'This is a very special day': How a little-known structure in Victoria achieved world heritage status - and is older than the Egyptian pyramids, the Acropolis and Stonehenge

- 6600-year-old aquaculture farm in Victoria given World Heritage protection

- System of creeks, holding ponds and channels engineered on extinct volcano

- Hundreds of tonnes of basalt blocks used to make dam walls

- Stone foundations found of ancient homes clustered around fish trap site

- Ancient Gunditjmara people channeled the waters to farm kooyang eels


An Aboriginal aquaculture farm that is older than the pyramids, the Acropolis and Stonehenge has been awarded World Heritage Status by the United Nations.

A complex system of weirs, channels and dams at Budj Bim, in southwest Victoria has become the first World Heritage site in Australia to receive the coveted UNESCO protection solely for its Aboriginal cultural importance.

The Gunditjmara people began to engineer the land around Lake Condah, which lies on a long-extinct volcano, about 6600 years ago in order to catch kooyang eels.

The eel farm was given World Heritage Status at a meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan on Saturday.

They established a finely-tuned farming system to catch large eels while ferrying smaller ones into adjoining stone pools through specially designed woven nets.

Water and young eels were brought from the creek to low-lying areas.

It is considered one of the world's oldest freshwater aquaculture systems. 

The sophisticated system supplied the settlement with enough food to sustain them year-round and also to undertake trade.

The site features the remnants of about 300 round stone huts that are the only remaining permanent houses built by an indigenous community in Australia - busting the myth that all Aboriginal people were nomadic.

The C-shaped basalt block structures up to 4 metres across appear to be house foundations and are clustered in the same area as the fish traps. 

Monash University indigenous archaeology professor Ian Niven wrote in The Conversation of the 1841 visit to the site by Australia's Chief Protector of Aborigines, George Augustus Robinson.

Robinson described Budj Bim as: 'an immense piece of ground trenched and banked, resembling the work of civilized man but which on inspection I found to be the work of the Aboriginal natives, purposefully constructed for catching eels.'

European settlers then altered the flow of Lake Condah's waters by installing drainage channels in the 1880s and 1950s, obscuring its cultural history until heavy winter rains in 1977 revealed how some Aboriginal-made channels fed water and eels into natural depressions. 

In the 1970s, Peter Coutts of the Victoria Archaeological Survey carried out site surveys at Lake Condah, a rugged basaltic landscape on an ancient lava flow.

Coutts found extensive Aboriginal fish-trapping systems with hundreds of metres of excavated channels and basalt dam walls made of hundreds of tonnes of blocks, Professor Niven wrote.

The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List at a meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan on Saturday following a decades-long campaign by traditional owners, some of whom were present for the announcement.

'This is a very special day for our community. This landscape, which we have cared for over thousands of years, is so important to Gunditjmara People,' Gunditjmara elder Denise Lovett said in a statement.

'The decision also recognises Budj Bim's significance to all of humanity. We are so proud to now be able to share our achievements and story with the world.'

The Budj Bim lava flows connect three components: the Budj Bim Volcano, Lake Condah and the Tyrendarra lava flow to the south with its wetland marshes.

All three areas are protected by the UNESCO World Heritage listing. 

Budj Bim is the 20th site in Australia to make it to the 1000-strong list and the second for Victoria alongside the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens, which was listed in 2004.

Other Australian World Heritage sites include the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu National Park and the Sydney Opera House.



https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7220931/This-special-day-Australian-eel...

Mr Hammer wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 11:14am:


I'm not at all surprised that that is as much as you understand.

Yet you all refused to believe it even existed, so ddetermined were you to beliGrappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 11:17am:



Yet you refused to believe it even existed. so determined were you to place the First Australians beneath you.

I see you still are.

No surprises.

Meanwhile in Sumer...

It makes you wonder why the black fellas stopped at puttin a few rocks together and didnt move on to something a little challenging , Like space travel ?

BigP wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 12:34pm:


No need to.

The site features the remnants of about 300 round stone huts that are the only remaining permanent houses built by an indigenous community in Australia - busting the myth that all Aboriginal people were nomadic.

mothra wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 12:54pm:



God you are thick.
Of course they were nomadic.
They had to be.
They didn't have wheat or rice or pigs or sheep to farm so they could settle down.
Why would being nomadic be considered in any way being lesser you dumb leftie,
It showed they were adapting to the evolutionary blowtorch.
Stick to women's studies and leave the aborigines alone.
The last thing they need is friends like you 

Scientists just got back, and have just published their discoveries.

