Mount William stone axe quarry
Encyclopedia
The Mount William stone axe quarry is a prehistoric aboriginal site located 9km north east of Lancefield
, off Powells Track, 10 km north of Romsey and 78 km from Melbourne, Australia, in Central Victoria, at 37.210170°S 144.810405°E. Known as Wil-im-ee Moor-ring, meaning 'tomahawk place' in the Woiwurrung
language, the greenstone quarry was an important source of raw material for the manufacture of greenstone ground-edge axes, which were traded over a wide area of south-east Australia.
(diabase), and manufactured stone blanks for axe heads. Chipped and ground stone axes or hatchets were an essential part of Aboriginal toolkits in southeast Australia, with the Mount William greenstone being one of the most prized and extensively traded materials. The stone was quarried from the source outcrops, and rougly flaked into blanks, then taken away for finer flaking and grinding the edge. There are 268 mining pits, 18 of which are several metres deep, surrounded by at least 34 discrete flaking floors, with mounds of debris up to 20 metres in diametre and some featuring a central outcropping rock used as an anvil.
Mount William lies within one of six Cambrian
greenstone belts in Victoria where several other greenstone quarries have also been found including Mount Camel, Howqua River
, Cosgrove, Jallukar, Berrambool and Baronga on the Hopkins River
; and Ceres and Dog Rocks near Geelong. However, none of the axes at Mount William have been ground and polished into finished hatchet heads. The nearest axe grinding grooves can be found at Mount Macedon, about 29 kilometres away, wehre analysis of stone fragments showed they were the same diabase stone the Mount William greenstone.
In 1854 William Blandowski
, the first zoologist at the Melbourne Museum, visited Mount William and provided the first written description: The celebrated spot which supplies the natives with stone (phonolite) for their tomohawks, and of which I had been informed by the tribes 400 miles distant. Having observed on the tops of these hills a multitude of fragments of stones which appeared to have been broken artificially. Here I unexpectedly found the deserted quarries (kinohahm) of the aboriginals... which extend over an area of upwards of one hundred acres, present an appearance somewhat similar to that of a deserted goldfield, and convey a faithful idea of the great determination displayed by the aboriginals.
William Buckley
, described a hard black stone he called Kar-keen which was shaped into stone heads.
In the 1880s prominent Wurundjeri leader and custodian of the quarry, William Barak
(who probably witnessed the final operations at the quarry) described the traditional ownership and access conventions to ethnographer, Alfred Howitt
. There were places in which the whole tribe had a special interest. Such a place was the "stone quarry" at Mount William... which had a network of leading men who jointly had custodial rights in the quarry... where the leading men of two intermarrying clans: the Kurnung-willam clan and the Kurnaje-berreing clan which were two of three clans that made up the Wurundjeri. There were four men who acquired the responsibility of ownership and control of the quarry: Ningu-labul and Nurrum-nurrum-bin of the Kurnung-willam clan and Billi-billeri
and Bebejan
of Kurnaje-berreing clan. Billi-billeri was the headman in occupation of the site...When neighbouring tribes wanted stone for tomahawks they usually sent a messenger for Billibellary [the main custodian]. When they arrived they camped around about the place. Billi-billeri's father when he was alive split up the stones and gave it away for presents such as 'rugs, weapons, ornaments, belts, necklaces.
Organised excursions were popular in the early 1900s, as when the District Teachers Association organised an excursion in 1906 and the day was proclaimed a public holiday in the Shire of Lancefield
(sic), so that an opportunity will be afforded to all to be present.
In the 1940s, McCarthy identified a south-east Australia route associated with Mount William among his seven trunk-trade routes. ...the south-east Australia route extends from south and central Queensland down the Paroo
and Warrego River
to the Darling
, which it follows to the Murray River
and links up with the barter along this river; it then passes down the Lower Murray where it connects with a route from central Victoria (Mount William), and at Lake Alexandrina joins the Glenelg River
-Coorong-Port Augusta-Lake Eyre
route.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Mt William drew the attention of anthropologists and archaeologists (notably including Donald Thomson
and Isabel McBryde. McBryde's study of trade systems in the 1970s included investigation of the distribution of axes from Mount William and other quarries in Victoria and New South Wales drawing on ethno-historical sources, linguistic and archaeological evidence and petrological studies (using thin section analysis for axes from archaeological sites and stone sources), to reveal distribution trends and social value.
McBryde showed Aboriginal exchange networks for Mount William stone extended several hundred kilometres. with distribution determined by the social and political relations between the Kulin and neighbouring groups: sparsely distributed or absent in south-eastern Victoria but more widely distributed in Western Victoria.
, sought to establish a committee in association with the Historical Society of Victoria
to purchase a portion of the area to form a reserve. However the landowner declined to sell.
