The deep history of Mungo and the Willandra Lakes 🌅

A six-day outback journey to Lake Mungo and the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area.

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June 19, 2026 6:00pm EDT

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Mungo holds an extraordinary story of human history.

This six-day outback journey through far south-western New South Wales takes you from the Murray River wetlands to the dry lakebed of Mungo and the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area, a landscape continuously occupied by Aboriginal people for over 50,000 years, the longest known occupation of any land by any people on earth.

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Tour highlights

Three nights at Mungo Lodge, the only accommodation inside Mungo National Park
Walk thousands of years of Aboriginal history across the lunettes, interpreted in collaboration with Traditional Owners
Watch the sun set over the dry bed of Lake Mungo within the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area
Spend a full day in the 48,000ha Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, a Ramsar-listed wetland on the Murray floodplain
Look for the mallee emu-wren, malleefowl, pink cockatoo and crested bellbird across mallee and dryland country
Watch for raptors, including the spotted harrier, black falcon, grey falcon and wedge-tailed eagle in areas where they are known to nest

THE WILLANDRA LAKES REGION

Australia's deep-time landscape

The Willandra Lakes region is unlike anywhere else in the country. Stretching across 2400km² of far south-western New South Wales, the World Heritage Area preserves a vast inland system of dry lakebeds, wind-curved dunes and ancient watercourses – including Willandra Creek, the fossilised channel that gave the system its name and has lain dry for 18,000 years. Mungo National Park sits at the system’s heart, where the wildlife, the geology and the human story are written into the dunes side by side.

Western grey kangaroos (Macropus fuliginosus)

HATTAH-KULKYNE NATIONAL PARK

A Ramsar wetland in mallee country

Hattah-Kulkyne National Park is one of inland Australia’s great wetland reserves. Spend a full day in this 48,000ha Ramsar-listed park on the Murray floodplain, searching the ephemeral lakes and dryland vegetation for the elusive mallee emu-wren, malleefowl and watching for species of parrot and cockatoo. The traverse south from Mildura crosses red sand dunes and open vistas, the mallee giving way to dryland country and back again as the day moves through the park’s many habitats.

Mallee emu-wren (Stipiturus mallee)

INTO MUNGO NATIONAL PARK

The history of Mungo

At the heart of the journey lies a walk across the dry bed of Lake Mungo to the lunettes – wind-curved dunes whose erosion has revealed campfires, cooking places and the stone tools of those who walked here long before. The ‘story line’ is interpreted by our expert guides alongside Traditional Owners, with frequent stops to look for birds and to learn about the desert vegetation.

Twilight at Mungo

WILDLIFE OF WILLANDRA

Raptors, mallee birds and kangaroos

Move through dense mallee, cypress pine and buloke woodlands, mulga scrub and vast saltbush plains, watching for the pink cockatoo, crested bellbird, occasional cockatiel and white-backed swallow, and for raptors including the spotted harrier, black falcon, grey falcon and wedge-tailed eagle. Climb high into the Mungo dune field for views across the desert, where emus, western grey kangaroos and red kangaroos are abundant.

Emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae)

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Note: All images in this email were taken on this tour by our wonderful expert guides Amanda Lamont and Angus Hamilton.

Australian Geographic acknowledges the First Nations peoples of Australia as traditional custodians, and pays its respect to Elders past and present, and their stories and journeys.

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Australian Geographic 52-54 Turner Street Redfern, New South Wales 2016

The deep history of Mungo and the Willandra Lakes 🌅

A six-day outback journey to Lake Mungo and the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area.

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