnin' at the same time.

So, the group of men chased this kangaroo. You could actually see where the fellow musta thrown the spear, of the stance of the run, that spear missed the kangaroo, you could see where it's get it skidded in the ground. They run up, picked that spear up. You could actually see the knuckle part where he dug his hand in for the spear, and he must've thrown it and got the kangaroo. The kangaroo actually fell, you could see where he fell, so, they must've walked up, got the spear out, chuck it on the shoulder and kept on moving.

Melissa

Another theory is that the man may have had a canoe. And if there was shallow water across the surface of the mud, this man would be skimming the canoe along the surface. This would result in a single print left in the mud.

Ivan

so, they tracked it over 430 tracks. And I think there's more because there's more covered over from the sand. So, you just get all these, you can see all these tracks going in one direction, and then you got the big sand dune. They cover the rest.

Jo Gorman – Area Manager, Lower Darling NSW National Parks and Wildlife

The Mungo Trackway is a really important site. The whole part of planning for the future of that site was with the Aboriginal groups and their knowledge was applied. And working together to have that site protected and then interpreted for the community in the way that this group wanted it interpreted.

Melissa

During the last ice age, when the lakes were full, the Mungo people camped along the lake shore. Taking advantage of a wide range of food, including freshwater mussels, yabbies, golden perch and Murray Cod. Large emus and a variety of marsupials, which probably included the now extinct giant kangaroos. They also exploited plant resources.

Ivan

Around the edge, they would have been growin' cavania reeds. You pull the middle stem out, and you cut below and you can eat that. You can eat it raw, or you can cook it in ash. And these cavania reeds, you can make baskets out of um, billy bags, and also fish traps out of these cavania reeds.

Just there, see where the bushes there. Couple of years ago that become more routed. And we actually found a fish tail with mud. They must've cooked a fish here. Ancestors would have cooked that fish simple. We know they got scales on um. They'd smother fish over with mud, thick mud and put it on a hot coals, covered it over. And when that mud dries up, it splits. And that's where the steam come out. So, you know that it's cooked. So, they'd put it off the coal and then let it cool down a bit, and what they do then, they peel that mud back and all the skin and the scale come off in one go. And this is something that the archaeologists gonna come in and check out, they're gonna do a bit of testing on that.

(piano music)

List of sources and acknowledgements

• Image: Recreation of Lake Mungo. Provided by Giovanni Caselli

• Image: Recreation of mega fauna. Provided by ©Australian Postal Corporation 2008. Designer: Peter Trusler.

• Image: Stone artefacts from the Pleistocene living site. Image retrieved from Pleistocene Human Remains from Australia: A Living site and human cremation from Lake Mungo, Western New South Wales.

• Image: Stone axe. Retrieved from www.cv.vic.gov/stories/aboriginal-culture

• Image: Grinding stone. Retrieved from www.victoriancollections.net.au

• Image: Shell artefact. Image retrieved from Pleistocene Human Remains from Australia: A Living site and human cremation from Lake Mungo, Western New South Wales.

• Image series: Mungo Track-way site. Provided by Matthew Cupper

• Image: Mungo track-way site map and section map. Map and section provided by Matthew Cupper, Steven Webb. Source of human figures by Giovanni Caselli

• Narration. Voice over by Melissa Ellis, Southern Cross School of Distance Education.

Credits

NSW Government Public Schools, Learning Systems, DART connections, Southern Cross School of Education. Virtual Excursions 2017.

[End of transcript]

Warning – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following video may contain images and voices of deceased persons.

(gentle music)

[Screen reads: Question? How has Lake Mungo environment changed over time?]

Melissa

Melissa Ellis, Geography teacher, Southern Cross School of Distance Education] Lake Mungo didn't always look as it does today. The lake and the surrounding environment have gone through many changes over time. 40,000 years ago, Lake Mungo contained fresh water, and the area was full of wildlife. The variety of wildlife provided an excellent food supply for the people who lived on its shores.

So what was the environment like at the time of the Lady Mungo and Mungo Man?

Harvey Johnston – Archaeologist, NSW Office of Environment and Heritage

The lake was full of water. There was a lake filled with fish, and we know that because the fish remains around the edge of the lake. There were shellfish in the water, there was yabbies in the water, there was water birds around the edge of the lake.

We know all this from the archaeological traces. so, there was a variety of animals there. The lake at the time of Lady Mungo and Mungo Man was 42,000 years ago, so, it was a full lake, but also a lake that was slowly, also, it had been filled for many thousands of years and was getting towards a drying phase.

[Screen reads: Fact. Biodiversity means the variety of plants and animals in a particular area]

Ivan Johnston – Discovery Ranger, Mungo National Park

At that period of time, we would have had a lot of fresh water animals, especially food. It would've had cod, perch, fresh water mussels, giant kangaroos, giant emus, giant wombats, dingoes, and also Tasmanian tigers.

Melissa

Diprotodons were large marsupials who lived around the Lake Mungo area. They look like giant wombats. It is theorized that Aboriginal people may have hunted these and other mega fauna for food. Diprotodons became extinct about 25,000 years ago.

(gentle music)

List of sources and acknowledgements

• Image: Magalania lizard chasing glenyornis. Retrieved from www.abc.net.au/news

• Image: Recreation of mega fauna. Provided by ©Australian Postal Corporation 2008. Designer: Peter Trusler.

• Video: 45,000 years at Lake Mungo. Provided by National Parks and Wildlife www.visitmungo.com.au

• Image: Willandra Lakes 45000 years ago. Image retrieved from www.donsmaps.com

• Image: Recreation of Lake Mungo. Provided by Giovanni Caselli

• Image: Diprotodon. Provided by Giovanni Caselli. Source of human figures by Giovanni Caselli

• Video: Building the Lake Mungo lunette. Provided by National Parks and Wildlife. www.visitmungo.com.au

• Narration. Voice over by Melissa Ellis, Southern Cross School of Distance Education.

Credits

NSW Government Public Schools, Learning Systems, DART connections, Southern Cross School of Education. Virtual Excursions 2017.

[End of transcript]

Warning – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following video may contain images and voices of deceased persons.

(gleeful piano music)

[Screen reads – Question? Were humans responsible for the decline and eventual extinction of Australian megafauna?]

Ivan Johnston – Discovery Ranger, Mungo National Park

We do find lots of giant kangaroos, giant emus, and giant wombats, we have found these here in these layers of soil.

Melissa

Giant beast once roamed Willandra Lakes Region, and the rest of Australia, and much of the world. This was during the Pleistocene Epoch, between 10,000 and 2 million years ago. Most of the megafauna became extinct towards the end of the Pleistocene Epoch, with Africa the last remaining stronghold of large mammals into the modern era.

This important and worldwide wave of extinction seems to have coincided with the arrival of humans in various continents. And the role of hunter gatherers in wiping out the megafauna has been a hot topic of scientific debate. Fossils of extinct megafauna are not very common at Willandra Lakes compared to some other parts of New South Wales.

The giant species which have left their remains buried in the Willandra Lakes sediment include wombat-like, diprotodons. A short-faced, giant kangaroo, the large wallaby. Too large, Macropus kangaroos. And the genyornis, a very short, stout, flightless bird. Genyornis have been useful in working out, when Australian megafauna became extinct, because it was widespread and left numerous fossils in the form of eggshells.

Back when Australia was much wetter, genyornis and other giant flightless birds dominated the land, but as the continent grew more arid, kangaroos and other macropods took over. All genyornis eggshells have been dated to older than 46,000 years.

[Screen reads: Question? How did Indigenous Australians use fire to hunt animals?]

So, did human hunting, or widespread firing of the landscape wipe out megafauna as some researchers believe? Or was it climate change, the main factor as other scientists say.

Dr Jim Bowler – Geologist, University of Melbourne

That's a big question. It's one that is hotly debated shall we say. There is now strong evidence that there was sufficient overlap between the continuation of the megafauna and human population, so, the two overlapped for quite some time. So, the disappearance of the megafauna, there's a very strong presumptive evidence that people played a large part. Whether they were actually diminished because of human occupation is another question.

The other component is one of climate change. Now, the time that those large fauna disappeared about 45,000 years ago, was also, this is hotly debated, was also a time, when the dunes out here began to blow, big desert expansion at the same time. So, I believe it was a conjunction of both, human activity, but the change in vegetation, because these animals were browsers, they lived off the vegetation. Once you change the vegetation, you'll have to bound to impact humans, plus the big vegetation change, I think that was probably the joint answer.