In 1917 Alexander F. Cameron
, Member for Dalhousie in the Victorian Parliament considered that: Something like twenty-five acres of land could be procured at a reasonable price, and fenced in, to be held for all time as the great historic landmark of Australia, furnishing the only indication or proof that we have that this country was inhabited for hundreds of years before the white man came here, In 1918 Cameron sought an appropriation to purchase the land, and again in 1919. Then in 1921 Cameron reported to Parliament that a gentleman in Melbourne [offered] 300 pounds towards the purchase of that land as a reserve. He wished it to be handed over to the State or to some organisation. However, Cameron fell seriously ill shortly after and died in December 1923, so that no further action was taken.
In 1969, the landowner, a Mr Powell, became concerned about damage to the site, and offered to sell a portion of CA 24 to the Shire of Romsey. The Shire obtained financial support from the Victorian government in 1971 and the title was transferred in 1972. In 1976, an archaeological area was declared under the Archaeological and Aboriginal Relics Preservation Act 1972 over the council-owned land and the adjoining privately-owned CA 16A to the north.
In 1997 the Shire of Romsey (now Macedon Ranges Shire
Council) gifted their land to the Indigenous Land Corporation, which subsequently put the site under the management of the Wurundjeri Tribe Land Compensation and Cultural Heritage Council
, It has also been included on the Register of the National Estate
and the Australian National Heritage List
.
.
Lancefield, Victoria
Lancefield is a town in the Shire of Macedon Ranges Local government area in Victoria, Australia. The town is located north of the state capital, Melbourne and had a population of 1,184 at the 2006 census.-History:...
, off Powells Track, 10 km north of Romsey and 78 km from Melbourne, Australia, in Central Victoria, at 37.210170°S 144.810405°E. Known as Wil-im-ee Moor-ring, meaning 'tomahawk place' in the Woiwurrung
Woiwurrung
Woiwurrung is an Indigenous Australian language spoken by some of the Kulin Nation clans, the Wurundjeri people, of Central Victoria, from Mount Baw Baw in the east to Mount Macedon, Sunbury and Gisborne in the west.The Woiwurrung clans inhabited the Yarra River, called Birrarung in Woiwurrung,...
language, the greenstone quarry was an important source of raw material for the manufacture of greenstone ground-edge axes, which were traded over a wide area of south-east Australia.
Description
The Mount William Aboriginal stone axe quarry comprises the remains of hundreds of mining pits and the mounds of waste rock where Aboriginal people obtained greenstoneGreenstone
Pounamu is several types of hard, durable and highly valued nephrite jade, bowenite, or serpentinite found in New Zealand. Pounamu is the Māori name. The rocks are also generically known as "greenstone" in New Zealand English....
(diabase), and manufactured stone blanks for axe heads. Chipped and ground stone axes or hatchets were an essential part of Aboriginal toolkits in southeast Australia, with the Mount William greenstone being one of the most prized and extensively traded materials. The stone was quarried from the source outcrops, and rougly flaked into blanks, then taken away for finer flaking and grinding the edge. There are 268 mining pits, 18 of which are several metres deep, surrounded by at least 34 discrete flaking floors, with mounds of debris up to 20 metres in diametre and some featuring a central outcropping rock used as an anvil.
Mount William lies within one of six Cambrian
Cambrian
The Cambrian is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, lasting from Mya ; it is succeeded by the Ordovician. Its subdivisions, and indeed its base, are somewhat in flux. The period was established by Adam Sedgwick, who named it after Cambria, the Latin name for Wales, where Britain's...
greenstone belts in Victoria where several other greenstone quarries have also been found including Mount Camel, Howqua River
Howqua River
The Howqua River is a river in south-eastern Australia. It originates on the slopes of Mount Howitt before flowing through the Alpine National Park in Victoria...
, Cosgrove, Jallukar, Berrambool and Baronga on the Hopkins River
Hopkins River
The Hopkins River is a river in southwestern Victoria, Australia. It begins near Ararat, and enters Bass Strait at Warrnambool. It is one of two rivers flowing through Warrnambool, the other is the Merri River....
; and Ceres and Dog Rocks near Geelong. However, none of the axes at Mount William have been ground and polished into finished hatchet heads. The nearest axe grinding grooves can be found at Mount Macedon, about 29 kilometres away, wehre analysis of stone fragments showed they were the same diabase stone the Mount William greenstone.
