Ghow Swamp Aboriginal Place

The Ghow Swamp Aboriginal Place, also known as the Kow Swamp archaeological site, is a protected Aboriginal place, gazetted in 2022 under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006.^[1] The archaeological site contains the largest known single population of human skeletal remains from the late Pleistocene era,^[2] ranging from between 13,000 to 9,300 years ago.^[1] The remains are situated within the lunette of the eastern rim of a former wetland known as Ghow Swamp,^[a] in the North Central region of Victoria, Australia. The site is 10 kilometres (6 mi) south-east of Cohuna in the central Murray River valley and is significant for archaeological excavations by Alan Thorne between 1968 and 1972 which recovered the partial skeletal remains of more than 22 individuals.^[3][4][5]

The name of the place is derived from the Aboriginal Yorta Yorta word Ghow which refers to the white gypsum soil found at the site of the swamp.^[2] Initially called "Kow Swamp", in the early 21st century, the name was changed to "Ghow Swamp", to reflect its indigenous heritage.

Originally a wetland, it was filled when the Murray River is in flood or running at high levels, while the Bendigo Creek provided a smaller amount of water.^[6] A weir was constructed in 1923 and the swamp is fed by off-stream sources that created a man-made reservoir, used for irrigation purposes. The 51,730-megalitre (41,940 acre⋅ft) reservoir is 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) in circumference, with an average depth of 3 metres (9.8 ft).^[2]

There is evidence of recent Aboriginal occupation of the area from canoe trees and middens, while early Colonial settlers' records describe an Aboriginal ceremonial site on the north side of the swamp.

The most notable evidence was the discovery, in 1925, on the west side of the swamp, of the Cohuna Cranium by a local earthmoving contractor. The editor of the local newspaper Cohuna Farmers Weekly notified authorities and the significance of the discovery was realised. In the 1960s, Alan Thorne also identified archaic bone from the collection at the Museum of Victoria, and traced the find spot to Ghow (Kow) Swamp.

Between the 1960s and early 1980s, Victorian Government agencies approved the excavations of remains without seeking the consent of the Traditional Owners.^[7] Between 1968 and 1972, Thorne completed archaeological excavations on behalf of the Australian National University. Further remains were found around the swamp by an interested local resident, Gordon Spark. By 1972 the remains of at least forty individuals were excavated and studied. Government authorities claimed that the excavations would advance science and that these discoveries helped establish the diversity of Aboriginal genetic history and were interpreted as representing different waves of immigrants to Australia before European discovery.^[8] However, it was subsequently argued that the studies provided very little scientific gain. The concerns raised by the Aboriginal community were either ignored or dismissed.^[7]

Radiocarbon dates returned a wide range of ages for the burials, with 13,000 ± 280 (ANU1236) from shell in the grave of KS5 and 10,070 ± 250 (ANU-403b), from bone apatite from KS10 respectively. The youngest date was approximately 6500 BP for KS1.^[9][10]

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating was undertaken of the Ghow Swamp burial site in 2003 (close to KS 9, the only burial excavated in situ), which suggested that the cemetery was in use between 22 and 19 ka, rather than 15 – 9 ka.^[11] Some question the OSL dates due to the difficulty of ensuring that the dated sand is contemporary with the actual burials.^[9] However, the OSL dates from the burial units directly contradict the C14 dates, which were only ever minimum ages because of contamination by younger carbon.

The initial descriptions of the crania from Ghow Swamp identified "receding frontal squama, massive supraorbital regions and a supraglabella fossae..." which were considered to be "preserving an almost unmodified eastern erectus form" displaying a "..complex of archaic characteristics not seen in recent Aboriginal crania...". The features were considered to indicate "the survival of Homo erectus features in Australia until as recently as 10,000 years ago".^[5]: 319 However, Donald Brothwell disputed this interpretation suggesting the vault size and shape at Ghow Swamp had been influenced by artificial cranial deformation, particularly in Kow Swamp 5.^[12][13][14]

The varying morphological and metrical comparisons of the burials have distinguished them from modern Aboriginal crania^[4][15][16] and also a more gracile group of Pleistocene remains found at Lake Mungo and Keilor.^[17][18] These differences have been used to postulate separate arrivals of distinct groups of people. However, more recent comparison does not support Thorne's dual Pleistocene population model.^[16][19][20]

