‘Remarkable’ Mithaka cultural landscape featuring Australia’s oldest houses placed on national heritage list

Archaeological evidence shows there were townships along the waterways of Mithaka country in the years before colonisation, with evidence of dams, fish traps and storage pens, Prof Michael Westaway says. Photograph: Murray Watt's office

An ancient inland trade route connecting Australia’s northern coastline to the southern deserts runs through Aunty Lorraine McKeller’s country.

For thousands of years tribes met, traded and conducted ceremonies around the semi-permanent waterways of Mithaka country in south-western Queensland’s channel country. It was a place of commerce, production and cultural exchange – and on Saturday it was added to the national heritage list.