Budj Bim Full Day Tour: Explore World Heritage Sites through Gunditjmara Eyes
4.9
68 Ratings
Heywood
Immerse yourself in the vibrant Indigenous culture and explore the World Heritage listed sites of Budj Bim through the eyes of the Gunditjmara people. Discover the ancient aquaculture networks, stone traps, and natural wonders on this full-day tour.
Duration: 8 hours
Cancellation: 1 day learn more
Highlights
  • Heywood - Meet at the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape Tourism offices in Heywood and board your bus and travel around 20 mins to the next location.
  • Lake Gorrie - See the Bessiebelle Sheepwash, the best surviving example of a traditional pastoral sheep wash in Victoria. Gunditjmara workers constructed some of the dry stone walls on the property in years past.
  • Budj Bim National Park - See the Budj Bim volcanic crater now Lake Surprise, as you take a guided bush walk and step inside the lava tunnels and a cave. Travel around 20 mins to the Tae Rak Aquaculture Centre for a light lunch.
  • Lake Condah - Lunch at the Tae Rak Aquaculture Centre cafe.
  • Lake Condah - Take an informative guided walk with your Gunditjmara cultural guide and explore the Tae Rak Aquaculture Centre, Lake Codah and ancient eel traps. This location includes stunning wetland views and extensive wildlife including native birdlife. Travel around 20 mins to the next location.
What's Included
  • Snacks provided
  • Lunch included
  • Air-conditioned transportation
Additional Information

Discover a vibrant Indigenous culture and the region’s heritage, as you are introduced to the World Heritage listed sites through Gunditjmara eyes.See how the Budj Bim lava flows enabled the Gunditjmara to develop one of the largest and oldest aquaculture networks in the world. Composed of channels, dams and weirs, they are used to contain floodwaters and create basins to trap, store and harvest the kooyang eel. Tours along raised boardwalks designed to preserve the precious natural environment will showcase historical stone kooyang traps and stone channels, stone house sites and eel smoking trees and other natural phenomena.

  • There is travel time of around 20 mins between each location visited on this tour. The total time on tour is 8 hours.
Location
4/48 Edgar St
Edgar Street
Please meet at the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape Tourism office 15 mins before the start of your tour. We cannot wait if you are late.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.9
(68 Ratings)
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Michelleda926st
May 13, 2024
Excellent cultural tour - Fantastic tour - well organised, highly engaging, educational, great value. Our tour guides provided expert interpretation of the landscape and generously shared so much of their knowledge. Awesome catering too. Highly recommended.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Greenie978
May 2, 2024
Excellent tour - Excellent tour. I learned a great deal about culture and history of the aboriginal people in the area. The guide, Luke, was very welcoming and knowledgeable. The eel tasting platter was excellent. Definitely recommend doing the full day tour.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
961nolaw
Apr 28, 2024
Totally enjoyable - We both had an amazing day and also the lunchtime tasting plates were really good. Lots of interesting information ⭐️👍
Review provided by Tripadvisor
518margareta
Apr 24, 2024
Must do tour - Absolutely first rate tour, small friendly group with informative guide. Some hard stories, but lots of positives too, regeneration of the lake particularly. Welcoming friendly staff, great coffee and delicious share platters for lunch. Amazing to learn about the life cycle of the eels. We need to listen and learn.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Karal675
Apr 16, 2024
First Nations Tour- an experience for the heart and mind - A truly wonderful experience. Listening to the stories of the family and mob of our tour guide - Rueben, was hard and often confronting, but shared with such humility and grace and forward vision it was truly inspiring. To see and feel the remnants of the oldest continuous culture on earth is a truly special experience. Go with an open mind and heart and be prepared to be amazed. The building at the culture centre, winner of architectural awards and all the constructed infrastructure is stunning and the food at the cafe well worth a visit on its own. We has lots of family discussion afterwards with teenagers, about the content and it was awesome to see their engagement and understanding that the new knowledge brought.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
K4527prjocelyng
Apr 10, 2024
It is astonishing that these people witnessed this eruption aeons ago, and have told their creation story ever since. - Thanks to Reuben our guide for such an informative,fact and fun filled commentary.He kept us interested and absorbed all day, and displayed and enthused us with his love for the history of his people. Delicious lunch, too!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Annets2542ks
Apr 4, 2024
Fabulous experience - The day was amazing with interesting information and beautiful country to see in a different way. Plus the lunch was delicious. All our questions were answered and our guide was knowledgeable and friendly. Our expectations were exceeded and we will definitely recommend to others.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
R3272ornickh
Apr 3, 2024
All-round wonderful experience - We had driven around 800km to visit Budj Bim and take the full day Kooyang Yana tour - and we certainly weren't disappointed with what we saw or how it was explained. Our guide Rheuben was fantastic - passionate, knowledgeable and articulate. We were really impressed with the facilities and friendly staff at Tae Rak - and the lunch-time bush foods platter was magnificent. We were so impressed by the evidence of the ingenuity and antiquity of the eel traps and the stone houses, and the way the area is being presented by the proud Indigenous custodians of the site. An all-round wonderful experience.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Pennyrp6321bd
Apr 2, 2024
Wonderful tour - We loved how integrated the tour was, giving us insights into the history of the frontier wars and dispossession, traditional use of plant species, geological forms, the complexity of the eel traps, the changing landscape made by channeling water from the land and more recently planting plantation timber. It absolutely opened up the landscape in a different way, so thank you to Reuben, our guide. We had a wonderful tasting plate for lunch and tried (and loved) the eel. Can’t recommend the tour enough.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Glenys_h
Apr 18, 2024
Educational and entertaining! - Our guide was so knowledgeable, friendly and engaging, he really brought the past back to life for us. We enjoyed learning about the stone eel traps and the houses, but also enjoyed the information about how the gunditijmara people lived. Lunch was amazing; a real high light!
Review provided by Viator
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up to 15 guests
1 Adult
June 2024
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