Australia's cultural heart Why do we go overseas and place such importance on the history of other countries without exploring our own? This site is so rich in history and of significant cultural importance. Our Cultural Officer was a young Gunditjmara man who was very adept at finding a balance in blending of some hard facts along with sharing the richness and beauty of the country. The lunch was superb. The lunchtime discussions amongst our group showed we were all immersed in the experience. The programme of the full day tour was well-paced and allowed time to absorb all the information being shared so generously with us. The history is staggering, hard to get your head around. I am still processing everything. Amazing, thank you for the richness of the experience.

Find out if you can get Reuben to guide you; he’s great value Great charisma & info from our east Gunditjmara guide Reuben.
Tasting plate worth the add.
My 6-year-old daughter loved the eels & the guided tour.

Unique learning experience This cultural tour is a unique experience rather than a photo shoot
Knowledge is shared and thousands of yrs technology is explained from understanding nature's seasons to food collection storage and trade
So good to hear first language followed by english interpretation
If you're curious this tour gives you answers
A privelegde to be on Gunditjmara country

Indigenous Tourism At Its Best The organisation of the tour from booking and confirmation all the way through to the quality of the tour itself, and through to the food on offer and provided as part of the tour was absolutely first class. The pity was that the lake was at its lowest level for many years and the streams and wetlands were all dried up, which prevented us seeing the eel traps as they would normally be. However, the tours (I did both the Budj Bim morning tour and the Tae Rak afternoon tour, with lunch in between) were very good indeed. Reuben, the morning guide, was remarkably passionate and knowledgable, and his description of the fate of the Gunditjmara people after European incursion from 1842 was a story that non-Indigenous Australians should hear. The whole Budj Bim enterprise is very impressive, and demonstrates the very best of Indigenous tourism.

An Education at Tai Rak The talk by our guide was first class. He got to know something about the members of the group and pitched his introduction and the information about each site we visited to his audience.
I left the tour with the beginnings of an understanding of the civilisation which had helped to shape the country we were in and had cared for it over tens of thousands of years before dispossession.
It was moving and a learning experience for me.
After the tour we had lunch in the visitors' centre and saw the wider country with new eyes.
The combination of being on such an important site and learning from a guide who knew his subject, cared deeply about it and respected his audience made this a memorable experience.

Excellent experience Jayden was an amazing tour guide, so much information, brilliant presentation, about the eels, the development of Tae Rak and Indigenous culture

Very moving and thought provoking Very informative and educational. It was quite an experience being on country where cultural practice occurred pre-colonisation and today. A truly remarkable story. We will be return in a few more years when further work has been completed to show more.

Highly recommended What a fantastic experience to see and hear about our country through the eyes and ears of a local was moving thank you Reuben for a truly eye-opening experience

Memorable, beautiful and thought provoking! Incredible, beautiful and culturally important showing a thriving pastime with intelligence and sustainability all wrapped together. There is some much history that is being pieced together in spite of the 220 year colonial hiatus. You can picture the abundance and clever management that nourished the local community for 6700 years. It was brought to life by our guide Joey whose curiosity and generosity to share his learnings and encouraged our questions that made our visit memorable and thought provoking! Thank you!! The local platter was delicious, locally inspired and nicely presented and varied. Thank you!!

Unique Gunditjmara Country We thoroughly enjoyed our tour with Rueben this morning it was fabulous, very informative and fun. We finished off with a yummy eel tasting platter served by very friendly staff at the cafe.
We camped at nearby Budj Bim National park with lots of wildlife and clean facilities.
Both highly recommended!

WONDERFUL TOUR This tour was amazing. My guide Rueben was so informative about the indigenous culture and the aquaculture.I know much more about eels that I ever thought I would. It was extremely interesting. Rueben is a great guide. He answered all my questions with wonderful insight into the indigenous culture. 10/10. I highly recommend this tour. As a bonus, the landscape is stunning.

If you don’t know, FIND OUT! Excellent tour! The sophisticated indigenous history that colonisers failed to hide comes to life at Budj Bim, revealing Gunditjmara ingenuity in shaping the land to sustainably harvest and process eels. This tour opens the history book at 37,000 years ago, highlighting the critically important relationship between culture and landscape. Go in the morning then stay for lunch.

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.

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.

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.

Wonderful tour. Thanks Luke! We booked for the two hour tour, but this was extended to over three hours as we were lucky enough to be driven to the eel traps at Kurtonitj. We also saw the amazing remnants of a stone house. Our guide, Luke was so informative about the the life history of eels, the history of the Gunditjmara mob and the effects of colonialism.His delightfully humorous delivery ensured that we absorbed everything he said. We highly recommend this trip.

Mindblowing! Mindblowing! Our guide educated the group on everything from cultural history, colonial impact and ways we can all move forward to protect this environment. Absolutely loved it.

