Located in south-western New South Wales, the Willandra Lakes Region is a system of ancient dried lakes formed over the last two million years, vegetated with saltbush, fringing sand dunes, and grassy woodlands. It is a global landmark in the study of human, animal, and geographical evolution. 

The region is the traditional meeting place of the Muthi Muthi, Ngiyampaa, and Paakantji/Barkinji peoples. It was given a World Heritage listing in 1981 for outstanding natural and Cultural significance due to the fossils and history contained there. Most notably, the cremated remains of ‘Mungo Lady’ and the ceremonial burial site of ‘Mungo Man’ within Mungo National Park, in the heart of Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area. 

Dating human habitation back more than 42,000 years, Mungo Man and Lady are believed to be the world's oldest sites of ritual burial. Beyond being important evidence of human occupation, the ceremony with which these remains were found provides irrefutable proof that a sophisticated social structure and belief system existed on the Australian continent for thousands of years prior to colonisation. 

The largest group of fossil human footprints in the world also occurs in the Willandra Lakes Region. The nearly 500 fossilised human footprints were made by adults, teenagers, and children in wet clay and are around 20,000 years old.

Preserved also are ancient fireplaces, stone tools, grindstones for milling, calcified plants, middens, the bones of giant marsupial megafauna and much more evidence of continuous and sophisticated occupation of the area. 

Mungo Man’s remains and those of other Aboriginal people from Willandra Lakes were finally returned to the area’s Traditional Owners in 2017.