An ancient lake that once existed between Victoria and Tasmania has been explored by Australian geoscientists who hope to find out whether a mini ice age occurred in the southern hemisphere 11,000 years ago. A scientific expedition led by Neville Exon, project leader of seabed mapping at the Australian Geological Survey Organisation, collected samples from Bass Strait, the continental slope east of Tasmania and the Otway continental slope during a 21-day voyage aboard the CSIRO-run research vessel Franklin.