Melissa

It's generally thought from the archaeological record that people first arrived in Australia about 50,000 years ago, perhaps as long as 60,000 years ago. Many of the megafauna were slow moving, and perhaps easily hunted, but they would have been vulnerable to changes in the environment also.

Harvey Johnston – Archaeologist, NSW Office of Environment and Heritage

Environments change when new elements come into them. So, when foxes or cats or dingoes, or people come to a new environment they've never been, it changes everything, it changes all the interactions. And I think that some of the extinctions are quite complex, but they're to do with that change. Some of it's to do with directly hunting and eating, some of it's to do with the ecosystem change, some of it might be do with fire change, so, I think that's a very complex area.

Melissa

However, there is little evidence to show that early Australian people hunted the big animals. The earliest signs of people at Willandra Lakes are about 45,000 years old. And preserved in their campsites are the remains of what they ate. None of the Willandra Lakes megafauna had been found in campsites. Ancient menu included shellfish, yabbies, fish, and a vast array of small mammals, including hair wallabies, bettongs, bandicoots, bilbies, and native rats.

These species could be caught in either the lake, or in the lunette burrows. Larger kangaroos are less common in the remains, but perhaps these were caught and eaten away from the lakes. Maybe megafauna too, were hunted and eaten on the plains.

Harvey

A group of people that I've worked with for a number of years have found, here at Mungo and in this region of Australia, and right across the Southern part of Australia, burnt, genyornis eggshell, which is extinct emu.

Woman

Yeah.

Harvey

And the extinct emu is burnt fragment of this, and we've got really good dates on when people were burning these fragments, these shells, and it's between 48 and 50,000 years ago, you find large numbers of these burnt genyornis eggshells. We got samples, hundreds of samples. In fact, thousands of dated samples from genyornis across Australia. (gleeful piano music continues)

List of sources and acknowledgements

• Image: Recreation of mega fauna. Provided by ©Australian Postal Corporation 2008. Designer: Peter Trusler.

• Image: Time line of the Pleistocene. Source image retrieved from www.wikimedia.org Megafauna from Peter Trusler.

• Image: Extinct and Non Extinct Megafauna around the world.

• Image: Megafauna and humans. Provided by Michael C Westaway and painted by Laurie Bernie.

• Image: Magalania lizard chasing glenyornis. Retrieved from www.abc.net.au/news

• Video: Building the Lake Mungo Lunette. Provided by National Parks and wildlife www.visitmungo.com.au

• Image: Fire. Retrieved from www.wikimedia.com

• Video: Forces shaping Willandra Lakes. Provided by National Parks and Wildlife www.visitmungo.com.au

• Image: Recreation of Lake Mungo. Provided by Giovanni Caselli

• Image: Human Migration Map. Source image retrieved from www.genographic.nationalgeographic.com

• Image: Willandra Lake 45,000 years ago. Source image retrieved from www.donsmaps.com

• Narration: Voice over by Melissa Ellis, Southern Cross School of Distance Education.

Credits

NSW Government Public Schools, Learning Systems, DART connections, Southern Cross School of Education. Virtual Excursions 2017.

[End of transcript]

Warning – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following video may contain images and voices of deceased persons.

(gleeful piano music)

Ivan Johnston – Discovery Ranger, Mungo National Park

In that direction there were the white wall is That's the area where they found Mungo man Mungo woman. They carbon-dated Mungo lady to be 42,000 years old 42 to 45 thousand years old two years later he came back and that's where he found Munga man.

Narrator

In 1969 professor Jim Bowler from the University of Melbourne was studying the ancient lake sediments when he found the remains of a young female who had been cremated Mungo lady. Initially dated 20,000 to 26,000 years ago. These remains were then the oldest in Australia.

Five years later, and just 300 metres away, he uncovered the complete skeleton of a man who had received a ceremonial burial Mungo, man. This discovery confirmed what indigenous people had always known that they had a long and complex relationship with the land.

Dating the remains proved to be a problematic and controversial task. Estimates were between 30,000 and 62,000 years ago. The debate was finally settled in 2003 when a collaboration between three universities and the CSIRO dated both Mungo man and Mungo lady at roughly 40,000 years old with additional artefacts pointing to human occupation of the area as far back as 50,000 years ago.

The scientists use techniques such as radiometric dating, mitochondrial DNA dating and electron spin resonance testing to estimate the age of the remains. Professor Mike Morwood, formerly an Archaeologist at the University of Wollongong, said the discovery changed the whole tenor of Australian archaeology, which was now on the world stage.

Harvey Johnston – Archaeologist, NSW Office of Environment and Heritage

Until the discoveries of Mungo the oldest site that was known, in Australia, was a rock shelter in central Queensland. It dated to about 18,000 years ago, but along came Mungo woman and Mungo man and suddenly the whole story changed from just there's elements of rock to the whole human history.

Narrator

Mungo lady and Mungo man are some of the oldest remains of modern humans ever discovered outside of Africa. It was previously assumed that Australia had been settled by humans only in the past few thousand years or less. But the Mungo remain showed that Australia had been inhabited by humans for longer, even than the Americas.

Ross O Shea – Principal consultant, Mundi Consulting Services

These burials revolutionised the whole thinking of the evolution of modern humans out of Africa theory and rewritten all the textbooks which I think is, is wonderful and it's one of the really special things about this place. And one of the sadness’s I have about this place is how few people know that.

Narrator

The scientific evidence shows that Aboriginal people have lived at Mungo for at least 45,000 years but many Aboriginal people say they have been here even longer reaching back into the dream time, perhaps forever.

List of sources and acknowledgements

• Image: Jim Bowler. Provided by Jim Bowler

• Image: Sediment layer section. Source image provided by Jim Bowler

• Image: Sediment layer pan. Source image provided by Jim Bowler

• Image: Skull of Mungo lady. Retrieved from http://www.donsmaps.com

• Image: Recreation of Lake Mungo. Provided by Giovanni Caselli

• Image series: Excavations of Mungo Man. Provided by Jim Bowler

• Image: Elders on the dune. Provided by Dan Rosendahl

• Image: Timeline of Lake Mungo human occupation. Retrieved from http://www.donsmaps.com Human figures by Giovanni Caselli

• Image: Human remains. Provided by Jim Bowler

• Image: Test results. Figures from papers: Willandra Lakes revisited environmental framework for human occupation and single-grain optical dating of grave-infill associated with human burials at Lake Mungo, Australia

• Image: Michael Moorwood. Provided by Loren Coleman

• Image: Keniff cave excavations. Retrieved from Museum of Queensland. Http://www.qm.qld.gov.au

• Image: Human migration routes. Provided by National Geographic partners, retrieved from https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/human-journey

• Narration: Voice over by Amanda Ritchie, Southern Cross School of Distance Education.

Credits

NSW Government Public Schools, Learning Systems, DART connections, Southern Cross School of Education. Virtual Excursions 2017.

[End of transcript]

Warning – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following video may contain images and voices of deceased persons.

(gentle music)

Narrator

Please be aware. The following information may be confronting for some people. Please end this recording if you feel uncomfortable at any time.

The body of Mungo Lady had been burnt, and then the burnt skeleton was smashed. The ash and the bones were gathered together and placed in a small sand hollow next to where the body had been burnt. Mungo Man, an adult male, had been buried on his side with his hands clasped together. Red ochre had been thrown over his body.

Ivan Johnston – Discovery Ranger, Mungo National Park

They noticed that on his skeleton remains, they noticed this red pigment, that red pigment is ochre. You cannot get ochre from around this here area. so, that was traded in from a different area. For someone to be buried in that way, it'd have to be someone who's high up. Must've been a king or a chief of the tribe at that period of time. So, they did bury their dead respectfully at the time.

Harvey Johnston – Archaeologist, NSW Office of Environment and Heritage

And that ceremonial aspect is there, so, we know that that ceremony was taking place and we know people are being treated with great respect when they were buried in that process of ritual and ceremony was very clear in the archaeology.

Narrator

The discovery of Mungo Man and Mungo Lady demonstrated that the people of Mungo area had advanced spiritual beliefs and were practicing cremation burial ritual earlier than any other human society. Traditional Aboriginal burial practices vary throughout Australia, but each death is mourned through a series of rituals, to ensure that a person's spirit leaves the area and returns to its birthplace or country from which it can later be reborn.

