Mungo Man, Mungo Lady reburials postponed as elders challenge treatment of ancient remains

Indigenous groups are in dispute over plans to rebury the remains of 108 people in the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area this week. (Landline)

The reburials of Mungo Man and Mungo Lady have been delayed after traditional owners filed an urgent eleventh-hour application to stop what they have described as the "rushed destruction" of some of the oldest human remains ever found.  

Estimated to be at least 42,000 years old, Mungo Man, Mungo Lady and 106 other skeletal remains were to be quietly reburied in unmarked sites in the Willandra Lakes region of south-west New South Wales this week, according to local sources.