What an amazing place and the tour with Rueben was fabulous! We were 3 families visiting from Melbourne, 6 adults, 3 teens and 1 tween. We will talking about all we learned for a long time and encourage everyone to make the trip out to try the eel platter at the cafe, walk this beautiful country and to learn about the 60,000 plus year old farming system. All Australians should promise to educate themselves about our first nations knowledge and heritage.

Wonderful and informative Wonderful and informative and professional. I loved every minute of this tour. A ‘must do’ for your list. I only wished I had time to do the full day tour.

Don’t miss Budj Bim on your Victorian itinerary! We had an absolutely amazing day with our Gunditjmara cultural guide, Ruben, as he shared his language, history, and knowledge of the amazing cultural landscape that is World Heritage-listed Budj Bim. Budj Bim is the site of the oldest practice of commercialised aquaculture worldwide. The Gunditjmara witnessed the volcanic action of Budj Bim (who is one of their creator spirits) over 30,000 years ago. Add to this an incredible lunch platter - don’t miss the eel pate or roo. This trip is a real highlight and shouldn’t be missed whether you are an Australian or International visitor. Thank you 🙏🏼

Wonderful cultural and historical experience Eye opening cultural tour, well worth spending a day visiting 3 beautiful, different and interesting areas. The knowledge sharing was brilliant!

Full day all the way It was definitely worth taking the full day tour! We had a great group of curious and engaged partipants and our guide Ruben was excellent. Loved the meal on the beautiful deck overlooking the lake, and the opportunity to visit some of the Victoria / Australia's most significant cultural heritage with a knowledgable guide on his own Country was incredible. Highly recommend!

Gunditjmara experience. Really excellent tour. Reuben knew a lot, and had a great sense of humour. Not to be missed. Learned a great deal about the traditional owners.

An outstanding experience! Gave appreciation of the life and practices of Gunditjmara over 1000s of years We learnt so much from Jayden. He wove together western science, Indigenous science, culture and history. His references to personal/family stories rounded out an incredibly rich experience that explained the links of his people to this land through generations.

Fascinating cultural tour of World Heritage Site at Budj Bim We found this half-day tour of the World Heritage Site at Budj Bim to be really interesting and informative. The Gunditjmara guide was passionate and extremely knowledgeable, which made the tour of the eel traps, holding ponds, smoking tree, and remains of ancient stone houses so fascinating. We felt privileged to be welcomed and shown around this site and learnt so much. I would thoroughly recommend this tour to others and will consider doing the full-day tour in the future.

Beautiful connection with Country and the Truth of our history here Our guide welcomed us to his country and gave us a fascinating account of the technology and history of the eel traps in this area. We learnt about the extraordinary life cycle of the eel and how First Peoples were able to build structures to harvest eels sustainably for thousands of years. He also told us about his family and current research projects. He was open to any questions . The lake and the area are very beautiful with a very calm, special atmosphere.
We learnt a lot and enjoyed tour very much.

I highly recommend this tour, suitable for people of all ages and abilities.

Prior to the tour we had an eel tasting plate which was delicious and sumptiously presented.

Captivating Fantastic tour. Definitely not to be missed. We learnt so much about the traditional owners and their life. Our tour guides were very generous, sharing their knowledge and personal stories. It was unfortunate we couldn't do a longer tour but we learnt so much on the two hour tour.

Brilliant tour in a beautiful setting The tour exceeded our expectations. Our guide Tyson was incredibly knowledgeable and shared many stories and insights on First Nations practices and history. The cafe served a delicious lunch and the service was very friendly. Would highly recommend a visit to learn about such a special place and its history,

Must visit Victorian gem Uplifting visit to the Tae Rak Aquaculture centre. Our guide was friendly and engaging and conveyed well the complexity of the history of the site, as well as the amazing story of the eel traps and the fascinating science of the eels themselves. The UNESCO listed site is something for all Victorians to treasure.

A must see snd do tour A wonderful experience learning of this landscape and this special place. Really not to be missed in every regard. The country, the information, knowledge and the skilled story telling of our guide, to the amazing food. Thank you to the whole team for a most memorable day. 🙏

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.

Did not disappoint! I've been planning a visit to Budj Bim on Gunditjmara Country for a few years. We booked a half-day guided tour and were so impressed with our fabulous guide, Jayden, that we extended it to the full day. Jayden was a generous and fun guide who welcomed all our questions to help us learn about Budj Bim and the ancient eel trap system which are now recognised by UNESCO World Heritage. A must-visit place for all Australians.

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.

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.

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.

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