They had traveled back in time.

And on their 4 month expedition to Neolithic times, they inspected this ancient technological marvel.

And on their return, they revealed that this structure looks more or less unchanged to how it looked 6,600 years ago.

Gordon wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 1:14pm:


Fairpoint Gordon.
What I would say is that in many aspects they are superior. Many Europeans were wiped out by smallpox or the plague. Or by poor sanitation.
But the Aborigine who was wiped out was wiped out because he was not quick enough or agile enough or did not have the acute senses to survive in the bush.Thus the evolutionary blowtorch
Worked to create superb specimens in Australia whilst randomly wiping out the best in Europe

Gordon wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 1:14pm:



Why are you calling the acceptance of aquaculture an embellishment?

It's not that outrageous claims are made .. it's that every time something comes to light that casts our Indigenous as anything beyond nomadic hunter gatherers, (important, if you actually know your history, for Terra Nullis), then people like you claim it's eith nothing and jeer at it or it's an embellishment.

As is almost every post in this thread testifying.

Gordon wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 1:55pm:



Actually, as time goes it wasn't that long ago that people were being burnt at the stake for displaying intimate knowledge of plants.

Superior culture, innit.

Gordon wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 2:32pm:


I've never even remotely suggested anything of the sort. Nor do i think has anyone. Ever.

Just another example of you taking a simple point and making it preposterous to diminish it.

What i believe, Gordy, and what i always have said is that we all have stuff we can learn from and teach each other in this fabulous wide world full of experience.

Unlike you, i steer clear of hierarchies ... particularly those that wouuld strive to put me at the top.

rhino wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 2:39pm:



you got that right 

Aussie wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 3:09pm:


Stuffed them? One just become the worlds #1 female tennis player.

Aussie wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 3:24pm:


So you're asking who stuffed them, yet they're not stuffed?

Oh yeah, it's past 3pm. Glug glug glug.

Aussie wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 3:37pm:


You mean who catapulted them from the stone age to flying across the planet to play tennis in Wimbledon?

mothra wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 3:56pm:


I think more than 100 years for those living in extremely remote areas and some will never catch up due to inter-generational fetal alcohol syndrome and ice use.

The faster they fully embrace modernity, the better.

Aussie wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 11:53am:


Of course not - my use of the term 'Niggrah' was clearly supercilious... I should have said OUR Niggrahs... to signify ownership...

Gordon wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 4:01pm:


You've absolutely no idea what you're talking about at all, do you.

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 4:11pm:


Even if they  built rudimentary  structures it makes them about the same as hunter gatherer humans the world over.   Meh.

Gordon wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 4:14pm:



Yes. Meh. Sums up your estimation. We understand.

And quite proud you are of it, amazingly.

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 4:20pm:


One of the girls in my daughter's year is on the full board and tuition scholarship, also includes one  international excursion is getting her orthodontics paid for from the schools discretionary fund, apparently her teeth were stuffed.

Gordon wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 3:52pm:


No....I asked who stuffed a race which existed for 60,000 + years before the stuff up.

Not as they did before they were stuffed.

how typical of the racist numbnuts on here to try and and shoot down any story about abo's that might challenge their prejudices

Gordon wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 4:58pm:


How stupid is that?

Nah.

Have another go.

mothra wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 11:15am:


Fish traps are not aquaculture ... their traps.

Just like the pits other ancient humans used to trap prey.

There are plenty in the Torres Straits Islands as well .... and in other areas.

Piling rocks together may build a wall or shelter or a fish trap .... but foundations of a building?

Always going for the stretch. 

BigP wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 5:22pm:



Possibly. And I'd bet that in most cases they would have been happier for it.

🤣🤣🤣

So let me get this straight. You lot think that if England did not settle this continent, that no OTHER country in this world would have taken it by now! 

Captain Caveman wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 6:16pm:


There are pockets on the Planet where Whitey had the brains to leave alone.  But, not the Brits with 'Australia.'  They needed a place to put petty thieves and in so doing, they stuffed a 60,000 year old culture.

Rule Britannia!!!!



Get fugged.  "Britians never ever ever will be slaves," while they enslaved every other bastard they came across including our Mob.

"When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land."
 
But, I still feel bad about what we did to stuff these people.

it_is_the_light wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 5:07pm:

Gnads wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 5:23pm:


Like watching the nightly news to see which sheila changed a light bulb better .... despite opposition from the entrenched patriarchal society, of course...

