Eels
Budj Bim, where the Gunditjmara cut channels, weirs and dams into a lava flow in western Victoria to trap and farm short-finned eels, kooyang. One trap system at Lake Condah is carbon dated to six thousand six hundred years and the wider complex is suggested at about eight thousand. It was inscribed on the World Heritage List on 6 July 2019, and the Traditional Owners tell it themselves through their own corporation.
Part of Australia
73 moments in this segment.
- - Tower Hill in 1855. Von Guerard worked on this panorama of the Tower Hill maar and its inset scoria cones between 15 August and 5 October 1855. The painting recorded the native vegetation in enough detail that it was later used as a reference for replanting the degraded reserve. Tower Hill lies west of Warrnambool on the same volcanic plain.
- - Von Guerard paints the Mount Eccles crater. Eugene von Guerard's mid nineteenth century view of the crater lake, painted while the colony was still calling Budj Bim by its settler name. The accompanying text praises the irregularity of the structure and the brilliant green of the water. Nothing in the colonial record of the period registers the aquaculture system across the flow below.
- - Henry King photographs the Brewarrina traps. Henry King, a Sydney commercial photographer, made this view of the stone fish traps in the Barwon River at Brewarrina around 1893. The image is a settler photographer's record of Ngemba work, taken without any record of consent from the people who built and maintained the trap system. The traps are known as Baiame's Ngunnhu.
- - The Brewarrina fishery in a fisheries report. A plate captioned Brewarrina Fishery, published by fisheries official Lindsay G. Thompson in 1893 and catalogued under traditional fisheries. The framing is administrative: an Aboriginal engineering system entering the colonial record as a resource to be inventoried. Attribution for the image sits with Thompson and the New South Wales fisheries apparatus, not with the Ngemba.
- - The 1906 Western Lands Board plan. A. W. Mullens surveyed and drew the trap system in 1906 for the New South Wales Western Lands Board. Surveys like this were made as the state moved to regulate the river, and the plan later became evidence for the heritage listing. It survives in the conservation management plan compiled by Hope and Vines in 1994.
- - Mathews maps the Ngunnhu. R. H. Mathews drew this plan of the Ngunnhu, the stone fish traps in the river at Brewarrina, for his notes on Aboriginal people of New South Wales. The drawing shows individual pens and the channels that funnel fish between them. It is one of the earliest technical records of the layout.
- - Anguilla australis, the short-finned eel. A scientific illustration of the short-finned eel published in 1921 by Edgar Ravenswood Waite. Gunditjmara people call the fish kooyang. It spawns in the Coral Sea and the young travel thousands of kilometres to reach the rivers and wetlands of south eastern Australia.
- - Eels massed in a Melbourne lake. Short-finned eels crowd the shallows of an ornamental lake in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, photographed in September 2007. The same species still moves through the city's waterways and drains on its migration. Their route survives underneath a landscape entirely rebuilt around them.
- - Eels, Stone Houses and National Heritage. 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by countryhour in 2009.
- - Budj Bim lava country. Bush and broken basalt on the volcanic landscape known to Gunditjmara people as Budj Bim, in western Victoria. The lava flow from this volcano created the wetlands that made large scale eel aquaculture possible. UNESCO inscribed the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape on the World Heritage List on 6 July 2019 under cultural criteria (iii) and (v).
- - Lake Surprise in the Budj Bim crater. A freshwater lake sits inside the crater at the summit of Budj Bim, ringed by steep scoria slopes. The volcano was long carried as Mount Eccles on settler maps; the park now uses the Gunditjmara name. Water held in the crater is part of the same system that fed the channels downslope.
- - Crater walls above the lake. Vegetation grips the near vertical inner wall of the Budj Bim crater above the water. The eruptions here laid down the stony rises that Gunditjmara engineers later cut and reworked. The 2019 World Heritage citation for criterion (iii) named the cultural traditions, knowledge, practices and ingenuity of the Gunditjmara.
- - Stony rises on Gunditjmara Country. Loose basalt boulders and low scrub cover the ground across the lava flow west of the crater. This is the raw material of the aquaculture system, stone that could be lifted and stacked into weirs without quarrying. The surface looks unworked until the channels running through it are pointed out.