(gentle music)

List of sources and acknowledgements

• Image: Archaeological dig site. Provided by Jim Bowler

• Image: Recreation of Lake Mungo. Provided by Giovanni Caselli

• Image: Sediment layer pan. Source image provided by Jim Bowler

• Images: Mungo Man dig site. Provided by Jim Bowler

• Image: Red Ochre. Retrieved from www.flickr.com/photos/nbarreto/

• Image: Burial Customs. Image retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au

• Narration. Voice over by Melissa Ellis, Southern Cross School of Distance Education.

Credits

NSW Government Public Schools, Learning Systems, DART connections, Southern Cross School of Education. Virtual Excursions 2017.

[End of transcript]

Warning – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following video may contain images and voices of deceased persons.

(soft piano music)

Ross O Shea – Principal consultant, Mundi Consulting Services

This is a very unique world heritage property in terms of Australia, in that at the time of listing Mungo National Park was a very, very minor part of the whole area. The pastural land holders were a majority of the land.

Daniel Rosendahl – Executive Officer, Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area

You use local knowledge to better understand the landscape. These land holders have been here, some of them for several generations, and so, know the land better than anybody else.

Ian Wakefield – Land holder, Top Hut Station, Willandra Lakes Region

Dad settled out here about 1954 and the original family was about 70km away, it was around the turn of the century.

[Screen reads: Fact. European occupation in the Willandra Lakes over 15 years ago]

Narrator

Record show that Europeans arrived in the Willandra lakes area in the 1840s. With them they brought significant change to the natural environment. Europeans introduced sheep and cattle to the area. In the 1880s rabbits also arrived. The introduction of these three species reduced vegetation significantly. Overgrazing and severe drought combined to shock the ecosystem.

This reduced the productivity of the environment, resulting in reduction in stocking rates. Native wildlife, such as wombats, bilbies, bettongs and other small medium-sized native animals were driven to extinction in the region.

The already eroding landscape experience accelerated degradation at the hands of cattle and sheep grazes. The traditional owners of the land were dispossessed and their traditional practices ceased. It is likely that European activity resulted in the erosion that eventually revealed the remains of Mungo lady and Mungo man.

Daniel

The interesting thing about the Willandra, I call it the Willandra paradox, is the very reason that we know why there's archaeology and the significant geology in this landscape is because of erosion and erosion is something's already starting probably a couple of thousand years ago. And it really escalated when we started grazing sheep on this landscape.

Narrator

Today, local landowners and national parks and wildlife work consistently at preserving the landscape, the main land management strategies surround preventing erosion.

[Screen reads: Fact. Erosion is caused by introduced species and vegetation removal is the most significant threat to Lake Mungo’s natural environment]

Daniel

so, you use that local knowledge of where watering points could go or where we could put fences to protect particular areas. And then we also have within the New South Wales government, there's a science division. And so, we worked very closely with the science division and the landholders to bring cutting edge best practice science, contemporary sites into farming practices in the Willandra likes to help, help stop erosion and to help slow down erosion.

Ian

We have fenced off some sensitive sites on our properties to just manage that, so, the stock can’t get in around that, and do any damage to those sites.

Narrator

Soil erosion is part of the natural geomorphic process, particularly in semi-arid environments where wind erosion sculpts the landscape and creates dunal systems. The entire Willandra lake system was created as a result of wind driven sand, forming dunes that block the flow of Willandra Creek. The lunette associated with each lake was built out through a wind erosion process of lake bed and lake shore sediments. Today erosion threatens the dunes in Willandra lakes region. The most severe examples of erosion can be found on Lake Mungo, Lunette.

List of sources and acknowledgements

• Image: Historical photos of Willandra Lakes region and people. Retrieved from Mungo National Park Conservation Management and Cultural Tourism Management Plan

• Image: Photos of Australian Fauna. Retrieved from www.wikimedia.com

• Image: Excavations of Mungo Man. Provided by Jim Bowler

• Image: Shell middens. Provided by Dan Rosendahl

• Image: Erosion Control. Provided by Dan Rosendahl

• Video: Forces shaping Willandra Lakes. Provided by National Parks and Wildlife. www.visitmungo.com.au

• Narration. Voice over by Melissa Ellis, Southern Cross School of Distance Education.

Credits

NSW Government Public Schools, Learning Systems, DART connections, Southern Cross School of Education. Virtual Excursions 2017.

[End of transcript]

Warning – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following video may contain images and voices of deceased persons.

(upbeat music)

Narrator

Lake Mungo today is a scene of absolute beauty. The deep red earth contrasts against the blue clear sky. The lunette dune system is obvious from a great distance, as the white sand reflects light. A place of stark beauty, the Willandra Lakes region is unique, showing how climate, wind, and water have shaped the landscape over the last 2 million years.

Human remains found at Lake Mungo have proven crucial to improving our understanding of human settlement of Australia. The region provides powerful fossil evidence of ongoing human occupation dating back 45 to 60,000 years.

Once a lush environment teaming with water and animal life, the now-dry lakes and dunes have yielded well-preserved fossils of over 55 animal species, including giant mammals. The fossil record also provides evidence of people adapting to changes in climatic conditions.

[Screen reads: Fact. Willandra lakes region and Lake Mungo are arid landscapes]

Today, the vegetation in the region is typical of semi-arid zones. It plays an important role in stabilizing the landscape and hence maintaining its sediment strata and many species of native fauna.

Small, scrubby, multi-stemmed Mallee eucalypts are found on the dunes, with an understory of herbs and grasses. In the lake bed, several species of saltbush are able to thrive in the saline conditions. 22 spaces of mammals are currently recorded in the region. Bats are the most diverse group, and there are some 40 species of reptiles and amphibians.

The bird life of the Willandra Lakes region is similar to that in many other semi-arid areas of Australia: parrots, cockatoos, and finches. At Lake Mungo, we observed finches making homes in the clay pans on the side of the lunette dunes.

On the Eastern side of each of the lakes in the region, there are vast crescent-shape lunettes made up of layers of sediment deposited between 40,000 and 15,000 years ago. The layered composition, including clays and fossil soils distinguish lunettes from dunes. One of the most spectacular series of lunettes known as the Walls of China is found on the Eastern side of Lake Mungo.

Over the past 100-200 years of erosion of lunettes has been accelerated by the removal of vegetation due to grazing. Wind and the minimal water that falls washes away the soft sands and clays, creating the ribbed surfaces and gullies that characterise the region. The erosion is also responsible for uncovering the remains of humans and animals that once lived in the area.

Melissa Ellis – Geography teacher, Southern Cross School of Distance Education

As an archaeologist, is this a really exciting place to come out and visit?

Harvey Johnston – Archaeologist, NSW Office of Environment and Heritage

Absolutely, absolutely. It's great. It's a lot of rich texture. Things that have been buried in the dunes can easily be exposed. so, as soon as you've got a bit of erosion, you get sub-surface being sediments exposed and all the sediments being revealed.

Daniel Rosendahl – Executive Officer, Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area

In a really sensitive paddock where sheep have over-grazed or ate a lot of the grass and that started erosion. And so, that erosion is uncovering archaeology and it's uncovering the geology and it's still doing that to this day. So, so, every day, every time there's a big storm event or a strong wind, new sites are being exposed and are coming to the surface. And we go and cover those up with the shade cloth to try and protect those as much as we can.

List of sources and acknowledgements

• Image: Archaeological dig site. Provided by Jim Bowler

• Image: Human migration routes. Provided by National Geographic partners retrieved from https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/human-journey

• Images: Mungo trackway Site. Provided by Matthew Cupper

• Image: Recreation of Lake Mungo. Provided by Geovanni Caselli

• Video: 45,000 years at Lake Mungo. Provided by National Parks and Wildlife www.visitmungo.com.au

• Image series: Fauna of Willandra Lakes region. Retrieved from www.commons.wikimedia.org

• Image: Sediment layers at Lake Mungo. Source provided by Professor Jim Bowler

• Image: Lake Mungo Walls of China. Retrieved from www.wikimedia.com

• Image: Historical photos of Willandra lakes region and people. Retrieved from Mungo National Park Conservation management and cultural tourism management plan

• Image: Shell Middens. Provided by Dan Rosendahl

• Image: Erosion control. Provided by Dan Rosendahl

• Narration. Voice over by Melissa Ellis, Southern Cross School of Distance Education.

