In the volcanic landscape of southwestern Victoria, the Gunditjmara people built an aquaculture system approximately 6,600 years ago.

They channeled water from Lake Condah through a network of constructed waterways, channels, and weirs across more than 100 square kilometers of land. Woven basket traps were set at strategic points. Smoke-houses processed the eels that were caught in vast numbers. The system produced enough food to support a semi-permanent population — people who lived in stone houses, who were not nomadic, who depended on the managed productivity of the waterway rather than on seasonal movement through the landscape.

Budj Bim — the name of the volcanic lava flow whose topography the system was built into — is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. At 6,600 years old, it is older than Stonehenge. Older than the Great Pyramid at Giza. It is one of the most significant examples of Indigenous engineering anywhere...