The Murray River system of south-eastern Australia drains about 15% (1,176,685 km2) of the continent and encompasses 86 of the 600 traditional tribal territories. The many wetlands are mainly ephemeral and may be dry for part of the year. These wetlands are found on floodplains of rivers that wind across the open, flat Eastern Riverine Plains. The rivers are characterised by large spring flows followed by drying back to billabongs, lagoons, lakes and swamps.
The Murray River wetlands provided rich resources for Barapa people in traditional times. Earth mounds played an important role in the exploitation of those resources and this study examines their distribution in an area 5 km x 5 km around Pollack Swamp, a small alveolar swamp (~1.6 km diameter) on a creek in the floodplain between the Murray and Wakool Rivers. The study area contains 150 earth mounds. Seasonal residential patterns and economic activities have been reconstructed using environmental, archaeological, ethnographic and hydrological information. The result is a picture of traditional Aboriginal land use in this particular ecosystem that can be used to link and inform heritage, land and water management in the area.