Credits

NSW Government Public Schools, Learning Systems, DART connections, Southern Cross School of Education. Virtual Excursions 2017.

[End of transcript]

Warning – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following video may contain images and voices of deceased persons.

(Calm music playing)

Daniel Rosendahl – Executive Officer, Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area

The World Heritage Area is listed for its unique geological features, which can help us recreate environments from about 150,000 years ago through to the present.

Harvey Johnston – Archaeologist, NSW Office of Environment and Heritage

So, the lunettes, has a series of layers in it that are built up from sand being blown up to the Eastern side of the lake when the lake was full of water. And then when the lake waters dropped and you had a large clay pan clay from the lake floor being deposited into the dune. So, the sedimentation of the dune on the Eastern side of the lunette is made up of alternating clay rich, sand rich, clay rich, sand rich layers and they inform us about wet conditions, dry conditions, wet conditions, dry conditions. So, the geology tells us about the whole Australian climate.

Ivan Johnston – Discovery Ranger, Mungo National Park

Just below us, we got four, four layers of soil at the bottom layer of soil layer known as the Gogol layer of soil. That's very old. We also got the middle layer soil which is the red colour soil, that’s known as the Mungo layer of soil. further up top, the Zanci layer of soil. Each of these layers of soil, we have found extinct animal bones, and also stone tools and all fall places in these layers of soil.

Amanda Ritchie – Science teacher, Southern Cross school of Distance Education

And what is the idea behind the wet conditions, dry conditions? Why was that happening? Why is there clay, sand, clay sand, clay sand.

Harvey

The global climate has gone through a whole series of fluctuations, waxing and waning, some, some major cold phases. Ice ages. Extremely cold and extremely dry and some very warm phases that's been happening forever, really, that climatic change. And so, we are looking here at a pattern, a short period, geologically 40 or 60,000 years in the Orlando, and just looking at that little time. And so, we've got a lake full face at 40,000 wet conditions. And then the lakes dry as the world climate gets colder and more and more of the globes water gets bound up in ice sheets and Glaciers. Sea levels fall and it's just not available water. And that cycle is gone again and again.

[Screen reads: Soil tests with Amanda Ritchie]

Amanda

Hello everyone, I'm standing here at the side of lake Mungo. My name's Amanda Richie, and I am a science teacher at Southern cross DE. And you can see the beautiful landscape, high, vast, and expanse it is. the mean vegetation is Salt bush cause it's really the only type of plant that can survive in this arid environment. Therefore, the flora and fauna need to reflect that and adapt to live here.

[Screen reads: Types of plants are closely linked to soil and geology.
We tested the soil at Lake Mungo to see what we could find out.
Soil test 01 – PH test for soil type 1]

What I'm going to do is, do a very short simple pH test of some of the soils that we find at lake Mungo. so, you can see here today, the soil that we're on is very, very sandy.

[Screen reads: Fact. Soil characteristics are fine, light, granular and sandy soil]

Okay. It's very appealing colour. And it's very small greens and very, very fine. And we can do a very simple test to test the PH of this soil using universal indicator from my little kit and something called barium sulphate and that just helps show up the colour of the indicator.

[Screen reads: Fact. Universal indicator shows if a material is acidic or alkaline by changing colour]

So most soils range from acidic to alkaline, and that really does affect what grows in those soils. And you might remember acids and alkaline, and you might've seen this universal indicator chart before. so, if the indicator is dark red indicates that soil is very acidic or something's very acidic. Acidity lessens as you go through the colours from red, orange and yellow green means neutral. And the other end of the scale is towards alkaline so, if the indicator turns like deep purple or blue, that indicates a lot of alkalinity in this soil.

So let's test a small sample. so, we have a little white porcelain tile. I'm just going to scrape some of the soil into there.

[Screen reads: Fact. The indicator pipette should not make contact with the sample. It contaminates the universal indicator and you can no longer use it]

And the next thing we want to do is just add a few drops of the universal indicator. And as I said, that's an indicator that will change colour depending on the acidity or alkalinity of the soil. As you can see already it is turning a green colour. Okay.

[Screen reads: Question. What does a green pH reading mean?]

And if we use our chart before we put our barium sulphate on, you can already see that it seems to be indicating somewhere between pH 7 pH 8. Okay. so, pH 7 is neutral pH 8 would be slightly alkaline, so, it's been wet. And now with the universal indicator we just need to add a light dusting of barium sulphate.

[Screen reads: Fact. Barium sulphate (BaSO4) reduces the colour change created by soil particles that can cause an inaccurate pH reading]

I'll use the other end of the spatula. And just sprinkle a little bit of barium sulphate that just helps the colour of the indicator to come out. And mix that together. (Playful music) See it's changing slightly lighter green with the barium sulphate. All right.

[Screen reads: Question. What does the indicator turning lighter mean?]

This just helps to minimize the colour impact of the other minerals in it. So, if we compare it to the indicator paper, I know it looks quite dark on the universal indicator chart, but it is very much green. so, at the moment, without any further tests, we would say that this sandy soil is a mainly neutral soil if slightly acidic or slightly alkaline, sorry, according to our tests. And that's it for a simple pH sample of this soil.

[Screen reads: Fact. Sandy soils are often acidic and chalky and contain calcium carbonate which are often alkaline. so, we could infer that this type of soil is a mixture of sand and calcium carbonate soils.]

[Screen reads: Soil test 02 – How to test your pH kit]

Amanda

Hello everyone. just want to show you how you can test if the universal indicator is in fact indicating if a soil or a liquid or something you're testing is acidic, alkaline or neutral. Okay. And what you really need to do is get something of known acidity.

[Screen reads: Question. What household items are acidic? What are the characteristics of acids?]

Even if, you know, if it's acidic or for example, water should be neutral, especially distilled water and or something alkaline like detergents or bleaches or something like that.

[Screen reads: Question. What household items are alkaline? What are the characteristics?]

So, to show you very briefly, I have hydrochloric acid here that was in my soil testing kit.

[Screen reads: Fact. Acids are compounds that contain hydrogen in a form that is released when put into water. pH is a relative measure of how many hydrogen ions they release]

So, I know that that should be acidic and using a universal indicator. And according to my chart, I would expect it to be towards this end of the spectrum. so, definitely orange, if not very red, because it's very high in acidity.

So, all I do is I have my porcelain tile I previously used this section to test a bit of the Sandy soil in this area. All I need is one drop of HCL, hydrochloric acid, and one drop of universal indicator. Makes sure the end of the pipette does not go into the solution or it will contaminate your entire bottle of universal indicator. so, you just drop it from above and you can see it very quickly turned an orangy red colour. And according to your universal indicator chart, that shows it's a very strong acid.

So, our universal indicator is working correctly and therefore from our previous samples, we can trust the colour of the indicator. Okay. so, that's a top tip when you're doing some tests on pH Thank you

[Screen reads: Soil test 03 pH Test for soil type 2]

Amanda

Hi, everyone. Just going to show you another Ph test a slightly different soil type.

[Screen reads: Fact. Soil characteristics: sandy, fine, light, red]

So, this soil is still very sandy based. It's very fine, very coarse, very light, but slightly different in colour. so, we're going to do same as we did before. We just need a small sample into the porcelain tile, we add one or two drops of universal indicator. Make sure that the pipette does not touch the soil because we don't want to contaminate the dropper.

[Screen reads: Fact. The main components of a universal indicator, in the form of a solution, are thymol blue, methyl red, bromothymol blue, and phenolphthalein.]

The soil is very dry, so, I'm just adding a few more drops to let it soak in now you can see it's went a deep green type of colour. And now we haven't added our barium sulphate onto it yet. Ill add a bit on, there's a little ant trying to get in on that action. You can see already if it's in the green section, we’re presuming it's neutral. If not slightly alkaline.

All we need is a light dusting of barium sulphate. Try and mix it through a little. The barium sulphate is just absorbing some of the universal indicator and, trying to reduce the impact of the colour of the soil on the colour that it's indicating.

You can see it has changed colour quite dramatically from a deeper green more to a yellowy green. See sometimes it can be quite difficult with the colour of the soil to truly reflect the PH so, really, it's lightened up that deeper bluey green. And it's more, it's quite difficult to see, but it's more of a yellowy green, really. so, for me, this is indicating that it is neutral, but almost slightly acidic possibly, but in order to make any firm conclusions, I would suggest that we repeated this a couple of times to improve reliability, but that's what the results show us.

