Lake Mungo

These original inhabitants were driven off by European squatters for their sheep farming in the 1840s, a remnant of which is the 45m woodshed, constructed from Murray pine in 1869 by Chinese labourers.

)[4] was subdivided from Gol-Gol holdings after WWI for returned soldiers, the Cameron Brothers, who named it after St Mungo’s Church in Scotland.

On the eastern side of the Mungo lake bed are the "Walls of China," a series of crescent-shaped sand dunes or lunettes, up to 40m in height, that stretch for more than 33 km, where most archaeological material has been found.

Although the layer corresponded with a time of low rainfall and cooler weather, more rainwater ran off the western side of the Great Dividing Range during that period, keeping the lake full.

Although the lake completely dried up several thousand years ago, ground vegetation remained on the Walls, which helped to stabilise them and protect them from erosion.

With the arrival of European settlers in the area since the 1880s, introduced species, notably rabbits and sheep, have destroyed the vegetation cover.

Mungo Woman, a partially cremated body, was discovered in 1969 by Jim Bowler from the Australian National University (ANU).

[9] The drastic difference in age for dating the Mungo Woman with radiocarbon was explained by contamination of newer carbon in the samples analyzed.

11 silcrete flakes dating to 50,000 years ago represents the first evidence of human occupation in the lake.

[15] Evidence for seed grinding in Australia during the Pleistocene is rare, only having been confirmed in 1 other site at Cuddie Springs.

[16] In 1972, Archaeomagnetic studies were conducted on the prehistoric aboriginal fireplaces occurring along the ancient shoreline of Lake Mungo.

Magnetization preserved in oven-stones and baked hearths show that the axial dipole field moved up to 120 degrees from its normal position around 30,000 years ago.

[3] Two excursions have been recorded in sediments from Skjonghelleren on Valderøy, Norway, with the Virtual Geomagnetic Pole (VGP) of one being synchronous with Lake Mungo.