Visitor Guide
MUNGO
NATIONAL PARK
Welcome
Bienvenue
Wilkommen
Bienvenida
Benvenuto
Contents
Cultural Mungo
3
Understand Mungo
5
World Heritage Mungo
7
Explore Mungo
9
Pink Mulla Mulla
2
Cultural
Mungo
Visitors to Mungo National Park can share in an Aboriginal culture that has survived
in the same shifting landscape for at least 45,000 years. That’s around 2,500
generations!
When Aboriginal people use the English word ‘Country’ it is meant in a special way.
For Aboriginal people culture, nature and land are all linked. Aboriginal communities
have a cultural connection to the land, which is based on each community’s distinct
culture, traditions and laws.
Country takes in everything within the landscape - landforms, waters, air, trees, rocks,
plants, animals, foods, medicines, minerals, stories and special places. Community
connections include cultural practices, knowledge, songs, stories and art, as well as
all people: past, present and future. People have custodial responsibilities to care for
their Country, to ensure that it continues in proper order and provides physical
sustenance and spiritual nourishment. These custodial relationships may determine
who can speak for particular Country.
These concepts are central to Aboriginal spirituality and continue to contribute to
Aboriginal identity. Aboriginal communities associate natural resources with the use
and benefit of traditional foods and medicines, caring for the land, passing on cultural
knowledge and strengthening social bonds.
3
Today three traditional tribal groups care for their Country at Mungo.
The Paakantji, Ngyiampaa and Mutthi Mutthi people walk here in the footsteps of
their ancestors, ensuring their children grow strong in their culture. The tribal groups
also seek to share their knowledge of Country with visitors to Mungo.
Acess to Mungo National Park and other protected public lands provides particular
opportunities for Aboriginal people to sustain spiritual and cultural activities.
“ I love this land I walk on. ”
Warren Clark,
Executive Officer Mungo Joint Management
Aboriginal elders
“ Coming to Mungo I get a different sense of feeling, that I’m home.You seem to know when
you’re back in your own Country. It’s not taught to you, it’s built in you. It’s in your soul,
that that’s your Country. ”
Roy Kennedy,
Ngiyampaa Elder
“ My mother was taken away from her people, and from her Country.
And likewise me, and my brothers and sisters, we were taken away, the stolen generation.
But we came back to our Country. This is our Country. It’s a part of us, so we are who we
are.That’s our identity. We’re nobody if we don’t have Country. ”
Patrick Lawson,
Paakantji
4
Understand
Mungo
Earlier in 1968, Jim Bowler from the Australian National University found burnt
bones in a dry lake bed in south-western New South Wales. These were initially
dated at 20-26,000 years old. These remains – dubbed ‘Mungo Lady’ – were then the
oldest in Australia and remain the world’s oldest evidence of cremation.
“ Australian history took a leap backwards, ”
Honorary Professor Jim Bowler,
University of Melbourne
Mungo Man
But, an even greater leap was to follow. On February 26, 1974, Jim again found himself
near Lake Mungo, hunting for new geological features that may have been
uncovered by rain. It was only 450m from the site of Mungo Lady that Jim spotted
a skull. Clearing away the sands of the lake bed, Jim and his colleagues revealed the
complete skeleton of a man – a long-dead figure that would become known to the
world as Mungo Man.
The discovery, made in the midst of the Aboriginal rights movement – which would
quickly integrate the findings into its slogans – would later double the time that
Australia’s first humans were thought to have arrived on the continent.
“ I immediately realised that this was the next major discovery of
human remains, ”
Honorary Professor Jim Bowler,
University of Melbourne
5
“ The discovery changed the whole tenor of Australian archaeology, which was now on the
world stage. ”
Professor Mike Morwood,
University of Wollongong
In 2003, 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.
Today, Mungo Man remains the oldest human remains found in Australia, while the
Malakunanja II rock shelter in the Northern Territory points to human
occupation over 50,000 years ago.
Rethinking Australia’s history: while what Jim and his colleagues found shocked the
scientific and wider Australian community, most importantly, the discoveries
vindicated the unimaginably long history of Indigenous Australians.
After initial tensions surrounding handling of the remains, the indigenous
community embraced the findings and used them to propel the Aboriginal rights
movement. With the science settled, the task for Jim is now to return Mungo Man to
his original resting place.
“ A thousand generations later we have the extraordinary privilege of listening to the messages of that man, of learning who he was and taking his remains back to his shores and
back to the descendants of his people, ”
Jim Bowler
Honorary Professor Jim Bowler,
University of Melbourne
6
World Heritage
Mungo
In 1981 Australia had three World Heritage sites. The Great Barrier Reef was an
obvious natural choice, while Kakadu National Park and the Willandra Lakes
Region, home to Australia’s oldest human remains, were recognized both for their
natural and cultural significance.
“ Australia was one of the earliest signatories of the World Heritage Convention, ”
Associate Professor Peter Valentine,
James Cook University,
Townsville
World Heritage-listed sites are considered of outstanding universal value and are selected for worldwide recognition and conservation because of their supreme cultural
or natural significance. Culturally significant properties are sites of supreme human
historical value, representing masterpieces of human creative genius or testimony to
past cultural traditions. Natural heritage sites are
considered areas of exceptional natural beauty.
These sites feature records of the Earth’s history, including the record of life, or valuable natural habitats supporting biological diversity.
“ World Heritage listing provides two important and related benefits:
protection and promotion, ”
Eleanor Casella,
University of Manchester,
UK
In Kakadu, for example, it helped halt mining projects - and while State
governments have control over their environment and natural resources, the Federal
Government can use its legal powers under the World Heritage Convention, to step
in Australia’s World Heritage sites under threat.
7
From Uluru to Shark Bay, we now have 18 stunning protected sites including:
•
Sydney Opera House
•
Greater Blue Mountains Area
•
Fraser Island
•
Wet Tropics of Queensland
•
Tasmanian Wilderness
•
Great Barrier Reef
•
Kakadu National Park
Uluru
Kakadu National Park
8
Explore
Mungo
Mungo is one of the most important places in Australia for studying the environment
of the past and the people who lived through it all.
Wander the sands of time in ancient Mungo National Park at the heart of NSW’s
Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area.
This extraordinary place is of great significance to the Ngyiampaa, Mutthi Mutthi and
Southern Paakantyi people, whose connection with the land reaches back more than
40,000 years.
Remarkable archaeological finds like Mungo Man (the world’s oldest human cremation), Mungo Woman, and human footprints dating back to the last ice age tell an
incredible story about the long history of Australian Aboriginal people.
Take a guided tour to the incredible Walls of China, where erosion has sculpted sand
and clay into fragile yet imposing formations; or explore on wheels with a cycling or
drive tour through the stunning landscape.
Walking Track
9
It’s a landscape like no other. Gaze in awe at scenery molded by the elements and
discover how climatic changes since the last ice age have shaped the land’s geography.
The park’s lunette is perhaps its most astonishing feature.
Comprising four layers of sand and silt deposited over tens of thousands of years,
this majestic sight almost defies description.
Walk the ancient dry lakebed of Lake Mungo and photograph the spectacular etched
dunes of the Walls of China.
At night, sit back and be amazed at star-filled skies unlike anything you’ve seen before.
Milky Way at Mungo NP
Walls of China
10
Overview
www.visitmungo.com.au
The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Services is
part of the Department of Environment and Conservation
General Inquiries
102 George Street, The Rocks, Sydney
1300 36 1967 or (02)9253 4600
NPWS website: www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au
Detail