You Yangs
Encyclopedia
The You Yangs are a series of granite
ridges that rise to 364m (Flinders Peak) above the Werribee Plain
approximately 55km south west of Melbourne
and 22km north east of Geelong, in Victoria, Australia. The main ridge runs roughly N-S for about 9 km, with a lower extension running for about 15 km to the west. Much of the southern parts of the ranges are protected by the You Yangs Regional Park
.
Although only 364 m at their highest, they dominate the landscape and are clearly identifiable from nearby Geelong, Melbourne and beyond. Camping
is not permitted in the You Yangs. The foothills to the north of the peaks are home to Ford Australia
's proving ground.
The You Yangs are also the home of a Geoglyph
constructed by the Australian artist Andrew Rogers
in recognition of the indigenous people of the area. It depicts Bunjil
, a mythical creature to the local Wautharong
Aborigines
. The creature has a wing span of 100 metres and 1500 tonnes of rock was used to construct it, and was unveiled in March 2006.
words Wurdi Youang
or Ude Youang meaning "big mountain in the middle of a plain". Aboriginal people enlarged natural hollows in the rocks to form well
s that held water even in dry seasons .
Explorer Matthew Flinders
was the first European to visit the You Yangs. On May 1, 1802, he and three of his men climbed to the highest point. He named it "Station Peak" but the name was changed in 1912 to "Flinders Peak" in his honour.
The You Yangs have always attracted artists to paint them and feature most strongly in works by one of Australia's greatest artists, Fred Williams
. Williams spent long periods developing his plein air representations of the You Yangs, and these have now become classics of Australian art — rugged, dramatic, yet sparse in their imagery — unquestionably of the Australian bush.
Two watercourses pass through or by the ranges; Hovell Creek originates in the western parts of the ranges, while Little River flows around the ranges to the north and east.
Contrary to popular belief, the You Yangs are not the remains of a volcano
. The granite
that forms them was originally a mass of magma
that had worked its way up into the surrounding sedimentary rocks during the Devonian
period, when the land surface in Victoria was several kilometres higher than today.
The magma crystallised before it reached the surface, so it did not produce any volcanic activity. Instead, a very slow cooling rate allowed many large white crystals of feldspar
to form. These can be seen in many of the granite outcrops throughout the ranges. In places the crystals appear to be lined up, probably because the sticky magma was still moving around when they were growing. The rock enclosing the big feldspar crystals mainly contains crystals of greyish quartz
and two black minerals (hornblende
and a variety of mica
known as biotite
).
There are also some tiny crystals of two minerals, allanite
and titanite
, that contain radioactive elements such as uranium
and thorium
. Titanite crystals have been used to calculate that the You Yangs granite solidified 365 million years ago. In many places in the granite there are dark grey clots and lumps. These are called xenoliths and are pieces of sedimentary rock that have been caught up and baked by the magma.
The land surface has been lowered by erosion
over the millions of years since the granite solidified, so it is now exposed. Because it is a hard rock, it has resisted erosion better than the rocks that surrounded it. The size and shape of the rounded tors are controlled by fractures in the granite that resulted from slight shrinkage during cooling. Weathering and erosion of the granite has formed a blanket of sandy soil that covers any contacts with surrounding rocks.
created by the Otway Ranges to the southwest, the You Yangs are in the driest part of Victoria south of the Great Dividing Range
. Annual rainfall is as little as 450 millimetres (17.7 in), with the result that the vegetation is grassland
or low woodland rather than forest.
The You Yangs are home to more than 200 bird species such as White-naped, White-plumed, New Holland and Brown-capped Honeyeaters, Kookaburras
, White-winged Chough
s, Crested Shrike-tit
s, Purple-crowned Lorikeet
s, Eastern Yellow Robin
s, and Scarlet Robin
s, as well as Eastern Grey Kangaroo
s, Sugar Glider
s, Brushtail
and Ringtail Possum
s and Koala
s. The nearby Serendip Sanctuary
, a Victorian government wildlife research centre now open to the public, has been involved in breeding endangered Victorian wildlife species, such as the Australian Bustard
.
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
ridges that rise to 364m (Flinders Peak) above the Werribee Plain
Werribee Plain
The Werribee Plain is an extensive low-lying area of flat land located WSW of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The plains are notable for their extensive, flat, featureless spans, interspersed by the occasional vertical feature, such as the You Yangs, a series of granite ridges, and several small...
approximately 55km south west of Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
and 22km north east of Geelong, in Victoria, Australia. The main ridge runs roughly N-S for about 9 km, with a lower extension running for about 15 km to the west. Much of the southern parts of the ranges are protected by the You Yangs Regional Park
You Yangs Regional Park
The You Yangs Regional Park is a park in southern central Victoria, Australia. The park encompasses much of the southern areas of the You Yangs, a granite range that rises from the Werribee Plains, southwest of Melbourne...
