They walked, ran, hopped and even dragged their feed. Men, women and children all left their mark as they crossed a drying Australian lake bed 20,000 years ago.

Hundreds of human footprints, which over the centuries have solidified into concrete, track those of kangaroos and emus, telling of an era of hunting and fishing.

In some of the perfectly preserved prints, the mud can be seen oozing between the toes of people who died thousands of years before recorded history began.

The find was made two years ago, when Steve Webb, of Bond University, in Robina, Queensland, was running a course on archaeology for local guides. After years of suspicion triggered by scientists taking away human remains without the permission of local Aborigines, Professor Webb and colleagues had won back their trust.

One day in August 2003, when he took a group near to a dry lake bed southwest of Sydney, a young Mutthi Mutthi woman, Mary Pappin Jr, noticed something. “She said, ‘Is this a footprint?’” Professor Webb told the Sydney Morning Herald. “I said, ‘Christ, it is.’ Then we saw two or three others.”

Careful excavation has now revealed 450 footprints hidden under the sand, but this may be only an eighth of the total yet to be discovered. They are described in detail in the online edition of Journal of Human Evolution.

A huge amount of information can be extracted from a single set of footprints, including the height of the individual who made it, and whether he or she was walking or running.

The set, imprinted near Willandra Lakes, indicates a group of people of all ages. The tallest stood over 6ft and his tracks show him accelerating to a speed of 20 kph (12½ mph), possibly in pursuit of prey.

Among the human footprints there are those of kangaroos and emus, with what appear to be spear holes in the ground. But the people who lived here 20,000 years ago would have been spoiled for choice, with fish to catch and waterfowl to pursue.

Another set of tracks, perhaps of a weary child, slows the group down to a speed of only 3 to 5 kph.

The strangest tracks of all were left by what appears to be a one-legged man. The thories are either he was playing a hopping game with a child running alongside, or he was standing with one leg in a boat while he propelled himself with the other through shallow water.

The footprints mark the end of years of plenty at this site. At the time they were made, the lake beds were at least intermittently moist and supported plenty of wildlife. But soon they began to dry up, hardening the clay in which they were made into a concrete-like consistency, until it was later covered in a layer of more clay and sand.

Matthew Cupper, of the University of Melbourne, a co-author of the paper, said: “It’s really quite a remarkable find. It’s a little snapshot in time. The possibilities are endless in terms of getting a window into past aboriginal society.”

Australia’s oldest human remains, which date back 40,000 years, were found in Lake Mungo in Mungo National Park, close to where the footprints were discovered. Geological dating puts the age of the footprints at between 19,000 and 23,000 years old.

The impression they create is of a group of perhaps eight people walking and running in roughly the same direction, with children wandering about and lagging behind, as athletic adults break into an occasional sprint.

“Willandra is our East Africa, our Rift Valley,” Professor Webb said. “It will teach us an enormous amount about the history, culture and lifestyle of Australia’s oldest people.”

STEPS TO PAST

Laetoli footprints, Tanzania: discovered in 1976. At least 3.6 million years old and similar to modern human footprints

Acahualinca footprints, Nicaragua: found by Lake Managua in 1874. At 6,000 years old, they are the oldest human footprints on the American continent

Footprints of Valsequillo Basin, Mexico: found by British scientists in 2003. Origins remain unclear

Langebaan Lagoon footprints, South Africa: found in 1995, about 60 miles north of Cape Town. Thought to be 117,000 years old, made by 5ft 3in woman walking in wet sand

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