World's oldest

It's a long and dusty road to Lake Mungo, but for me it was very much a highlight of my recent road trip. I'd felt drawn to the place ever since the 1974 discovery of the perhaps 60,000 year old fossilised Mungo Man. The slightly younger Mungo Woman had been discovered there in 1969.

So this is the site of the oldest known human civilisation. Ritualistic cremations were involved.




Australia's oldest fossilised human footprints are there too, and you can compare them against your own, if you choose to. They date to 20,000 years ago.

Lake Mungo is in the far west of NSW, about 100km north east of Mildura and north west of  Balranald. It's in the Mungo National Park, and is part of the Willandra Lakes World Heritage region.

Most of the archeological finds come from the shores of the now dry lake. If you book onto a guided tour, you can progress beyond the boardwalk and information signs.















There's a 70km loop everyone can do though, which takes you to several more lookouts and points of interest.

Back to the Visitor Centre, and the world's oldest civilisation thing. I was rather taken by the innovative way they portrayed the time span. Every person on the big wall chart represents ten generations.