History
William Bradley appears to have been the first to describe the exchange of Mount William stone on 12 November 1838: Today two groups of blacks met at the encampment by the deep hole in the creek The stranger groups as I will call them had travelled from the south and they had carried with them a number [of] stone hatchets. Some of these hatchets were polished while others were still quite rough and I imagine still require further work. The group of blacks who are camped on the creek were eager to obtain these hatchets and in return for one polished axe they gave two of their opossum skin covers. For a hatchet still in a roughened state they gave in return a number of their light bamboo spears. This bartering as I shall call it went on for some time, but only amongst the menfolk.In 1854 William Blandowski
William Blandowski
Wilhelm Blandowski born Johan Wilhelm Theodor Ludwig von Blandowski January 21, 1822 died December 18, 1878, a German zoologist and mining engineer, was born in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia, Kingdom of Prussia ....
, the first zoologist at the Melbourne Museum, visited Mount William and provided the first written description: The celebrated spot which supplies the natives with stone (phonolite) for their tomohawks, and of which I had been informed by the tribes 400 miles distant. Having observed on the tops of these hills a multitude of fragments of stones which appeared to have been broken artificially. Here I unexpectedly found the deserted quarries (kinohahm) of the aboriginals... which extend over an area of upwards of one hundred acres, present an appearance somewhat similar to that of a deserted goldfield, and convey a faithful idea of the great determination displayed by the aboriginals.
William Buckley
William Buckley
William, Will or Bill Buckley may refer to:* William F. Buckley, Jr. , American author and conservative commentator* William Frank Buckley, Sr. , lawyer in Tampico, Mexico...
, described a hard black stone he called Kar-keen which was shaped into stone heads.
In the 1880s prominent Wurundjeri leader and custodian of the quarry, William Barak
William Barak
William Barak , was the last traditional ngurungaeta of the Wurundjeri-willam clan, based around the area of present-day Melbourne, Australia...
(who probably witnessed the final operations at the quarry) described the traditional ownership and access conventions to ethnographer, Alfred Howitt
Alfred Howitt
Alfred Howitt may refer to:* Alfred William Howitt , Australian anthropologist and naturalist.* Alfred Bakewell Howitt , English Conservative Party politician, Member of Parliament 1931–1945...
. There were places in which the whole tribe had a special interest. Such a place was the "stone quarry" at Mount William... which had a network of leading men who jointly had custodial rights in the quarry... where the leading men of two intermarrying clans: the Kurnung-willam clan and the Kurnaje-berreing clan which were two of three clans that made up the Wurundjeri. There were four men who acquired the responsibility of ownership and control of the quarry: Ningu-labul and Nurrum-nurrum-bin of the Kurnung-willam clan and Billi-billeri
Billibellary
Billibellary was a song maker and influential ngurungaeta of the Wurundjeri-willam clan during the early years of European settlement of Melbourne. He was known by various names including Billi-billeri, Billibellary, Jika Jika, Jacky Jacky and Jaga Jaga...
and Bebejan
Bebejan
Bebejan also known as Bebejern or Jerum Jerum, was a Ngurungaeta of the Wurundjeri people of the present day Australian state of Victoria. He was at the signing of Batman's Treaty in 1835 and signed it along with seven other tribal leaders...
of Kurnaje-berreing clan. Billi-billeri was the headman in occupation of the site...When neighbouring tribes wanted stone for tomahawks they usually sent a messenger for Billibellary [the main custodian]. When they arrived they camped around about the place. Billi-billeri's father when he was alive split up the stones and gave it away for presents such as 'rugs, weapons, ornaments, belts, necklaces.
Organised excursions were popular in the early 1900s, as when the District Teachers Association organised an excursion in 1906 and the day was proclaimed a public holiday in the Shire of Lancefield
Shire of Romsey
The Shire of Romsey was a Local Government Area located about north-northwest of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The shire covered an area of , and existed from 1862 until 1995.-History:...
(sic), so that an opportunity will be afforded to all to be present.
In the 1940s, McCarthy identified a south-east Australia route associated with Mount William among his seven trunk-trade routes. ...the south-east Australia route extends from south and central Queensland down the Paroo
Paroo River
The Paroo River is a river in Eastern Australia and is often considered to be major tributary of the Darling River in eastern Australia, although its flow generally dissipates before it reaches the Darling...
and Warrego River
Warrego River
The Warrego River is situated in south west Queensland and north west New South Wales, Australia. It is the northernmost tributary of the Darling River....
to the Darling
Darling River
The Darling River is the third longest river in Australia, measuring from its source in northern New South Wales to its confluence with the Murray River at Wentworth, New South Wales. Including its longest contiguous tributaries it is long, making it the longest river system in Australia.The...
, which it follows to the Murray River
Murray River
The Murray River is Australia's longest river. At in length, the Murray rises in the Australian Alps, draining the western side of Australia's highest mountains and, for most of its length, meanders across Australia's inland plains, forming the border between New South Wales and Victoria as it...
and links up with the barter along this river; it then passes down the Lower Murray where it connects with a route from central Victoria (Mount William), and at Lake Alexandrina joins the Glenelg River
Glenelg River
Glenelg River may refer to:*Glenelg River , which briefly crosses the border to South Australia.*Glenelg River...
