In 1981, the Willandra Lakes region was added to the World Heritage List because of the significance of the archaeological and geomorphological features found in the area. These include

• human skeletal material, tools, shell middens and animal bones that provide some of the oldest evidence of modern humans in the world;
• landforms and sediments recording events of the Pleistocene Epoch are relatively undistrubed; and
• baked sediment from uneroded fireplaces records the direction of the earth's magnetic field at the time the fire was used. About 31,000 years ago, the north-south axis moved 120^o from its present position and returned again over several thousand years. This is called the "Mungo excursion".

For the past 50,000 years, the climate has changed, changing Mungo in the process. 40,000 years ago Aboriginal people lived here in a rich fertile area with fresh water lakes. The water dried up aproximately 10,000 years ago, and today Mungo is a dry lake bed with numerous sand dunes. Artifacts and remains of animals now extinct are well preserved in the dunes and become uncovered then recovered as the winds blow the sand around.

• A visit to Mungo National Park in our travelog: A Road Trip Outback Down Under
• Don's Lake Mungo page
• Willandra Lakes Region (GORP)
• Descriptions of Natural World Heritage Properties (WCMC)
• Environment Australia
• Age estimates for Willandra Lakes human bones
• Lake Mungo
• NSW National Parks & Wildlife
• Lake Mungo, NSW
• Postage stamps