Lake Mungo

I love travelling to the Australian outback, where memories of driving the dusty red roads with my late husband, Pete, are still fresh and poignant. The vast skies, the lack of other vehicles, the sense of freedom, all add to a atmosphere that makes me feel insignificant. The power of nature and the changes the world experiences over millennia make a human lifespan trivial in comparison.

Having said that, Lake Mungo is home to the earliest modern human remains found in Australia, and possibly the world. The indigenous culture is rich, with more being discovered every year.

But Lake Mungo has a lot more to offer. Dry for the last 16,000 years, the lake is protected on the eastern shore by white sand lunettes, with ochre sand dunes forming the western rim. The surrounding country, set in the Murray basin, is covered in Mallee scrub. Spectacular formations in the rock tell the story of the lake’s archaeological history as well as offering shelter to the flora and fauna from the heat of the day.

At first glance, Mungo appears to be a relatively barren landscape, yet birds of prey hover and vibrant blue fairywrens sing from the hardy shrubs. Outside the lake bed, hardy mallee trees and conifers provide homes for Ring-necked and Mulga parrots among others.

A highlight for me was to see Pink Cockatoos (formerly known as Major Mitchell’s), many of which fed in the conifers around Mungo Lodge where we were staying.

Eastern bearded dragons perch atop prickly bushes, waiting for insects, while shinglebacks swagger across the sand. It was a citizen scientist’s paradise, and although I might not have had the big camera lenses of some of my fellow tourists, I was delighted with all I saw.

When I looked closely, I could see myriad flowers, tiny Australian natives blooming around my feet. Life in the outback is tough, but resilient plants and animals abound.

Kangaroos and emus may be common across a lot of Australia, yet for me to see Western Greys, so different to the Eastern Greys at home, and the giant Red Kangaroos, was a real treat. We were fortunate to see a male emu shepherding his striped chicks too.