-Coorong-Port Augusta-Lake Eyre
Lake Eyre
Lake Eyre is the lowest point in Australia, at approximately below sea level, and, on the rare occasions that it fills, it is the largest lake in Australia and 18th largest in the world...
route.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Mt William drew the attention of anthropologists and archaeologists (notably including Donald Thomson
Donald Thomson
Donald Fergusson Thomson, OBE was an Australian anthropologist and ornithologist who was largely responsible for turning the Caledon Bay crisis into a "decisive moment in the history of Aboriginal-European relations." He is remembered as a friend of the Yolngu people, and as a champion of...
and Isabel McBryde. McBryde's study of trade systems in the 1970s included investigation of the distribution of axes from Mount William and other quarries in Victoria and New South Wales drawing on ethno-historical sources, linguistic and archaeological evidence and petrological studies (using thin section analysis for axes from archaeological sites and stone sources), to reveal distribution trends and social value.
McBryde showed Aboriginal exchange networks for Mount William stone extended several hundred kilometres. with distribution determined by the social and political relations between the Kulin and neighbouring groups: sparsely distributed or absent in south-eastern Victoria but more widely distributed in Western Victoria.
Management and conservation
Mount William had long been recognised as a special Aboriginal place when tyhe first attempt was made to provide some formal protection in 1910. The Director of the Museum of Victoria, Baldwin SpencerBaldwin Spencer
Winston Baldwin Spencer is the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda. He has been Prime Minister since March 24, 2004, when his party, the United Progressive Party , which he had led as the opposition party for several years, won a parliamentary election...
, sought to establish a committee in association with the Historical Society of Victoria
Royal Historical Society of Victoria
The Royal Historical Society of Victoria is a community organisation promoting the history of the state of Victoria, Australia. It functions to promote and research the history of that state after settlement, and as an umbrella organisation for more than 300 affiliated societies.It is operated by...
to purchase a portion of the area to form a reserve. However the landowner declined to sell.
In 1917 Alexander F. Cameron
Alexander F. Cameron
Alexander F. Cameron was a merchant, lumberman and political figure in Nova Scotia. He represented Guysborough County in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1890 to 1894 as a Liberal-Conservative member....
, Member for Dalhousie in the Victorian Parliament considered that: Something like twenty-five acres of land could be procured at a reasonable price, and fenced in, to be held for all time as the great historic landmark of Australia, furnishing the only indication or proof that we have that this country was inhabited for hundreds of years before the white man came here, In 1918 Cameron sought an appropriation to purchase the land, and again in 1919. Then in 1921 Cameron reported to Parliament that a gentleman in Melbourne [offered] 300 pounds towards the purchase of that land as a reserve. He wished it to be handed over to the State or to some organisation. However, Cameron fell seriously ill shortly after and died in December 1923, so that no further action was taken.
In 1969, the landowner, a Mr Powell, became concerned about damage to the site, and offered to sell a portion of CA 24 to the Shire of Romsey. The Shire obtained financial support from the Victorian government in 1971 and the title was transferred in 1972. In 1976, an archaeological area was declared under the Archaeological and Aboriginal Relics Preservation Act 1972 over the council-owned land and the adjoining privately-owned CA 16A to the north.
In 1997 the Shire of Romsey (now Macedon Ranges Shire
Macedon Ranges Shire
The Shire of Macedon Ranges is a Local Government Area in Victoria, Australia, located in the central part of the state northwest of Melbourne, the state capital. The shire has an area of 1,747 square kilometres, and the 2006 census reported its population as 38,360...
Council) gifted their land to the Indigenous Land Corporation, which subsequently put the site under the management of the Wurundjeri Tribe Land Compensation and Cultural Heritage Council
Wurundjeri Tribe Land Compensation and Cultural Heritage Council
The Wurundjeri Tribe Land and Compensation Cultural Heritage Council was established in 1985 by descendants of the Wurundjeri people who are the traditional owners of the country around Melbourne...
, It has also been included on the Register of the National Estate
Register of the National Estate
The Register of the National Estate is a listing of natural and cultural heritage places in Australia. The listing was initially compiled between 1976 and 2003 by the Australian Heritage Commission. The register is now maintained by the Australian Heritage Council...
and the Australian National Heritage List
Australian National Heritage List
The Australian National Heritage List is a list of places deemed to be of outstanding heritage significance to Australia. The list includes natural, historic and indigenous places...
.
Geographical location
- Mount William 37.210516°S 144.810297°E
- Mount William south west37.213447°S 144.808731°E
- Mount William north east37.210935°S 144.812486°E
.