A totally meaningful and enriching experience with the oldest living culture. This was incredible. We learned and experienced so much and will forever be in awe of our first nation's people. The guides were welcoming and duly proud of their incredible culture, land and survival against the odds! We had a fabulous lunch. The whole day was so well done. I wish all Australians could experience this.

My brother and I booked a half-day tour and thoroughly enjoyed exploring the social and spatial aqua-farming systems of the Gunditjmara People.

Our tour guide, Luke, was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic, providing us with a comprehensive narrative throughout the tour. He conveyed the multi-layered and intricate history of the region, along with current ecological insights into the short-finned eels.

I highly recommend trying the smoked eel at the end of the trip. It was tasty and also served as a fitting finale to the experience.

We will be going back again!

Bit of a stretch, nice walk through the wet land though.

What a fabulous tour. What a fabulous tour. Even though the weather was not the best we all enjoyed our introduction to the Gunditjmara country, culture and history .. for one of our party (an English visitor) it is still the favourite experience of our 23 day road trip around south east Australia. The food at the aquaculture centre was lovely, another English visitor tried his first taste of kangaroo and gave it the thumbs-up.

A fascinating time at Budj Bim The weather was dreadful, wet and windy, but it was an interesting and great experience. Our guide, I think it was Aaron, certainly knew all the facts about it being a cultural heritage site, and he was particularly knowledgeable about all the animals. We saw inside a cave and the channel areas where the eels had been farmed thousands of years ago.
My sister and I had an eel tasting plate which we thought was very appealing and tasty. I would have preferred a warmer and clearer day, but was glad I had been there.

A must-do for all non-indigenous Australians We did the whole-day tour. Can't speak highly enough of it, what an experience! Learning about the culture, food-farming and other practices of our ancient First Nations Gunditjmara Peoples was affirming and enriching for new Australian migrants like ourselves. An amazing journey for us. Our guide Braydon was outstanding.

I fully recommend the full day tour Braedon was a fantastic guide, full of stories and enthusiasm. This really made the tour for us as we came to lean more about our country and the Gunditjmara people. Amazing to think that stone artefacts were found under the lava flows dated 37,000 years ago. Not only are these Dreamtime stories but proven factual accounts of the oldest living history in the world. The Tae Rak aquaculture centre and bird hide buildings are wonderful. I was really glad they had recently removed the weeds from some of the ell trap channels - they should be allowed to do more protection and building of the eel traps and to practice the traditional culture.

FANTASTIC INFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE A fantastic tour! We felt truly privileged to learn from the staff at Budj Bim.

More Australians need to visit and learn from the amazing sites and brilliant staff members. The tasting platter was also lovely.

There were some water challenges at the site, so call the centre to clarify what the situation will be.

A MUST VISIT!

Fantastic cultural tour I had the most amazing day on this tour. Reuben, our guide was knowledgeable, funny and an amazing story teller. He also had an impressive ecological / scientific knowledge. The landscape and culture are so beautifully intertwined. After hearing descriptions and stories from Reuben, you would suddenly look again, and see the landscape through a different lens. I cannot rate this tour highly enough and plan on returning with my teenage boys.

We loved the all-day tour hosted by Reuben. His incredible knowledge of the country, the people, and the wildlife, coupled with him being a great storyteller, made for a fantastic day out. Highly recommended!

Amazing location, fantastic boardwalks , eel tank was a hit with the kids , service and food was amazing!!! Highly recommended! Can’t wait to return

Amazing cultural visit in beautiful Budj Bim National Park My favourite part of this trip was visiting the huge eel ponds built by the Gunditjmara people in ancient times and how our guide was taught to catch eels when he was a boy.

A must do tour A very insightful tour highlighting culture, history and working nature over thousands of years on beautiful country.

Amazing Very enjoyable and an amazing learning experience. I especially enjoyed leaning about the life cycle of eels and the traditional practices of the Gunditjmara people.

An opportunity to mindfully walk on Country. This was informative and interesting. We loved it. Reuben, our guide, was an excellent story teller. Amusing and full of knowledge. Beautiful Country. Also recommend having the eel tasting plate. Ample size for 2, really interesting flavours.

Shortfin eels in Tae Rak - A sustainable lifecycle The tour was very engaging, a very balanced mix of information and personal stories; the more questions you ask the more answers you get. The wet weather didn't deter but felt appropriate to the environment and subject and we were rewarded with not just several rainbows but also wedge-tail eagles across the lake!

Fascinating indigenous knowledge and heritage The guide was very knowledgeable and generous with his time and energy. The stories connected with Tae Rak are moving and important to share. The stories of the Kooyong migration are extraordinary.

A comprehensive and informative guide through Budj Bim . Our tour guide in Joey Saunders was excellent in his delivery with facts and stories of his ancestral land. The full day tour is highly recommended. My son and I were treated to a delicious platter of food comprising of smoked eel, kangaroo, emu, crocodile, chicken and condiments. Everyone should do themselves a favour and take the tour. Full marks. Theo