Fresh evidence shows two prominent south-west Victorian volcanoes, Budj Bim and Tower Hill, erupted at least 34,000 years ago and that people were in the area before those eruptions.

Key points: Scientists have been able to provide a more precise date for the eruptions of two Victorian volcanoes

Scientists have been able to provide a more precise date for the eruptions of two Victorian volcanoes A human-made axe was found buried in volcanic ash at Tower Hill in the 1940s

A human-made axe was found buried in volcanic ash at Tower Hill in the 1940s The presence of the stone axe shows people were around prior to the eruptions

Scientists involved in a study dating lava from the volcanoes said their calculations, paired with the 1947 discovery of an axe head buried under volcanic ash near Tower Hill, indicate people were around before it erupted.

The remnants of volcanoes at Budj Bim, formerly known as Mount Eccles, and Tower Hill, which overlooks the coastal town of Warrnambool, have previously been assumed to be at least 30,000 years old, but the new study has provided a more precise date.

The eruption at Budj Bim resulted in a lava flow used thousands of years later by Gunditjmara people to construct a system of eel traps now on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

'Most definitive record of Aboriginal inhabitation'

Head of the University of Melbourne's School of Earth Sciences, David Phillips, is in a team of four, including Curtin University researchers, attempting to verify dates of former volcanoes in the New Volcanics Province.

He said the radiometric dating technique used, which examined the presence of the gas argon within rocks formed from lava, was much more accurate than the carbon-dating methods previously used.

Tower Hill erupted, throwing plumes of ash into the sky and forming a crater with a series of scoria cones at its centre. ( ABC South West Victoria: Sian Johnson )

More than 400 eruption points have previously been identified over the Newer Volcanics Province, an area of about 15,000 square kilometres covering a large swathe of western Victoria, from Melbourne's fringes to just over the South Australian border.

The cluster of volcanoes in the province began forming about 4.5 million years ago with the most recent eruption believed to have been Mount Gambier, about 5,000 years ago.

The province is still considered active and contains volcanoes among the youngest in Australia, alongside some in far north Queensland.

Experts have said future eruptions were likely at some point over the next couple of thousand years.

The research putting the age of Budj Bim and Tower Hill at about 37,000 years (give or take 3,000 years) makes reference to a human-modified basalt tool, dubbed the Bushfield Axe, found buried under volcanic ash near Tower Hill in the 1940s.

Professor Phillips said the tool's position under the ash led to the assumption people were around before Tower Hill erupted in a mighty explosion, throwing plumes of ash into the sky and forming a crater with a series of scoria cones at its centre.

"That's really important because that indicates that Aboriginal people inhabited that part of Victoria from at least 34,000 years ago," he said.

"It's probably the most definitive record of Aboriginal inhabitation of this part of Victoria."

Mount Gambier is among the youngest volcanoes in the Newer Volcanics Province. ( ABC South West Victoria: Sian Johnson )

Professor Phillips said the fact that people were present that long ago aligned with clues in local Aboriginal people's oral traditions referencing volcanic activity.

"This raises the intriguing possibility that perhaps these Aboriginal stories date back tens of thousands of years, which would be quite an amazing tradition when you think about it — if oral stories were translated through that many generations," he said.

Region rich with clues from the past

The landscape around Budj Bim, which lies more than 60 kilometres north-west of Tower Hill, is defined by the lava that flowed across the land towards the sea during its eruption.

That flow of lava covered about 50 kilometres up to the coastline and left a basalt plain in its wake.

A complex system to harvest eels was built in the rocky landscape formed by lava during a volcanic eruption. ( ABC News: Bridget Brennan )

A complex aquaculture system set up by the Gunditjmara people in that rocky landscape many thousands of years later to harvest eels — believed to be the oldest example of aquaculture in the world — has been dated at 6,600 years old.

Meanwhile, at a coastal spot in Warrnambool known as Moyjil or Point Richie, researchers have recently raised the possibility that shells and burnt stones surrounded by cemented sand could serve as evidence people were there up to 120,000 years ago.

Such a finding would have international implications, but the research remains inconclusive.

Gunditjmara man Damien Bell from the Gunditj-Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation described the work at Moyjil as "astounding" and said he believed the 120,000-year date would be proven.

He said the precise dating of Tower Hill, given its eruption buried a human-made axe head, showed his people's long connection with the area.

Mr Bell said he appreciated that scientists had begun placing greater value on Aboriginal people's stories and knowledge to help them understand the past.

"Listen to the land, listen to the stories told by First Peoples through dance and song and art," he said.

"There's a lot more to science than microscopes and carbon-dating. There's a whole world that has to be put into a story, to a place, that gives it context."

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