- - Reflections on Lake Surprise. Still water in the summit crater mirrors the wooded slope above it. Wetlands fed by this volcanic system supported the short-finned eel, kooyang, in numbers large enough to sustain permanent settlement. Archaeological work has dated one trap complex at Lake Condah to about 6,600 years.
- - Bushland on the volcanic slope. Eucalypt woodland runs down the flank of the crater at Budj Bim. Gunditjmara oral tradition records the eruption of the volcano, and artefacts recovered beneath volcanic ash at nearby Tower Hill have been read as corroboration. The Tower Hill eruption has been dated to roughly 36,900 years ago.
- - Basalt and regrowth. Weathered lava rock breaks through the ground cover inside the national park. The wider Budj Bim complex has been suggested at about 8,000 years before present, which would place engineered water management here among the oldest documented anywhere, though the firm carbon date is the 6,600 year figure at Lake Condah.
- - Track through the lava flow. A path threads the stony ground of the Budj Bim landscape. The World Heritage listing covers three separate components across the lava flow, at Budj Bim itself, Kurtonitj and Tyrendarra. Visitors reach the system through Gunditjmara owned and managed land.
- - Baiames Ngunnhu - the story of Brewarrina Fish Traps. 's Ngunnhu. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by DCCEEW in 2009.
- - Touring Australia; Mount Eccles National Park. 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Rod Williams in 2010.
- - Stone arrangement at Stony Peninsula. Stacked basalt forms a rough circular wall on the south eastern side of Mount Eccles, photographed by Rupert Gerritsen. The archaeologist recorded it as possibly the remains of a multi room Aboriginal dwelling. Stone house foundations of this kind sit alongside the channels and traps and argue for settled, not seasonal, occupation.
- - Reflections at Brewarrina Fish Traps. 's Ngunnhu. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by EWBAustralia in 2013.
- - Tower Hill, volcanic crater on Victoria's coast. 2014.
- - World Heritage Nomination - Budj Bim Cultural Landscape. 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Gunditj Mirring in 2015.
- - PechaKucha-Budj Bim landscape, Lake Condah Victoria. Presented at Katoomba Sept 2016. 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Natnifty in 2016.
- - Gunditjmara country and the National Museum. 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. This record is filed under Gunditjmara Country. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by National Museum of Australia in 2017.
- - Budj Bim eel Trap System. 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. The subject sits on Gunditjmara Country. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Ada K in 2018.
- - Gunditjmara Eel Traps. 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. Custodianship here is Gunditjmara. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Annabelle Choa in 2019.
- - Water in the Tower Hill reserve. The crater lake in the Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve, western Victoria. The maar formed in a violent steam driven eruption on the volcanic plain that also produced Budj Bim. It was declared Victoria's first national park in 1892 before being reduced and later replanted.
- - Stone pens in the Barwon River. River stones set into curved walls channel the current into holding pens at Brewarrina. Fish moving upstream are guided into the pens and taken by hand, and the walls are rebuilt after each flood. The site was gazetted on the New South Wales State Heritage Register with an extended curtilage on 4 September 2015.
- - Looking downstream to the ochre beds. From the traps the view runs downstream to ochre beds on the southern bank of the Barwon. The two resources sit within metres of one another, food and pigment drawn from the same reach of river. Brewarrina drew large gatherings from surrounding nations.
- - Fish ladder beside the weir. A rock fish ladder built alongside the modern weir, completed in 2013 by the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries so native fish could pass upstream again. The weir itself had cut the migration the traps depended on. The engineering works in both directions here, ancient and remedial.
- - Using Indigenous science to create 'Eel Trap' | Science Gallery Melbourne. Using Indigenous science to create 'Eel Trap', published by Science Gallery Melbourne and concerning Victoria. The people named here are Yorta Yorta. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Science Gallery Melbourne in 2019.
- - Budj Bim Connections Flagship Project. 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. The subject sits on Gunditjmara Country. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Glenelg Hopkins CMA in 2019.
- - Worlds Oldest Human Made Structure - Brewarrina Fish Traps, Australia - Full Film. 's Ngunnhu. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Jakob Kennedy in 2020.
- - Budj Bim Cultural Landscape - UNESCO World Heritage Site. 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by World Heritage Journey in 2020.