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 7:31pm:


ohh looky .... numbnut No: 1 has made an appearance

John Smith wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 7:53pm:


Make bigger fish traps with more stones?

P.S.  Bloody 18th century global economy destroying local industry........

Noone would ever deny the toughness and resilience of the southern indigene. Nor would anyone really begrudge the environmental damage of the use fire as a hunting tool when compared with the environmental vamdalism of us whities. There is no doubt, however, that the aborigine were a pretty sickly and backward race of people. The British journals brim with pitying accounts of a people suffering a pretty short, miserable existence. I don't care; i'll offer a straight up opinion. Let the Mothras of the world apologise.

John Smith wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 5:27pm:


Ya think?
Short painful and difficult lives
Child rape
Incest
Murder

But there would be only a fraction of them.

And all this assuming no other country we died to take over.

What, if any lifestyle woukd they have if Chinese, Indonesians or some other less gullible culture too over other than ours.

My bet is there woukd be no abbos.

The only people suffering back in 1788 and the period around it - were the Whites from Britain. A hopeless rabble of Convict labour and petty Corps authority (mostly drunk on Rum).
The American Whaling Ships had to keep the colony afloat and the Aboriginals had to bail them out into showing them what the wilderness had to offer as a 'future'.

The Aboriginals were not 'hopeless' - for they had much sustainable food resources that were constantly attended too. Hell, the Aboriginals even had Orca bringing in Humpback Whales for them as a food resource. They had trade in the far north with the Molasscans and even Chinese for ages before.
What Whities called 'deserts' (the image of a starving black out-backer in need of White help) - were large 'farms' where 'gathering' was plentiful. No need to till the ground, that was fertile - unlike the ground that is compressed by hooved livestock.

Maybe the 'modern city' Abo is somewhat a primitive (as are most people in the big cities - just look at the crime both rich and poor). But the Pre-1788 Aboriginal was a vast self-sufficient and 'sustainable' culture that all interacted to the greater good via one of the best democracies going around.

We all know that the Whites had to literally destroy all evidence of their 'abilities' and belittle their existence to boost the pathetic state of their own colonial efforts.

The Abos saved the Colony from folding.

mothra wrote on Jul 10^th, 2019 at 2:44am:


Contradiction much?

'some' academics may disagree - academics of a certain stamp ..... but their views are by no means definitive.. and are often supported by conjecture and 'reading-in' rather than hard fact.....

One person can look at a set of facts and arrive, via osmosis of the reason, at one conclusion - another person may arrive at a totally different view ....

Academics in 'social sciences' are a strange lot and often have some very serious problems with eyesight and interpretation...

John Smith wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 7:53pm:


What are you on about John?

So - reading the title again - where and what exactly is Vic World?

Is it a theme park for Victoria or Big Vic?

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Jul 9^th, 2019 at 10:17pm:



that's why you never got a prize

barryfromthebush wrote on Jul 10^th, 2019 at 5:30pm:



yes, but we aren't talking about you now. Stick to the topic.

Gnads wrote on Jul 10^th, 2019 at 8:53am:


The Egyptians had boomerang.

But they advanced to a CIVILIZATION

Abbos never progressed from pre-stone age.

Bunjil Lovett catches a kooyang eel at Budj Bim. The 6600 year old aquafarm connects the Budj Bim Volcano and Lake Condah to the wetland marshes of the Tyrendarra lava flow that stretch to the sea.


6600 yr old net

aquascoot wrote on Jul 10^th, 2019 at 8:03pm:



That's what identity politics is here to erase or at least vilify into shame.  And that relentless effort by the PC progs must be resisted and countered.

barryfromthebush wrote on Jul 11^th, 2019 at 5:13am:


Stone age mentalities

White mans advanced technology.

Every abbo has a nice new phone, Nike shoes and the latest "brand name" clothing.
All paid for from our taxes.
The microscopically few who have jobs,get still more from us.

It's time we cut the crap.
Cut them off from the fit and made the work for a change.
Let's remove the racist benefits these people get.
One dole for all.
One housing for all
One set of rules for all
White, black, country shoppers or average Joe.
Same exact benefits and requirements for each.

Then start hounding people to work.
Cut the dole, give more tax relief for those that work
Give something back to contributors in their old age.
Based on you working life, give higher pensions to those who work longest.

Giving to bludgers only empowers and encourages bludgers
Punishig workers only forces workers to stop working.
The stupidity of taxing any second or third job at 45% regardless of your income is greed and stupidity.
Your entire earning should be taxed at the same rate, regardless of its source.