Taken from the Department of the Environment and Heritage flyer.

Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape

The Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape at Lake Condah in Victoria’s south-west was one of the first three places to be listed on the National Heritage List in July 2004.

Dating back thousands of years, the area shows evidence of a large, settled Aboriginal community systematically farming eels for food and trade in what is considered to be one of Australia’s earliest and largest aquaculture ventures.

This complex enterprise took place in a landscape carved by natural forces and full of meaning for the Aboriginals who lived there.

More than 30 000 years age the ground in this area rumbled and rolled as Aboriginal people nearby witnessed Budj Bim, an important creation being from the Dreamtime reveal himself in the landscape. The volcano that today we call Mount Eccles is his forehead and the scoria are his teeth.

Budj Bim is the source of the Tyrendarra lava flow, which extends from Mount Eccles over 50km to the west and south and which is central to the history of these local Aboriginal people, know as the Gunditjmara.

As the lava flowed from Mount Eccles to the sea it changed the drainage pattern in this part of western Victoria, creating some large wetlands. Beginning thousands of years ago, the Gunditjmara people started to develop this landscape by digging channels to bring water and young eels from Darlots Creek to low lying areas.

They built stone dams to hold the water in these areas, creating ponds and wetlands in which they grow short-fin eels and other fish. They also created channels linking these wetlands. These channels contained weirs with large woven baskets made by women to harvest mature eels.

The modified and engineered wetlands and eel traps provided an economic basis for the development of a settled society with villages. Gunditjmara used stones from the lava flow to create the walls of their circular stone huts. Groups of between two and sixteen huts are common along the Tyrendarra lava flow and early European accounts of Gunditjmara describe how they were ruled by hereditary chiefs.

With European settlement in the area in the 1830s came conflict. Gunditjmara fought for their land during the Eumerella wars, which lasted more than 20 years. The Tyrendarra lava flow became their fortress and because European settlers and their horses found it difficult to follow Gunditjmara across the uneven, stony ground and wetlands.

As this conflict drew to an end in the 1860s, many Aboriginal people were displaced and, the Victorian Government began to develop reserves to house them.

Some Aboriginal people from Portland and Heywood wanted to remain on their ancestral land and refused to move. Eventually, the Government agreed to build a mission at Lake Condah, close to some of the eel traps and within site of Budj Bim.

Despite government attempts to move them, Gunditjmara continued to use the mission until the 1950s when the church and houses were destroyed. Despite the loss of the mission, Gunditjmara continued to live in the area and protect their heritage.

The mission lands were returned to Gunditjmara in 1987.

Gunditjmara manage the Indigenous heritage values of the Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape through the Winda Mara Aboriginal Corporation and other Aboriginal organisations. A large part of the area is the Mount Eccles National Park managed by Parks Victoria.

Outstanding National Heritage Values of the Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape.

The Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape was included on the National Heritage Last against the criteria listed below:

• the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in the course, or pattern of Australia’s natural or cultural history
• the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the places’ possession of uncommon, rare and endangered aspects of Australia’s natural or cultural history
• the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period
• the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance as part of Indigenous tradition

Further information

• Australian Heritage Database entry for Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape http://www.deh.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl
• National Heritage List values for the Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape http://www.deh.gov.au/heritage/national/sites/budjbim
• Background on the National Heritage List http://www.deh.gov.au/heritage/national
• Parks Victoria – Mount Eccles National Park http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/1park_display.cfm?park=153