With a trip to the Mungo National Park planned for the afternoon, we were away relatively early heading towards Wentworth which had originally been our intended overnight stop. Wentworth is in NSW and about 33 kilometres from Mildura.
After crossing the Darling River, we followed the “tourist route” to Junction Park which is adjacent to the spot where the rivers meet. The Darling River was flowing freely and was carrying a large amount of suspended soil which was the result of the recent high rainfall in its catchment area. The park is delightful and would be a great spot to camp illegally. After leaving Junction Park, we travelled a short distance down the road and stopped to view Loch 11. There are a series of these lochs on the Murray that are used to control the flow of the river and to allow for the water traffic to use the river.
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Next stop was the “Perry Sand Hills” just to the north of Wentworth. These sand dunes stand up to 12 metres high. “He” tried to climb to the top of one of the dunes but did not have suitable footwear on. The heat of the sand made a barefoot attempt impossible.
Next stop was the old Wentworth Gaol. This was also an eye opener as to how things were in the past.
We returned to the caravan park for a quick lunch and to prepare to be collected at 2.30pm for our trip to the Mungo National Park. We also arranged to stay for a further night.
We chose to travel with Harry Nanya Tours who specialises in Aboriginal guided tours to World Heritage Listed Mungo National Park. Our host today was Graham Clarke who is from the Paakantyi tribe and has been conducting tours in the region for 15 years.
The Mungo National Park is actually one of the world’s most significant human cremation sites. It is Australia’s first World Heritage-listed national park and is located 987km west of Sydney, and 110km north-east of Mildura
Mungo National Park is a part of the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area, a chain of dried-out lakes that were once strung between Willandra Creek and the main channel of the Lachlan River in Outback NSW.
Lake Mungo dried up around 14,000 years ago, and today a great crescent-shaped dune, called the Walls of China, stretches along the eastern shore of the lakebed. These dunes, of mud and sand, are continually eroding by wind and water. Left behind is a fragile landscape of crinkled, fluted outcrops and shifting sand, which changes colour from a daytime khaki to the vibrant yellows, oranges, and deep wine reds of sun set.
It was at Mungo, in the drought-affected summer of 1969, that a young scientist stumbled across the remains of a cremated skeleton of a human, later to be known as Mungo Woman. Six years later, he found Mungo Man, buried in a pit strewn with ochre.
Carbon dating showed that Mungo woman was at least 26,000 years old, and that Mungo Man lived some 62,000 years ago. The discovery threatened to rewrite the history of human occupation in Australia, and had profound implications for the origins of modern man. More recently, the scientific consensus is that both skeletons are around 40,000 years old.
Stone flake tools are scattered across the landscape, and peeking out of the mud are ancient wombat holes, fossilised chunks of Eucalyptus trees, and the bones of long-dead marsupials, including extinct buffalo-sized wombats and giant kangaroos.
The area is actually an archaeology site that is open to the public. The site where the remains were found is “out of bounds”. There have actually been over 140 human remains found in the area.
The trip to Mungo included about 90 kilometres on a dirt road that had only been reopened 24 hours earlier due to the recent high rainfall.
Upon arriving at the park we were provided by afternoon tea and a great salad for the evening meal following our visit to the Visitors Centre.
Graham then took us across Lake Mungo to the “Wall of China”. He spent time explaining in detail the history of the area and the finds that have been made. It was surprising to hear that some of the finds have been reburied so they can be preserved. The Mungo Woman will eventually be reburied.
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We were shown visible bones of several animals including those of a Tasmanian tiger. We felt humble in being able to visit this site.
At 8:20pm the sun set and provided the opportunity for photography of both the sunset and the “Walls of China”.
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We returned to the visitor centre where Graham told us some traditional stories and supported the stories with a didgeridoo.
We returned to the caravan park at 11:00pm.