[Screen reads: Fact. The most accurate common means of measuring pH is through a lab device called a probe and meter, or simply, a pH meter.]

[Soil test 04 Sediment composition]

Amanda

Hello everyone. What I did with a sample of soil was I added distilled water to a small sample of soil so, that we had a, we call it a two to one ratio. so, we've got about two sections of water to one section of the soil sample. And I shook it up once the lid was on and allowed it to settle. And hopefully what you'll be able to see is we're looking at how the sediment has settled down at the bottom. so, this is all just cloudy water. We're not that interested in that, but what you might see is clay will settle at the top.

[Screen reads: Fact. Sediments settle according to their size and weight]

So, you can see this deep grey clay at the top. And then you can see the rest of the sediment looks quite like sand, and we can use this to work out rough estimates of the percentage of clay to sand.

[Screen reads: The sand-clay sediment layers provided the conditions suitable for fossil formation]

And that can tell us about, the sandy soil, and it can indicate what might be able to survive there. What other minerals are in the soil, et cetera. so, that's another test, simple test that we can do

[Screen reads: Soil test 05 Carbonates]

Amanda

Hi, everyone. I just wanted to show you a simple test for carbonates.

[Screen reads: Fact: Carbonate minerals are those minerals containing the carbon ion]

What I have is a sample of sandy soil in a small test tube. I added two thirds of water to it and shook it up and allowed the sediment to settle. And I just decanted off the water at the top. And the test for carbonates is to add hydrochloric acid. so, I've got hcl.

[Screen reads: Fact. Carbonate + Hydrochloric acid = Carbon dioxide + Water + Chloride]

We want a two to one ratio. So, we want to apply twice as much acid to the soil. And we're going to say if a reaction occurs. so, we expect some fizzing and the more fizzing and the faster, the reaction suggests that there's a higher level of carbonates in the soil. And vice-versa so, if there is a much reaction, that's okay. There just isn't many carbonates present. so, we're going to add the hcl

You can see, I don't even need to add the two to one ratio. We've got evidence of a reaction. I can hear bubbling. I can see bubbles forming it's fizzing. so, what that tells us is there is in fact carbonates present in that sandy soil sample.

(cheerful music)

List of sources and acknowledgements

• Image: Lunette formation from 40,000 years ago to present. Source provided by Professor Jim Bowler

• Video: Forces shaping Willandra Lakes. Provided by National Parks and Wildlife www.visitmungo.com.au

• Image: Water level curve of Willandra system spanning 50,000 years. Source provided by Professor Jim Bowler

• pH Scale facts. Facts about what makes a substance acid and what the pH scale measures can be found here blogs.scientifamerican.com/lab-rat/what-makes-things-acid-the-ph-scale/

• Narration. Voice over by Amanda Ritchie, Southern Cross School of Distance Education.

Credits

NSW Government Public Schools, Learning Systems, DART connections, Southern Cross School of Education. Virtual Excursions 2017.

[End of transcript]

Warning – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following video may contain images and voices of deceased persons.

Narrator

Mungo National Park and the Willandra Lakes Regional World Heritage Area needs to be carefully looked after to protect this unique landscape. A detailed management arrangement is in place to carry out this difficult job. It involves several government agencies, Aboriginal people, landholders, scientists, local councils, and others in a cooperative effort.

[Screen reads: World Heritage. The development of the plan]

Ross O Shea – Principal consultant, Mundi Consulting Services

I was part of that journey of putting together the first management plan for the World, for the World Heritage Area. The Willandra was, together with Kakadu, and the Great Barrier Reef, with the first three properties nominated by Australia for World Heritage listing.

[Screen reads: Question. Why is community consultation important?]

As reflecting the, the thinking at the time, there was very little consultation with the, the pastoral landholders or the traditional landholders, prior to listing. In fact, you know, there are stories about the landholders, the pastoral landholders, reading about the listing in the newspaper. After some years, the, there was a need to, to put in place a process to develop a management plan to resolve some of the difficulties that emerged.

The development of the plan of management took some time. And that is also not a criticism because the journey of developing that plan of management was based on developing knowledge and understanding. And I think respect between all the people that had an interest in the World Heritage Area.

This is a very unique World Heritage property. At the time of listing, Mungo National Park was a very, very minor part of the whole area. The pastoral landholders, with a majority of the land.

[Screen reads: Fact. Key stakeholders of the Willandra lakes region: Government, traditional owners, pastoralists]

And developing a plan of management needed to respect the fact that to achieve effective management here, we needed to, not only work with government, but, also to work with the traditional owners and, importantly, work with the pastoral landowners, as well, because the World Heritage listing was over their, was over their property. We ended up with a management plan that did a reasonably good job of meeting the needs of all the people that were interested or involved in the World Heritage Area.

[Screen reads: World heritage. People involved with management of the heritage sites]

Jo Gorman – Area Manager, Lower Darling NSW National Parks and Wildlife

I guess, in, in a lot of our projects and particularly with the cultural site protection, it's about looking at the issues, working out, jointly, on what the issues are and ways, the best ways to protect the cultural heritage.

It's just an amazing opportunity we have in this area. It's so, important for the Aboriginal cultural heritage. It's just an amazing place. And, um, there's a really important opportunity we have for the traditional tribal groups to be engaged in planning for management of what we do.

[Screen reads: Question. What is traditional ecological knowledge (TEK)? How is TEK helping the management of Mungo National Park?]

You know, their knowledge of, of the landscape and, and managing country is, is really strong. And with the groups, the who we work with, the Aboriginal community have a wealth of knowledge and just, you know, things like fire management, you know, starting to tap into the fire management and threatened species.

And, you know, that, that knowledge, and it really has to be something that people are willing to share because, you know, you have to be careful and protect some, some knowledge. And, so, you have to build up trust and, and understanding that it's for good outcomes for everyone.

Ivan Johnston – Discovery Ranger, Mungo National Park

I'm one of the World Heritage Committee members for Mungo National Park. We have got a committee within the same tribal groups. We have to person from each of the tribes. So, we all work together with the World Heritage Committee. I've been working for five years as a discovery ranger.

Our job is to show them and give them a great knowledge of what's out here. You know, we take them up to the walls, we show them the old sites, explain a little bit about them sites, and then we work our way up on top of the walls.

Ian Wakefield – Land holder, Top Hut Station, Willandra Lakes Region

Every property within the World Heritage now is of an individual property claim site and now where you stand as far as management of your property

We had to fight for them to keep their properties there for a while. But, then, now things have changed since. We're more better off than the people outside.

Daniel Rosendahl – Executive Officer, Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area

I'm the executive officer for the Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area. So, part of my, my role in that position is to ensure that everyone who has a responsibility to look after the World Heritage Area can do that. And, they're all talking with each other.

And, so, there is a lot of people who look after the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area. We have the, the New South Wales government. There's the Australian government. They're the, the landholders. So, the Willandra Lakes has nine pastoral property sheep stations. So, all, each one of those landholders has a responsibility to help protect the World Heritage Area.

There’re also the three traditional tribal groups of the Willandra Lakes: the Mutthi Mutthi, Ngyiampaa, and Paakantji people. They all have a responsibility to help us protect and care for the World Heritage Area and to get people back out on country and to tell stories about country.

[Screen reads: Question. Given the high number of visitors to the national park, how would you manage the impacts]

And there's also, uh, national parks. So, we, uh, also have Mungo National Park and one of the big properties within the World Heritage Area, and, so, the big impact there, is, is visitors coming in to Mungo National Park and managing the impact of potentially having tens of thousands of people walking over this hugely significant and sacred landscape every year.

[Screen reads: World heritage. Strategies for the management of heritage sites. Question. What are the natural hazards in the Willandra lakes region]

Daniel

The main natural hazards to the World Heritage values, specifically, is wind and water where there's no vegetation. So, where you have good vegetation, you don't have a risk of erosion. Where there's no vegetation, you have erosion.

Ivan

We get a lot of erosion out here from the wind and rain. And, as you can see, there's a lot of pinnacles being made in the road at, at the moment.

