7,000 hectares of bushland around Lake Condah and in the Budj Bim National Park, further channel structures came to light. They also created channels linking these wetlands. These channels contained weirs with large woven baskets made by women to cull mature eels. Professor Peter Kershaw, noted palynologist at Monash University, as cited by Bruce Pascoe in his best-selling work Dark Emu, found evidence of a sudden change in vegetation consistent with an artificial ponding system, and initial radiocarbon dating of the soil samples suggests the ponds were created up to 8,000 years ago. The eels were prepared by smoking them with burning leaves from Australian blackwood. The coastal clans, like other tribes on the south-west coast, according to an early settler, Thomas Browne, had a rich fish diet, which included whale (cunderbul) flesh, History In a study published in February 2020, new evidence produced by using a form of radiometric dating known as argon-argon dating, showed that both Budj Bim and Tower Hill volcanoes erupted at least 34,000 years ago. Specifically, Budj Bim was dated at within 3,100 years either side of 36,900 years BP, and Tower Hill was dated at within 3,800 years either side of 36,800 years BP. Significantly, this is a "minimum age constraint for human presence in Victoria", and also could be interpreted as evidence for the Gunditjmara oral histories which tell of volcanic eruptions being some of the oldest oral traditions in existence. An axe found underneath volcanic ash in 1947 was also proof that humans inhabited the region before the eruption of Tower Hill. The beginnings of contact with ngamadjidj (white people) date as far back as 1810, when whalers and sealers began to use Portland as a base area for their operations. Contact exposed the local people to epidemics from new diseases born by whites but otherwise was seasonal, and allowed time for demographic recovery. Eumerella Wars The major turn in relations occurred with the arrival of, and settlement of their lands by, the Henty Brothers from 1834 onwards. Though much silence surrounded the massacres that took place, and, despite Boldrerwood's explicit testimony, some early historians dismissed the idea of a guerilla war. The Gunditjmara people fought fiercely for their lands during what became known as the Eumerella Wars, which lasted for decades. Women would fight as well, using their digging sticks which had a dual purpose as a weapon, for defence, for