Lake Mungo

Lake Mungo is a dry lake located in south western New South Wales. It is about 110 km north east of Mildura and 150km north west of Balaranald. The lake is the central feature of Mungo National Park where the discovery of the remains of Mungo Man, the oldest human remains found in Australia dated between 40,000 and 60,000 years old. There is evidence of human habitation of the area around Lake Mungo that is even older. With the arrival of European settlers in the area during the 1880s, introduced species, notably rabbits and sheep, have destroyed the vegetation cover on the old lake banks on the north shore. This is named the walls of china.

The walls

The roads from Balaranald become impassable during or after rain

The huge bowl that was a lake has been totally dry for thousands of years.

The dunes behind the walls

The eroded shore looking towards the old lake bed

local inhabitants

Post from 2009 and an image taken with a Olympus film camera in the 1980's (see post here) was of one of the trees on the escarpment in fruit. Over 30 years later here is a similar picture. The same tree? unlikely.

 Maybe this is the tree?

Stayed at the Balaranald weir  in the Murumbidgee on the way home. 2 Carp :-(

Mungo Tree

Mungo National Park is an isolated national park in the south west of New South Wales about 75 kilometres south east of Pooncarie NSW and 110 km north east of Mildura, Victoria. The main feature of Mungo National Park is Lake Mungo, an ancient dry lake, that dried up about 10,000 years ago. Mungo National Park is most significant for the archeological remains which have been discovered there, the remains of Mungo Man found on the shore of Lake Mungo is the oldest human remains discovered in Australia. These remains were discovered beneath the 'Walls of China', a series of low crescent shaped mounds formed by wind erosion on the South eastern edge of the dry lake. Its along this feature I found a solitary tree in the early 1980's and photographed it with my Olympus OM10 film camera.

Olympus OM10, Olympus Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

This image was entered into a photography contest by me at the Mildura Regional Art Gallery and although it won no prize it was awarded an 'honourable mention'. I have no recollection or record of any camera settings or what the term honourable mention signified.