PALAEOENVIRONMENTS AND LANDSCAPE CHANGE AT LAKE MUNGO, WILLANDRA LAKES.

The article focuses on recent multidisciplinary research into palaeoenvironmental and landscape changes at Lake Mungo within the Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area, located in southwestern New South Wales, Australia. This region, significant for its deep Indigenous heritage linked to the Barkandji/Paakantyi, Ngiyampaa, and Mutthi Mutthi peoples, has been studied primarily through lunette sediment archives, with new efforts to core lakebed sediments to better understand past hydrological and vegetation dynamics. The research integrates Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge with scientific methods such as sediment coring, pollen and phytolith analysis, and geochronology, aiming to reconstruct local and regional palaeovegetation and environmental histories despite challenges posed by arid preservation conditions. Additionally, the article briefly reports on AQUA's mentoring program, a community-driven initiative supporting early career researchers in Quaternary sciences through informal mentor-mentee relationships, which has been positively received and will continue in 2026.