- - Budj Bim - One Year On.. 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Gunditj Mirring in 2020.
- - Preserving Budj Bim’s rich cultural heritage and languages. & Climate Action and concerning Victoria. One trap system at Lake Condah is carbon dated to 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Department of Energy, Environment & Climate Action in 2020.
- - Budj Bim World Heritage Community Celebration - Wednesday 25 Sept, 2019. 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Gunditj Mirring in 2020.
- - Visiting the Brewarrina Fish Traps, one of Australia's most ancient sites. 's Ngunnhu. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by NOWNESS in 2020.
- - Virtual Budj Bim Tour - Victoria Nature Festival. 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Glenelg Hopkins CMA in 2020.
- - Save Our Rivers Corroboree- Brewarrina Fish Traps Oldest man made structure in world. 's Ngunnhu. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Wild Beings Australia in 2020.
- - Technology reveals ancient wisdom at Budj Bim. & Climate Action and concerning Victoria. One trap system at Lake Condah is carbon dated to 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. The people named here are Gunditjmara. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Department of Energy, Environment & Climate Action in 2020.
- - Unlocking 6,000+ Years of History at Budj Bim | DELWP Campaign Video. Unlocking 6,000+ Years of History at Budj Bim, published by Creativa and concerning Victoria. One trap system at Lake Condah is carbon dated to 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. This record is filed under Gunditjmara Country. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Creativa in 2021.
- - Exploring Budj Bim National Park, Victoria.. 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Brett and Amber in 2021.
- - Budj Bim. 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by WikiReader in 2021.
- - A short-finned eel in the water. A living Anguilla australis photographed underwater. The species drove the design of the channels and weirs: eels move on flood and on season, and a system that reads that movement can hold and harvest them. Smoking trees near the traps were used to preserve the catch.
- - The Fighting Gunditjmara. 'S AIDE and concerning Victoria. One trap system at Lake Condah is carbon dated to 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. Gunditjmara Country is the ground of this record. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by THE TEACHER'S AIDE in 2022.
- - Budj Bim Mt Eccles. 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Old Man Adventures in 2022.
- - Budj Bim Cultural Landscape by Cooper Scaife Architects | 2023 Victorian Architecture Awards. Budj Bim Cultural Landscape by Cooper Scaife Architects, published by National Architecture Awards and concerning Victoria. One trap system at Lake Condah is carbon dated to 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. This record is filed under Gunditjmara Country. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by National Architecture Awards in 2023.
- - Gunditj Mirring Keeping Place by Phillips/Pilkington | 2023 Victorian Architecture Awards. Gunditj Mirring Keeping Place by Phillips/Pilkington, published by National Architecture Awards. One trap system at Lake Condah is carbon dated to 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. The subject sits on Gunditjmara Country. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by National Architecture Awards in 2023.
- - Gunditj Mirring Keeping Place by Phillips/Pilkington Architects | 2023 Victorian Architecture Awards. Gunditj Mirring Keeping Place by Phillips/Pilkington Architects, published by National Architecture Awards. One trap system at Lake Condah is carbon dated to 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. The people named here are Gunditjmara. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by National Architecture Awards in 2023.
- - Gunditj Mirring Business Centre by Phillips/Pilkington | 2023 Victorian Architecture Awards. Gunditj Mirring Business Centre by Phillips/Pilkington, published by National Architecture Awards. One trap system at Lake Condah is carbon dated to 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. The material concerns Gunditjmara Country. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by National Architecture Awards in 2023.
- - The Brewarrina traps in 2023. Low water exposes the stonework along the riverbed. Maintenance of the walls is a continuing obligation carried by the community rather than a completed act of construction. Sustained drought and river regulation have both changed how the system behaves.
- - Iuk bagurrk gunga by Kim Wandin. Kim Wandin, a Wurundjeri Woiwurrung artist born in 1958, cast this bronze from a woven form in 2023. Its title means eel women catch, and it honours the matrilineal weaving tradition and the relationship of Wurundjeri women with the short-finned eel, iuk. The work was co-commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria and the City of Melbourne.
- - The Dark Emu Story | The Ngemba Fish Traps. The Dark Emu Story, published by ABC Indigenous. The Brewarrina fish traps on the Barwon River are held by the Ngemba as Baiame's Ngunnhu. Custodianship here is Ngemba. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by ABC Indigenous in 2023.
