Quarries, trade and Dark Emu: unearthing treasures from ‘Australia’s Silk Road’

Researchers excavate a gunyah – a traditional dwelling – on the traditional land of the Mithaka people in Queensland’s Channel Country. Photograph: Michael Westaway

In 2017, the Indigenous elder George Gorringe led a small research expedition in the Channel Country of south-west Queensland.

The expedition, on the traditional land of the Mithaka people, visited several sites including sandstone quarries, stone arrangements, and the remains of gunyahs – dwellings made from excavated structures covered with branches.