Ancient Australian Fish Traps May Be World’s Oldest Construction

Archaeologists in Australia are investigating the Brewarrina fish traps, located on the Barwon River in New South Wales, as potentially the oldest human construction in the world. The traps, also known as Baiame’s Ngunnhu, were built by Indigenous people and once served as a gathering place for up to 3,000 people from eight different tribes before colonization.

The nearly half-kilometer-long system of dry-stone weirs and ponds demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of river flows and fish migration patterns. The Ngemba people traditionally managed the site, believing the ancestral being Baiame designed the traps.

While claims of the traps being 40,000 years old remain unverified, even a more recent estimate of 1,000 years would still mark them as a remarkable feat of Indigenous innovation. Damage from 19th-century construction projects impacted some of the original structures, but the site remains a culturally and historically important landmark.