The volcano lies within the Newer Volcanics Province, an area defined by its geological features. This covers an area of, with over 400 small shield volcanoes and volcanic vents, and contains the youngest volcanoes in Australia. Initial estimates of the age of the eruption of Budj Bim were all "minimum ages", based on swamps that formed some time after the eruption and ranged from 6,000 to 27,000 years BP. Later evidence suggested that the eruption was at least 30,000 BP and could have been as long as 40,000 years ago for the Tyrendarra lava flow. Research published in February 2020 using argon–argon dating, a method of radiometric dating, has dated the eruption at around 36,900 years ago. Specifically, Budj Bim was dated at within 3,100 years either side of 36,900 years BP, and Tower Hill was dated at within 3,800 years either side of 36,800 years BP. Significantly, owing to the presence of human artefacts found under volcanic ash at Tower Hill, this is a "minimum age constraint for human presence in Victoria", and also could be interpreted as evidence for the Gunditjmara oral histories which tell of volcanic eruptions being some of the oldest oral traditions in existence. The eruptions produced the Tyrendarra lava flow, which flowed in a generally southerly direction into the ocean at Tyrendarra, away. The flow disrupted the earlier drainage system; to the east the Fitzroy River now flows cleanly between the rocks of the lava flow and the Mount Clay escarpment; to the west its tributary Darlot Creek flows through a more complex landscape of swamps, wetlands and adjacent low-lying land prone to flooding. The peak rises.
The volcano itself and the surrounding lava flows are of great historic and cultural significance. The creation story of the localGunditjmara people is based on the eruption of the volcano more than 30,000 years ago. It was via this event that an ancestral creator-being known as Budj Bim was revealed. The Tyrendarra lava flow changed the drainage pattern of the region, and created large wetlands. From some thousands of years before European settlement, the Gunditjmara people developed a system of aquaculture which channelled the water of the Darlot Creek into adjacent lowlying areas trapping short-finned eels and other fish in a series of weirs, dams and channels. The discovery of these large-scale farming techniques and manipulation of the landscape, highlighted in Bruce Pascoe's best-selling bookDark Emu in 2014, shows that the Indigenous inhabitants were not only hunter gatherers, but cultivators and farmers. Many Gundjitmara people were moved into Lake Condah Mission, which later became a government-run Aboriginal reserve, which separated "half-caste" children from their parents, who became part of the Stolen Generations.
*The Tyrendarra IPA, an area of on Darlot Creek, was declared in December 2003. This area comprises the Peters site between the Fitzroy River and Darlot Creek purchased by the Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation in 2010 and the Kurtonitj wetlands to the north acquired by the Corporation in 2009.
*Kurtonitj IPA, dedicated in 2009.
*Lake Condah IPA, which includes significant wetlands, was dedicated in 2010.
The Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape, which includes both the Tyrendarra Area and the Mt Eccles Lake Condah Area was added to the National Heritage List on 20 July 2004.
The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape was added to the World Heritage List on 6 July 2019. There are three components of this area: the boundaries are those of Budj Bim National Park, Budj Bim Indigenous Protected Area, Tyrendarra Indigenous Protected Area and Lake Condah Mission.
Naming Mount Eccles
The mountain was named Mount Eeles in 1836 by Major Thomas Mitchell after William Eeles of the 95th Regiment of Foot who fought with Mitchell in the Peninsular War. A draftsman's error meant that the name was rendered Eccles from 1845.
