EEL FARMING AND ENTERPRISE

The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape has a history of eel farming, enterprise and settled communities that dates back over 6000 years and is recognised by UNESCO as one of the oldest aquaculture systems in the world.

Located within Gunditjmara Country, the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in July 2019. The only Australian World Heritage site listed solely for its Aboriginal cultural values, the landscape is home to what’s considered the earliest living example of aquaculture in the world, with a history of eel farming that dates back more than 6000 years. Guided cultural tours of the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, which comprises three separate components, are set to commence in June to coincide with the opening of Theh Tae Rak Aquaculture Centre & Cafe at Lake Condah (budjbim.com.au). This 19th-century mission site sits within the largest and northernmost part of the cultural landscape, which also includes Budj Bim National Park. It’s understood by the Gunditjmara people that the last major eruption of long dormant volcano Budj Bim, formerly known as Mt Eccles, was when the Ancestral Creator revealed himself between 30,000 and 39,000 years ago and sent lava coursing across 50 kilometres towards the ocean, forever changing the waterways and wetlands of the area known as Tungatt Mirring, or Stone Country. The environments shaped by this lava flow allowed the Gunditjmara to develop an extensive and complex aquaculture network, producing, as a result, quantities of food that sustained permanent settlements. Historical stone kooyang (eel) traps and stone channels, stone house sites and eel- smoking trees are found in the Kurtonitj (central) component of the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, a sacred area that means ‘crossing place’. The southerly component, Tyrendarra meanwhile, is a traditional meeting place that forms part of major Dreaming trails; you can visit this area with Budj Bim Tours (budjbimtours.net).