- - Budj Bim National Park - Mount Eccles - Victoria - Australia. 's and concerning Victoria. One trap system at Lake Condah is carbon dated to 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by An Australian Adventure - The Button's in 2023.
- - Ngemba People speak at the Brewarrina fish traps on Nations Building and the 2023 referendum. 's Ngunnhu. The people named here are Ngemba. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Platform the People in 2023.
- - Tower Hill maar from the north. The flooded crater and its cones seen from the northern lookout. Artefacts recovered from beneath the ash layer here provided a date of roughly 36,900 years ago for the eruption, matching oral tradition that people were present to see it. The reserve was replanted in the twentieth century using von Guerard's 1855 painting as a guide.
- - Budj Bim Flagship Waterways project. 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. Gunditjmara Country is the ground of this record. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Glenelg Hopkins CMA in 2024.
- - S03-E08: We visit Budj Bim on Gunditjmara Country and learn more about the story behind this cult.... 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. The material concerns Gunditjmara Country. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Victorian Aboriginal News in 2024.
- - Macarthur Recreation Reserve, Budj Bim Caves, Grey Nomads Caravanning Australia Ep -151. 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Aussie Nomad Destinations in 2024.
- - Onus vs Alcoa, Gunditjmara Standing Strong Story - NILC 2024, Day 2, Melbourne. 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. Custodianship here is Gunditjmara. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Tarwirri in 2025.
- - Brewarrina Aboriginal Fish Traps. 's Ngunnhu. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Jack and Mallie - All Around Australia. in 2025.
- - Koroitj Tower Hill: Volcanic Geology, Culture & Renewal. & Photography and concerning Victoria. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Martin Stringer Film & Photography in 2025.
- - How volcanic rock was used to trap eels 6,500 years ago | Deep Time | ABC NEWS. How volcanic rock was used to trap eels 6,500 years ago, published by ABC News (Australia) and concerning Victoria. One trap system at Lake Condah is carbon dated to 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. This record is filed under Gunditjmara Country. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by ABC News (Australia) in 2025.
- - Aboriginal people hold a story about a 37,000 year old volcanic eruption | Deep Time | ABC NEWS. Aboriginal people hold a story about a 37,000 year old volcanic eruption, published by ABC News (Australia) and concerning Victoria. One trap system at Lake Condah is carbon dated to 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. The people named here are Gunditjmara. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by ABC News (Australia) in 2025.
- - Outback NSW Adventure | Emmdale Roadhouse, Brewarrina Fish Traps & Collarenebri Artesian Pool 🚐✨🐟. Outback NSW Adventure, published by Sweet-Az RV'n and concerning New South Wales. The Brewarrina fish traps on the Barwon River are held by the Ngemba as Baiame's Ngunnhu. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Sweet-Az RV'n in 2025.
- - Mt Eccles at Budj Bim National Park, South-Western Victorian dormant Volcano walk. 's Walks Australia and concerning Victoria. One trap system at Lake Condah is carbon dated to 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Jason's Walks Australia in 2026.
- - TOWER HILL STATE GAME RESERVE - Victoria - Australia. 2026.
- - Budj Bim National Park in Victoria, April 2026. Issue 27/26. & Dave Touring OZ and concerning Victoria. One trap system at Lake Condah is carbon dated to 6,600 years, and the wider complex is suggested at about 8,000 years before present. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Andy & Dave Touring OZ in 2026.
- - 'This River of Gold' (Burra Mchughes & Kelly Winning) feat. Uncle Col Hardy - Brewarrina Fish Traps. 's Ngunnhu. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Kelly Winning Music in 2026.
- - What Scientists Keep Finding at Brewarrina Is Rewriting New South Wales History. & Shadow and concerning New South Wales. The Brewarrina fish traps on the Barwon River are held by the Ngemba as Baiame's Ngunnhu. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Stone & Shadow in 2026.
- - 26. Brewarrina. 3 Brothers Productions. The Brewarrina fish traps on the Barwon River are held by the Ngemba as Baiame's Ngunnhu. Filed as a Budj Bim record, posted by Truth Be Told- 3 Brothers Productions in 2026.