World Heritage Identification Number: 1577
World Heritage since: 2019
Category: Cultural Heritage
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: 🇦🇺 Australia
Continent: Oceania
UNESCO World Region: Asia and the Pacific
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Budj Bim Cultural Landscape: An Ancient Aquaculture System in South-Eastern Australia
The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019, offers a unique glimpse into the rich history and innovative practices of the Gunditjmara people, an Aboriginal Australian group residing in south-eastern Australia. This remarkable site encompasses three distinct components, each showcasing one of the world's most extensive and ancient aquaculture systems.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, located in the traditional Country of the Gunditjmara people in south-eastern Australia, consists of three serial components containing one of the world’s most extensive and oldest aquaculture systems. The Budj Bim lava flows provide the basis for the complex system of channels, weirs and dams developed by the Gunditjmara in order to trap, store and harvest kooyang (short-finned eel – Anguilla australis). The highly productive aquaculture system provided an economic and social base for Gunditjmara society for six millennia. The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape is the result of a creational process narrated by the Gunditjmara as a deep time story, referring to the idea that they have always lived there. From an archaeological perspective, deep time represents a period of at least 32,000 years. The ongoing dynamic relationship of Gunditjmara and their land is nowadays carried by knowledge systems retained through oral transmission and continuity of cultural practice.
Encyclopedia Record: Budj Bim
Budj Bim, also known as Mount Eccles, is a dormant volcano near Macarthur in southwestern Victoria, Australia. It lies within the geologically defined area known as the Newer Volcanics Province, which is the youngest volcanic area in Australia and stretches from western Victoria to south-eastern South Australia.Additional Site Details
Area: 9,935 hectares
(v) — Outstanding example of traditional human settlement
Coordinates: -38.0811111111 , 141.8852777778
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© Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation. Used with permission.
