Research at Bond

Current Research Projects

Footsteps in Time

Many years of archaeological research in the Willandra Lakes region of Mungo National Park has been rewarded with a world headline-making discovery for Bond’s Professor of Australian Studies.

More than 450 human footprints dating back some 20,000 years have been uncovered by Professor Steve Webb and his team, ranking as the largest collection of its kind in the world and the oldest in Australia.

“The footprints were left by children, adolescents and adults at the height of the last ice age as they ran and walked across a moist clay area around the lakes,” said Professor Webb.

“We’ve distinguished 23 trackways of men running and children walking and wandering around. Some of the people appeared to be hunting, with emu and kangaroo prints also found in the area and what appear to be drag marks and round impressions in the ground.

“One man, estimated at 194cm tall, seemed to be sprinting at about 30km per hour. Another set of tracks, perhaps those of a weary child, had a speed of only 3-5km per hour.

“The strangest tracks of all were left by what appears to be a one-legged man. One idea we have had is that he may have had one leg resting in some sort of water craft while he propelled himself with the other through shallow water. If he used a pole to do this it may have been something like that which made the round impressions and drag marks we see across the site.”

The first footprint was spotted in August 2003 by Mary Pappin Junior of the Mutthi Mutthi people while exploring the area with Professor Webb as part of a project to educate young Aboriginal people in archaeology.

According to Professor Webb, the footprints would have been laid down in silty clay containing calcium carbonate and gypsum that had been softened by rain and hardened like a Plaster of Paris as it dried out so accurately preserving the prints.

“Some of the prints are 15mm deep and you can see how the mud squelched between their toes and out the back of their heels in the running men,” he said.

“It brings these Ice Age families to life in a way no other archaeological evidence can, opening up a window into past Aboriginal society. We are able to estimate people’s heights by the length of their footprints, infer age and of course, the sex of the largest, and use the distance between paces to tell how fast they were moving.

“The site is much bigger than what we see now. Perhaps as much as ten times as big but it is covered by hundreds of tonnes of sand. I have no doubt there are hundreds, if not thousands of prints yet to be uncovered.”

The 700 sqm footprint site is closed to the public to preserve it until the Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area Three Traditional Tribal Groups Elders Committee establishes a management, conservation and tourism plan.

Key Project Team Members

  • Professor Steve Webb - Bond University
  • Dr Matt Cupper - Melbourne University
  • Dr Richard Robins - Private Consultant (research Associate UNI New England)
  • Members of the 3TTG Elders Committee and the Parkindji Mutthi Mutthi and Nyiampaa Aboriginal Communities

Contact:

Professor Steve Webb

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
BOND UNIVERSITY QLD 4229
AUSTRALIA

Phone: +61 7 5595 2587
Email: stwebb@staff.bond.edu.au