Lake Mungo find more evidence for the "out of Africa" theory. The rich archaeological heritage of the site is very significant to the Aboriginal Australian people from the area. The Willandra region is inhabited by the Barkindji, Nyiampaa and Mutthi Mutthi peoples, who have now entered Joint Management Agreements with the Government of New South Wales to manage the lake and the Mungo National Park. In 1972, Archaeomagnetic studies were conducted on the prehistoric aboriginal fireplaces occurring along the ancient shoreline of Lake Mungo. Magnetization preserved in oven-stones and baked hearths show that the axial dipole field moved up to 120 degrees
Mungo Ponton Mungo Ponton Mungo Ponton FRS FRSE (20 November 1801 – 3 August 1880) was a Scottish inventor who in 1839 created a method of permanent photography based on potassium dichromate. Ponton was born in the Balgreen district of west Edinburgh, the son of John Ponton, a farmer. He was named after the explorer, Mungo Park, then a new-found Scottish hero. In 1815 he was apprenticed as a lawyer to James Balfour WS (of Pilrig House), working at chambers at 17 Broughton Street in the eastern New Town of Edinburgh. He finished his apprenticeship at GL Finlay WS at 18 Queen