Today's desert once a giant Australian lake: study

Australian aboriginal people who lived around the now-arid area at Lake Mungo 24,000 years ago were likely to have been skilled inland seafarers, new research reveals.

While called Lake Mungo, it actually has no water in it today and is a desert country. But it has long been a rich area in south- eastern Australia for geologists to work in.

On Thursday Fairfax Media reported the results of an international study conducted between German and Australian scientists which revealed it was actually a mega-lake almost 20 percent bigger than previously thought.

After dating the sediment layers found in the nearby sand dunes, researchers established that the lake's high water mark was five meters higher than realized before.

This created an island between Lake Mungo and Lake Leaghur to the north on which archaeologists found stone tools and fireplaces, all evidence of human habitation.

"Traces of people's activities are actually embedded in sediment, so that tells us that people were relying on watercraft to get around to exploit what was on the island in terms of animals to hunt," said La Trobe University archaeologist Nicola Stern.

Lake Mungo has been dry for the past 15,000 years.

Lake Mungo is also internationally archaeologically significant. It is from where Mungo Man, the oldest human remains found in Australia, was found and also where Mungo Lady, the oldest human remains in the world to be ritually cremated, was uncovered. Endi