Daniel

One of the greatest risks of those two criteria, the two physical remains, which is the archaeology and the geology, is erosion. And, so, a lot of my job is to try and monitor the impact of erosion and to try and monitor how successful our measurements are in trying to prevent erosion.

So, when we try and cover something up and stop it from eroding, we go back periodically and have a look and see if it actually is working. Most of the World Heritage Area, where you have erosion, you can't grow vegetation there anymore because the topsoil is completely blown away. And, you're left with this kind of nutrient-deficient or nutrient-poor sediment where grass and trees won't grow.

So, the way that we try and stop any further wind erosion or water erosion there is by covering over with shade cloth. And shade cloth acts like a, like a carpet, and where sand will blow along the surface. And, instead of just continuing to erode, it'll hit the shade cloth and fall through the holes in the shade cloth and start to rebuild a dune on top of where erosion was once occurring.

And, then, we also have, within the New South Wales government, there's a science division. And, so, we work very closely with the science division and the landholders to bring cutting edge, best practise contemporary sites into farming practises in the Willandra Lakes to help slow down erosion.

You use local knowledge to better understand the landscape. These land holders have been here, some of them for several generations. And, so, they know the land better than anybody else. And, so, you use that local knowledge of where watering points could go or where we could put fences to protect particular areas.

Other land, many of the strategies we're using to protect the environment is, is exclusion. So, some areas that are really sensitive, we try and keep animals away from those. So, like I said, we have Mungo National Park, which is a conservation zone. We don't have any grazing of sheep here anymore.

But, on the private properties where there's a lot of Merino sheep or Dorper sheep uh, grazing, we either fence off really sensitive areas then keep sheep away from those, those burial sites or, or, campsites. But, we also just try and reduce the amount of impact sheep can have by moving a watering point or moving a, a sheep yard.

So, rather than having a sheep yard in, in a really sensitive area where sheep are getting congregated and trampling the ground, we'll move those sheep yards away from the sensitive area where they can't cause so, much erosion. And same with watering points. Instead of having a watering point in the corner of a paddock where sheep come through and trample the one area until it's completely eroded,

Melissa

Decimated.

Daniel

You put about three or four watering points around the whole paddock and that way sheep can spread out and their, their pressure is reduced.

Ian

We have fenced off some sensitive sites on our properties to just manage that so, the stock can’t get in around that, and do any damage to those sites.

Melissa

So, what the major threats to the environment out here.

Daniel

Well, the biggest threat is rabbits.

Melissa

Rabbits?

Daniel

At the moment. So, the rabbits are burrowing and, and their burrows collapse, and, then create big, blowout areas where, where, which you can't slow down, then, you can't control that. So, we're working very vigilantly to try and control the rabbit problem in the Willandra. And, we're doing that with landholders in national parks.

Melissa

And, how are you doing that? How are you controlling?

Daniel

There's a few ways you can control rabbits. But, most recently, we've participated in the release of a new virus, which, essentially, gives the rabbits the flu, and, then, they, and then they die after about 48 hours and it's the Khaleesi virus. So, that was first released back in 1994, I think. With a 90% success rate in controlling rabbits.

Jo

Rabbits are a big impact on the landscape. Goats are a big impact. so, we have Aboriginal goat contractors who come out and they muster goats and take them away. And, it's lovely. Good for them. As well as controlling this pest animal, managing the impacts of visitors too, you know, people, people on the landscape, you know, we have to make sure that they're doing the right thing and that they understand about the environment. And then, you know, we have good practises in that.

Um, in, in these big areas. You know, we're talking about semi-arid landscape. A lot of the work we do is big scale. You know, it's not about replanting or things like that. It's about managing the resources that are there and managing to protect the natural fauna and flora through, through the landscape.

You know, a lot of it then is also about managing fires. So, you know, some fires it's about, about managing to protect, but making sure that we're not having broad-scale fires, you know, through the landscape. So, we have different techniques about fire management.

We've got a number of pest plants and, and they're different, you know, across the landscape. We've got Patterson's Curse or Salvation Jane; some people call it.

[Screen reads: Fact. Pattersons Curse is a broad leaf pest plant]

You know, it can be, you know, broad. It's quite spread broadly in some places. We have Onion weed. We have Wards Weed. We have other pest plants that we need to, to manage and control.

[Screen reads: World Heritage. What is the future of the Heritage area?]

Melissa

What do you predict as the future for this environment?

Daniel

Challenges. I predict for the future? Like, climate change is a really big unknown. We know that we're going to go into increased aridity. Which means, we're going to have less vegetation. And environmental scientists, they can tell us with the, with the greatest, you know, certainty that they can, they can muster, what kind of climate that's going to be here in 10 years, 20 years, 30, 40, 50 years’ time. So, they can give us ten-year sequences of what's probably going to happen.

But at the moment, that modelling says it's going to be getting drier, which means, we're going to have more wind erosion. And then, not just more wind erosion, but when it does rain, we're going to have more water erosion because there's, not going to be any ground cover to slow down the water as it's flowing off the dunes and off the lunette.

So, what we need to work out right now is okay, where is that erosion going to happen? Where is it going to be the biggest impact? We need to start focusing on those areas. We need to try and start getting vegetation you know, growing on those areas. Now, before it's just too late to do it.

List of sources and acknowledgements

• Image: The Willandra lakes region and Lake Mungo National Park. Source image retrieved from www.geoscienceaustralia.com

• Image: UNESCO World Heritage site. Retrieved from http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/167

• Image: Elders on Dune. Provided by Dan Rosendahl

• Image: Mungo National Park plan of management. Retrieved from http://environment.nsw.gov.auExternal link

• Image: Image series: Mungo track-way site. Provided by Matthew Cupper

• Image: Erosion control. Provided by Dan Rosendahl

• Image: Historical photos of Willandra Lakes Region and people. Retrieved from Mungo National Park Conservation Management and Cultural tourism management plan

• Narration. Voice over by Melissa Ellis, Southern Cross School of Distance Education.

Credits

NSW Government Public Schools, Learning Systems, DART connections, Southern Cross School of Education. Virtual Excursions 2017.

[End of transcript]

Warning – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following video may contain images and voices of deceased persons.

(upbeat music)

Ivan Johnston – Discovery Ranger, Mungo National Park

The local people would love to see Mungo Man return 'cause it was taken away for quite a while now. A lot of the elders was fighting a long time ago to try and get him back.

Narrator

The removal of Mungo Man and Mungo Woman from Country has caused ongoing grief and distress to the Mutthi Mutthi, Ngyiampaa and Paakantji peoples. They, like other Aboriginal Nations all over the country, fought and continue to fight for ownership of their cultural heritage and the rights to repatriate the remains of their ancestors.

Ivan

It was a man by the name of Jim Bowler, a person who studied soil. He was in that area and he came across charred bones. He'd taken them with him back to Canberra and they proved to be human remains. They came out with scientists and archaeologists, he collected all the bones and put it in a suitcase, taken with him back to Canberra, and it proved to be a young lady between 13 and 18 years old.

Dr Jim Bowler – Geologist, University of Melbourne

Scientists came along out here. We intruded into this landscape without there’d not been previous consultation with the Aboriginal people, so, that when the discoveries that I'd made came into the public medium through television and everything, the Aboriginal people, some of them were quite upset.

They're saying, you scientists, you don't understand our culture, you don't understand what you're doing to our history. so, there was a confrontation between ourselves, between rational science and the traditional intuitive relationship with the land that the Aboriginal people have. They're two different connections.

The Aboriginal people have it. Mungo Man, Mungo Lady had it. We came back here and, in their footsteps, we now reconnect with the Aboriginal people and with the landscape which European Australia still has so, much problem in understanding.

Narrator

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the return of ancestral remains back to Country is the first step towards recognizing their dignity. It restores their rightful place as elders, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, uncles, aunts, brothers, and sisters. It acknowledges the wrong done to them and allows the ancestors finally rest in peace in their homelands. It recognizes the unbreakable bond, customary obligations, and traditional practices between the living, the land, and the dead.

Ivan

The vegetation here are very important to the Aboriginal people because the eucalyptus leaves, when we go to a special place where we found Mungo Man and Mungo Woman, we've got to smoke our self-going in and going out. And the reason why we do that, we don't want to take our bad spirit with us where the old spirits are, and we don't want to take them back to where we come from.