Following a campaign by Aboriginal community groups to have human remains repatriated from Australian and overseas museum collections, Museum Victoria returned the Ghow Swamp skeletons in 1990 to the Yorta Yorta people at Echuca who re-interred them.^[21] Casts of some of the Ghow Swamp crania and mandibles are held by the Archaeology and Human Sciences department at the Australian National University, with some casts (including casts of KS1 and 5) being sent to the Natural History Museum, London and other institutions. Despite extensive reconstruction, the Ghow Swamp material was extremely fragmentary, with only two of the crania, KS1 and 5, being relatively complete.^[9]

On 6 October 2022, the 3,177-hectare (7,850-acre) site was gazetted as a protected Aboriginal place as determined by the Victorian Minister for Treaty and First Peoples, Gabrielle Williams, under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006.^[1][22]

In 2025, it was reported that the Australian Government was considering including the archaeological site on the National Heritage List.^[23][24]

• Aboriginal sites of Victoria
• Multiregional origin of modern humans
• Lake Mungo remains

• Brothwell, D. (1975). "Possible evidence of a cultural practise affecting head growth in some late Pleistocene East Asian and Australasian populations". Journal of Archaeological Science. 2: 75–77.
• Brown, P. (1981). "Artificial cranial deformation: a component in the variation in Pleistocene Australian Aboriginal crania". Archaeology in Oceania. 16: 156–167.
• Brown, P. (1987). "Pleistocene homogeneity and Holocene size reduction: the Australian human skeletal evidence". Archaeology in Oceania. 22: 41–71.
• Brown, P. (1989). "Coobool Creek: A morphological and metrical analysis of the crania, mandibles and dentitions of a prehistoric Australian human population". Terra Australis. 13. Canberra: Department of Prehistory, Australian National University.
• Brown, P. (1995). "Still flawed: a reply to Pardoe (1994) and Sim and Thorne (1994)". Australian Archaeology. 41: 26–29.
• Pardoe, C. (1991). "Competing paradigms and ancient human remains: the state of the discipline". Archaeology in Oceania. 26: 79–85.
• Pardoe, C. (2010). "Global human variation: polarised positions and alternative perspectives". Before Farming. 2010 (3): 1–21. doi:10.3828/bfarm.2010.3.3.
• Pietrusewsky, M. (1979). "Craniometric variation in Pleistocene Australian and more recent Australian and New Guinean populations studied by multivariate procedures". Occasional papers in human biology. 2: 83–123.
• Stone, Tim; Cupper, Matthew L. (2003). "Last Glacial Maximum ages for robust humans at Kow Swamp, southern Australia" (abstract). Journal of Human Evolution. 45 (2): 99–111. doi:10.1016/S0047-2484(03)00087-3. ISSN 0047-2484. Retrieved 21 May 2026 – via ScienceDirect.com.
• Thorne, A. G. (1975). Kow Swamp and Lake Mungo (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis). University of Sydney.
• Thorne, A. G. (1976). "Morphological contrasts in Pleistocene Australians". In Kirk, R. L.; Thorne, A. G. (eds.). The Origin of the Australians. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. pp. 95–112.
• Thorne, A. G. (1977). "Separation or reconciliation? Biological clues to the development of Australian". In Allen, J.; Golson, J.; Jones, R. (eds.). Sunda and Sahul. London: Academic Press. pp. 187–204.
• Thorne, A. G.; Macumber, P. G. (1972). "Discoveries of Late Pleistocene man at Kow Swamp". Nature. 238: 316–319.
• Thorne, A. G.; Wilson, S. R. (1977). "Pleistocene and recent Australians: a multivariate comparison". Journal of Human Evolution. 6: 393–402.

• Thorne, A. G. (1970). Excavations at Kow Swamp : edited version (3 film reels (approximately 30 min. each, approximately 4,200 feet) : black and white, silent; 16 mm film, on 12 in. reels). Retrieved 21 May 2026 – via Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.
• Map of the archeological site (Map). Retrieved 21 May 2026 – via ars.els-cdn.com.