The eels - slippery creatures to spot - are the key to Budj Bim, here in south-western Victoria. But they would be nothing if it was not for the volcanic landscape, carved by lava and fused with the region's Indigenous culture, that became an ancient aquaculture system, potentially the world's oldest engineering project.

"Our story is within the stones. So, without the stones, we can't tell the story," explains Braydon Saunders, a local guide and Gunditjmara man who has been a large part of the push to welcome visitors to Budj Bim.

The story, written over more than 35,000 years, speaks volumes, but most Australians would never have heard it. Until now. In 2019, the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape was inscribed as a World Heritage Site and, since then, a huge amount of work has gone into developing new visitor infrastructure, interpretation signs, and guided tours. It is now all about to open to the public at the start of July.

Braydon is giving me a sneak peek of what visitors will discover in just a few weeks' time. With the help of a guide, they'll be able to see the stone traps and channels that the Gunditjmara made to catch the short-finned eels (known as kooyang), the smoking trees where the kooyang were prepared for eating or trade, and the stone huts where people lived near their aquaculture sites. There are also weirs and dams where the kooyang were held until it was time to catch them. And all of this, these simple but sophisticated constructions, is at least 6600 years old.

"That led us to maintain a sustainable living because water wasn't just being used up and running into the ocean," Braydon tells me. "It was about catching some and diverting it and making it harder for eels to get out of our system."

The Indigenous creation story of the land here is quite similar to the scientific version. Both say that the volcano known as Budj Bim (Mount Eccles) erupted about 36,000 years ago and lava flows spread across the land, creating new rock formations that eventually became the channels and pools used for the aquaculture system.

But for the Indigenous people living here at the time - who would have witnessed the spectacular eruption - Budj Bim was a creator spirit gifting them a better world, meaning they could farm fish instead of continuing their nomadic lifestyle. Rather than the geological explanation that water seeped through cracks in the volcanic rock to make creeks, the Gunditjmara believed a serpent moved through the new landscape to form the snaking shapes of the waterways.

Along with the cultural heritage of the site, the landscapes themselves are also a highlight. When I first arrive in the morning, the eerie mist and spider webs paint a scene amongst the white gums where the silhouettes of our group could almost be from an ancient millennium. But as the fog dissipates in the sunshine, the rugged stony woodlands reveal themselves. When we later drive to Tae Rak (Lake Condah), it's hundreds of black swans that greet me from the mirror-like water beyond the reeds. And up the slopes of Budj Bim itself, koalas guard the walking trails to the edge of the dormant volcano's crater.

The cultural landscape here has several different components and I would recommend a full day for a visit. At the edge of the lake, the Tae Rak Aquaculture Centre has information about the traditional farming methods (with an opportunity to taste the kooyang at its café), while the wetlands can be explored on a guided walk. The new infrastructure over ancient sites at Kurtonitj, Tyrendarra, and Lake Gorrie can only be accessed as part of tours led by Gunditjmara guides like Braydon (there are half-day and full-day options), and Budj Bim National Park is open to everyone for free.

Aside from accessibility issues in the past, one of the reasons Budj Bim has not been so well visited until now is that it appears to be located out of the way, in the south-western pocket of Victoria. But it's actually an easy extension to two of the state's most popular road trips, less than an hour's drive from the Grampians or the official end of the Great Ocean Road (it also conveniently links the two, for a great driving loop). Interestingly, Budj Bim is also a key feature connecting other geological landmarks along Victoria's volcanic plain, like Tower Hill and Mount Napier.

But this is more than just a road trip pitstop. Because you need to take a guided tour to see much of the landscape, you'll have to give yourself plenty of time for a visit. I think this is a good thing, though. Bubbling beneath the surface for so long, Budj Bim is again, just like the creator spirit, giving us a better country - a new World Heritage Site for Australia and a new premier tourism attraction that will give visitors a deeper connection to one of the planet's oldest cultures.

Michael Turtle was supported by Visit Victoria. You can see more about visiting Budj Bim on his Travel Australia Today website.