[Screen reads: Throughout the 1970s and the 1980s members of the local communities led by three remarkable Aboriginal activists – Alice Kelly, Tibby Briar and Alice Bugmy – and encouraged by archaeologist Isabel McBryde, started to question the work of the scientific community.
They fought tirelessly for the right to become involved in the management of archaeological work and for repatriation.]

Narrator

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, members of the local communities led by three remarkable Aboriginal activists, Alice Kelly, Tibby Briar, and Alice Bugmy, and encouraged by archaeologist Isabel McBryde, started to question the work of the scientific community. They fought tirelessly for the right to become involved in the management of the archaeological work and for repatriation.

In 1992, the remains of Mungo Lady were finally handed back to the communities and a formal apology was made by the Australian National University. This apology acknowledged that the removal of the remains caused distress and that the research was conducted without the consent of traditional owners.

The hand back ceremony was a turning point in the relationship between scientists and the local tribal groups, and is now an important moment in our nation's shared histories, as it signifies a shift in colonial power relations.

Interviewer

What do you think are the most important elements of ethical research?

Jim

Now with the long dialogue with Aboriginal and archaeological colleagues, that unity of sitting down on the same sand dune and learning from each other, that's the dynamic now that is driving present research and present understanding. We are walking across this landscape together in harmony, science and traditional people. That's a tremendous new agenda on the Australian landscape.

[Screen reads: Article 12 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states

1. Indigenous peoples have the right to manifest, practice, develop and teach their spiritual and religious traditions, customs and ceremonies; the right to maintain, protect, and have access in privacy to their religious and cultural sites; the right to use and control their ceremonial objects; and the right to the repatriation of their human remains.

2. States shall seek to enable the access and/or repatriation of ceremonial objects and human remains in their possession through fair, transparent and effective mechanisms developed in conjunction with indigenous people concerned.]

Narrator

The events that surround this moment in time demonstrate how repatriation and the acknowledgement of Aboriginal people's right to ownership of culture can be a vehicle of healing and justice in Australian society. Lake Mungo is now celebrated as a site of reconciliation, a place where the opportunity for genuine two-way learning is being realised.

[Screen reads: Since the production of this video Mungo Man has been returned to Country where he now rests. So how have archaeological research practices changed since the 1960s and 1970s?]

Daniel Rosendahl – Executive Officer, Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area

Research has changed a lot since the 1960s and the 1970s, and a lot of research can be done on Country, a lot of it. so, once upon a time, if you wanted to do residue analysis on stone artifacts, and so, that's looking at stone tools under a microscope to see if you can see any traces of blood or plant material on those stone tools which might give you an idea of how those stone tools were used, I used to have to take that to a laboratory and look under it under a really high powered microscope, a microscope which you couldn't really move off the bench.

Whereas now, you can get portable microscopes that plug straight into your laptop, and you can do those residues in the field, so, you don't have to take stone tools off Country anymore. And even with ancestral remains, when looking at human remains and the Cobb studies that can be done, there's a lot of research which can be done on Country with the ancestral remain still in the ground.

There’re still some techniques where you need to remove samples from Country. For instance, if you want to get some radiocarbon dating of shell material to work out how old it is, or date some sand grains, you have to take that away into a laboratory.

So, you need permission to remove it, and then we also have plans to bring it back. so, what happens when the researchers are finished looking at the shells, or finished looking at the stone tools that they've taken away, and so, you come up with a repatriation plan, so, all of that material will come back to the Willandra Lakes, and come back to Country.

List of sources and acknowledgements

• Image: Mungo Lady repatriation. Provided by Maggy Bradie

• Image: Mungo Man archaeological dig site. Provided by Jim Bowler

• Image: Jim Bowler. Provided by Jim Bowler

• Image: Suit case. Retrieved from http://www.nma.gov.au

• Image: Recreation of Lake Mungo. Provided by Geovanni Caselli

• Image: Elders on Dune. Provided by Dan Rosendahl

• Narration. Voice over by Sheri Hennessy, Southern Cross School of Distance Education.

Credits

NSW Government Public Schools, Learning Systems, DART connections, Southern Cross School of Education. Virtual Excursions 2017.

[End of transcript]

Warning – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following video may contain images and voices of deceased persons.

(peaceful music)

Narrator

The Willandra Lakes Region provides powerful fossil evidence of flora, fauna, an ongoing human occupation dating back 45,000 to 60,000 years. The long history of occupation at Mungo, in combination with ideal conditions for preservation of relics, has created an archaeological treasure house.

Daniel Rosendahl – Executive Officer, Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area

Really archaeology, in this landscape, is ubiquitous, which means it's everywhere and it's in everything, and you don't have to look very hard to find it.

Harvey Johnston – Archaeologist, NSW Office of Environment and Heritage

Because it's semi-arid, there's not much ground cover that any disturbance to the surface, as you can see behind us, things blow the sand, the dunes get blown away and things that have been buried in the dunes can easily be exposed. so, as soon as you get a bit of erosion, you get sub-surface sediments being exposed and all the sediments being revealed, including the archaeology.

Daniel

Willandra Lakes is listed for two criteria on the world heritage list. One of those is cultural value, so, we've got archaeological materials such as ancestral remains, old burial sites. There’re old camping places, campsites, such as big piles of shell, which we call shell middens. And there's also campfires, where you get remains of burnt clay and charcoal, where people have cooked different meals, either big lump of shellfish or emu, kangaroo, waterbird, those sorts of things.

Ivan Johnston – Discovery Ranger, Mungo National Park

But every place where ancestors would have cooked their food, they used to get all the scraps, put them in a little heap. And this heap is known as a midden site. At that period of time, they wouldn't have wouldn't have walked around, tread on the fish bone, would have got poisoned. Or if you were to tread on a mussel shell, they cut your feet. so, when everything was eaten at the fireplace would've been placed in the little midden or the midden site, not in the rubbish tin.

Narrator

So, what is a fossil and how do they form? A fossil is the impression of a living organism that has been preserved in substances, such as sediments, coal, tar, oil, amber, or frozen in ice. Fossils are formed in a number of different ways, but most are formed when a plant or animal dies in a watery environment and is buried in mud and silt. Soft tissues quickly decompose, leaving the hard bones or shells behind.

The combination of pressure, chemical reactions, and time eventually turns the sediment into rock. As the encased bones decay, minerals seep in, replacing the organic materials cell by cell in a process called petrification. Alternatively, the bones may completely decay, leaving a cast of the organism. The void left behind may then fill with minerals, making a stone replica of the organism.

Lake Mungo is rich in fossil evidence, as thousands of years ago, it was a biodiverse, rich, watery environment providing perfect conditions for fossils to form. When plants and animals died at Lake Mungo, they were buried in wet clay. The clay, containing calcium carbonate, hardened like concrete and a layer of clay and sand protected the remains. The drying up of the Willandra Lakes some 18,500 years ago has allowed the survival of remarkable fossil evidence.

Ivan

All you see around this sea area, this is one of the big sites going, which is a 33,000-year-old emu egg site. We had strong wind that swept through here, blown all this top soil off, exposed all these burnt emu egg shells. Every season the ancestors would have went out looking for emu eggs, but before they do that, they had to look up in the sky at night-time and to see a dark shadow of that emu in the Milky Way, they knew then that, time to go out and look for emu eggs. And this always happened on today's calendar would be about April, May, June. so, they would've went out, thick vegetation, found eggs, brought them back here, and this is where they cooked them up here. And it's this, all these shells, were about that deep.

Daniel

Who finds that archaeology is a good question because it's really everyone. Everyone has a go at reporting that, letting essentially the New South Wales government know or letting us know if they've found a new site. so, tourists often report sites that they've seen when they go for walks in the Wall of China say, "oh, I saw this." We have land holders that will let us know. Our national parks there are people who come in and muster the goats. When they're out mustering the goats in kind of remote areas of the national parks, they'll let us know if they've seen something. So, "oh, look, we've seen a site, it's eroding out" and they'll tell us where it is and we can go in and protect it.

We also have some staff who do surveys to go around and visit known sites and just to check on those and make sure that the erosion control that's being put on those sites is working. so, when those staff are out walking around monitoring sites and checking on sites they'll often find new ones.

Narrator

There are three main types of fossils, body, chemical, and trace. Body fossils are the actual skeletal remains. Many body fossils have been discovered at lake Mungo, including Procoptodawn, a short, fast, giant kangaroo, protemnodon on a large Wallaby, two large Macropus kangaroos, and genyornis, a very stout flightless bird.

