Subsequent investigations of Pleistocene alluvial terraces revealed hearths about 31,000 years BP, making Keilor one of the earliest sites of human habitation in Australia.
The site was found when artefacts were exposed in sand quarries, and as a result of increased bank erosion of the river terraces due to runoff from the then recently opened Melbourne Airport.
[2] Subsequent studies of the local geomorphology identified three terrace formations on the Maribyrnong River banks, which were linked to changes in sea level over the previous 150,000 years.
Thorne and Wilson concluded "cranial size in Pleistocene Australians was significantly greater than in Holocene Aboriginals... observable in the prehistoric crania from Kow Swamp-Cohuna, Mossgiel, Lake Nitchie and Keilor".
[7] The land was acquired in 1976 by the State Government under the Relics Act 1972 in recognition of the importance of the area to studies of Aboriginal history and local geomorphological processes.