The most significant body fossils are Mungo Lady and Mungo Man. They have been dated 42,000 years old, the oldest human remains in Australia and some of the oldest modern humans in the world outside of Africa.

Chemical fossils are the organic compounds and microscopic organisms that have left their mark in the rocks. Trace fossils on the other hand, are impressions of soft animals, plants, and footprints, which have been left as clay hardened.

In 2003, nearly 460 fossilized human footprints were discovered, the largest collection of its kind in the world. The prints were made by children, adolescents and adults, 19,000 to 23,000 years ago in wet clay. This scientific evidence shows that Aboriginal people have lived at Mungo for at least 45,000 years. However, many Aboriginal people say that they have been here even longer, reaching back into the dream time, perhaps forever.

List of sources and acknowledgements

• Image series: Track-way site. Provided by Matthew Cupper

• Image: Timeline of Lake Mungo human occupation. Source image retrieved from http://www.donsmaps.com. Human figures by Giovanni Caselli

• Image: Recreation of Lake Mungo. Provided by Giovanni Caselli

• Image: Lunette formation from 40,000 years ago to present. Source provided by Professor Jim Bowler

• Image: Mungo Man archaeological dig site. Provided by Jim Bowler

• Image: Shell Middens. Provided by Dan Rosendahl

• Video: Building the Lake Mungo lunette. Provided by National Parks and Wildlife. www.visitmungo.com.au

• Image series: Fossil preservation materials. Retrieved from commons.wikimedia.org

• Image: Fossil formation. Source of Genyornis by Peter Trusler

• Image: Willandra Lakes 45000 years ago. Image retrieved from www.donsmaps.com

• Video: Forces shaping Willandra Lakes. Provided by National Parks and Wildlife www.visitmungo.com.au

• Image: Recreation of megafauna. Provided by ©Australian Postal Corporation 2008. Designer: Peter Trusler.

• Image: Megafauna and humans. Provided by Michael C Westaway and painted by Laurie Bernie

• Image: Mungo track-way site map and section map. Map and section provided by Matthew Cupper, Steven Webb. Source of human figures by Giovanni Caselli

• Narration. Voice over by Amanda Ritchie, Southern Cross School of Distance Education.

Credits

NSW Government Public Schools, Learning Systems, DART connections, Southern Cross School of Education. Virtual Excursions 2017.

[End of transcript]

Warning – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following video may contain images and voices of deceased persons.

(gentle piano music)

Narrator

An ecosystem includes all the living things, plants, animals, and living organisms in a particular area and their interaction. Not only with each other, but with the non-living environments, such as weather, sun, soil, climate, and atmosphere.

Today, the park is dominated by the ancient dry lake basins. Over thousands of years, wind and water have carved the lunette into spectacular formations, comprised of sand and clay. The environment is arid, meaning it is hot and dry. Only particular animals and plants with special adaptations can survive in this type of habitat.

The types of plants that survive in this environment are grasslands on the wet lake beds, saltbush shrubs on the dry lake beds, mixed shrubs like butter bush, and sandhill wattle on the lunette and acacia open woodland on heavier soils. These plants provide food for the primary consumers in the Mungo ecosystem. so, what animals actually live there?

Ivan Johnston – Discovery Ranger, Mungo National Park

Out here we've got plenty of wildlife. We got snakes, goannas, echidnas, we've got the wedge-tail eagle, crows, magpies. We've also got four-coloured kangaroos out here. We've got the red one, blue one, black and the grey.

Narrator

The first ground dwelling animals you'll see in Mungo National Park will probably be kangaroos. These herbivores spend their days grazing quietly in the grasslands or resting in a scratch type pad in the woodland shade.

A great variety of narrative vertebrate animals have been recorded at Lake Mungo. 110 species of birds, 22 mammal species and 62 reptile species. 18 of these are classified as endangered.

Back when the lakes were full, the place was brimming with wildlife that nourish the Aboriginal inhabitants. Animals, such as ducks, swans, weeders, pigeons, fish, yabbies, lizards, bandicoots, wallabies, mice, rats, and many, many more. The fish and water birds are long gone and many of the small mammals disappeared more recently, but the native fauna remains a fascinating part of Mungo's outback mystique.

(gentle piano music)

List of sources and acknowledgements

• Image: Magalania lizard chasing glenyornis. Retrieved from www.abc.net.au/news

• Image: Recreation of mega fauna. Provided by ©Australian Postal Corporation 2008. Designer: Peter Trusler.

• Video: 45,000 years at Lake Mungo. Provided by National Parks and Wildlife www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/visit-a-park/parks/mungo-national-park

• Image: Willandra Lakes 45000years ago. Image retrieved from www.donsmaps.com

• Image: Recreation of Lake Mungo. Provided by Giovanni Caselli

• Image: Diprotodon. Provided by Giovanni Caselli. Source of human figures by Giovanni Caselli

• Video: Building the Lake Mungo lunette. Provided by National Parks and Wildlife. www.visitmungo.com.au

• Narration. Voice over by Melissa Ellis, Southern Cross School of Distance Education.

Credits

NSW Government Public Schools, Learning Systems, DART connections, Southern Cross School of Education. Virtual Excursions 2017.

[End of transcript]

Warning – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that the following video may contain images and voices of deceased persons.

(calm music)

Coby

My name's Coby.

Mariam

My name is Mariam Milcheek.

Samantha

My name's Samantha.

Serine

And my name's Serine.

Will

My name's Will.

Caitlyn

I'm Caitlyn.

Lucy

My name's Lucy.

Olivia

I'm Oliva.

Charlotte

And I'm Charlotte.

Caitlyn

Hi, I'm from down Swan Hill, but my mob is traditionally from up near Ballarat and Warrnambool.

Female student

I'm from Wiley Park Girls High School, I'm in year eight.

Lucy

We're from Wagga Wagga Mount Austin High School, and we're at-

Serine

The Mungo Youth Program.

Mariam

Everyone comes together, to one place, from all different types of religions, beliefs, cultures, they all come to one place, just to learn about Aboriginal culture, it's amazing.

Coby

I'm learning from my mom and my stepdad and Dean as well.

Charlotte

We learnt about the Aboriginal culture.

Olivia

How long they've lived here and it's really amazing.

Lucy

It's just really a great place.

(calm music)

Ross O Shea – Principal consultant, Mundi Consulting Services

This is an opportunity for all of Australia, and particularly, all of Australia's young people, to learn about, the messages that are here for us at Mungo. (calm music)

[Screen reads: We asked students what they learned from the Mungo Youth Project. This is what they said.

Eddie

My name's Eddie, my message from Mungo is, respect yourself, respect the land and respect your Elders.

Kendy

My name is Kendy, and my message from Mungo is, that when you make a spear, you recycle the leaves into the fire.

Dana

My name's Dana, and my message from Mungo is, to love who you are and be proud.

Student

My message from Mungo is, it's awesome out here.

Coby

My message from Mungo is, keep doing what you're doing, it's great.

Female student

And, I came here to Mungo, to experience other people's belief and their tradition for the Aboriginals and the way that they celebrate their country.

Kyle

My name is Kyle, and my message from Mungo is, just respect you Elders and just get to know your culture before it's too late and be proud of who you are.

Male student 1

My message about Mungo is, it's very- there's like some, sand hills and it's very cool out here.

Male student 2

My message from Mungo is, it's a great place, you should always come down here, for camping. The sand hills are lovely to come to, and they're lovely to climb.

Will

My name's Will, and my message from Mungo is, respect, share, enjoy your culture, no matter your heritage.

Asya

Hi, my name's Asya Hasna, this is my message from Mungo I think it's a once in a lifetime opportunity to come here, because, many adults don't ever get to experience this. And, it's been really wonderful to understand the Aboriginal culture, because they have so, much respect and patience for this land and they're so, grateful for everything they get. And I think that all their personal skills, and their life skills are very educational. And I think that I'll definitely take home some of their pointers that they told us, so.

(calm music)

Ross

I've been a strong advocate for initiatives like this Mungo Youth Project. I Mean, the young people that are here are the people that will be learning about, what people like Harvey and I have learnt and understand. They are in essence, they're our tomorrow.

(calm music)

Credits

NSW Government Public Schools, Learning Systems, DART connections, Southern Cross School of Education. Virtual Excursions 2017.

[End of transcript]