.
Although only 364 m at their highest, they dominate the landscape and are clearly identifiable from nearby Geelong, Melbourne and beyond. Camping
Camping
Camping is an outdoor recreational activity. The participants leave urban areas, their home region, or civilization and enjoy nature while spending one or several nights outdoors, usually at a campsite. Camping may involve the use of a tent, caravan, motorhome, cabin, a primitive structure, or no...
is not permitted in the You Yangs. The foothills to the north of the peaks are home to Ford Australia
Ford Australia
Ford Australia is the Australian subsidiary of Ford Motor Company and was founded in Geelong, Victoria, in 1925 as an outpost of Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited. At that time, Ford Canada was a separate company from Ford USA...
's proving ground.
The You Yangs are also the home of a Geoglyph
Geoglyph
A geoglyph is a large design or motif produced on the ground and typically formed by clastic rocks or similarly durable elements of the geography, such as stones, stone fragments, gravel, or earth...
constructed by the Australian artist Andrew Rogers
Andrew Rogers (sculptor)
Andrew Rogers is a sculptor whose works may be found in many plazas and buildings around the world. He is a leading contemporary artist.Rogers is the creator of the world’s largest contemporary land art undertaking...
in recognition of the indigenous people of the area. It depicts Bunjil
Bunjil
In Australian Aboriginal mythology, Bunjil the eagle is a creator deity, culture hero and ancestral being. In the Kulin nation in central Victoria he was regarded as one of two moiety ancestors, the other being the trickster Crow. Bunjil has two wives and a son, Binbeal the rainbow. His brother...
, a mythical creature to the local Wautharong
Wautharong
Wathaurong, also called the Wada wurrung, are an Indigenous Australian tribe living in the area near Melbourne, Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula. They are part of the Kulin alliance. The Wathaurong language was spoken by 25 clans south of the Werribee River and the Bellarine Peninsula to Streatham...
Aborigines
Australian Aborigines
Australian Aborigines , also called Aboriginal Australians, from the latin ab originem , are people who are indigenous to most of the Australian continentthat is, to mainland Australia and the island of Tasmania...
. The creature has a wing span of 100 metres and 1500 tonnes of rock was used to construct it, and was unveiled in March 2006.
History
The name "You Yang" comes from the AboriginalIndigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
words Wurdi Youang
Wurdi Youang
Wurdi Youang is an Aboriginal stone arrangement located at Mount Rothwell, near Little River, Victoria at .The arrangement takes the form of an irregular egg-shape or ovoid about 50m in diametre with its major axis East-West...
or Ude Youang meaning "big mountain in the middle of a plain". Aboriginal people enlarged natural hollows in the rocks to form well
Soakage
A soakage, or soak, is a source of water in Australian deserts.It is called thus because the water generally seeps into the sand, and is stored below, sometimes as part of an ephemeral river or creek system.-Aboriginal water source:...
s that held water even in dry seasons .
Explorer Matthew Flinders
Matthew Flinders
Captain Matthew Flinders RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been...
was the first European to visit the You Yangs. On May 1, 1802, he and three of his men climbed to the highest point. He named it "Station Peak" but the name was changed in 1912 to "Flinders Peak" in his honour.
The You Yangs have always attracted artists to paint them and feature most strongly in works by one of Australia's greatest artists, Fred Williams
Fred Williams
Frederick Ronald Williams OBE was an Australian painter and printmaker. He was one of Australia’s most important artists, and one of the twentieth century’s major painters of the landscape...
. Williams spent long periods developing his plein air representations of the You Yangs, and these have now become classics of Australian art — rugged, dramatic, yet sparse in their imagery — unquestionably of the Australian bush.
Geography
The nearest settlements include;- BalliangBalliang, VictoriaBalliang is a locality in Victoria, Australia. The locality is in the south-east of the Shire of Moorabool, north of the City of Greater Geelong and from the state capital, Melbourne...
- 5km northwest - Little RiverLittle River, VictoriaLittle River is a town in Victoria, Australia, 51 km south-west from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area are the Cities of Wyndham and Greater Geelong. At the 2006 Census, Little River had a population of 375.-History:...
- 6km east - LaraLara, VictoriaLara is a residential rural suburb, 15 km north-east of Geelong, inland from the Princes Freeway to Melbourne.- History :The explorers Hume and Hovell arrived at Lara on December 16, 1824, believing that they had reached Westernport Bay...
- 7km south
Two watercourses pass through or by the ranges; Hovell Creek originates in the western parts of the ranges, while Little River flows around the ranges to the north and east.
Geology
Contrary to popular belief, the You Yangs are not the remains of a volcano
Volcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...
. The granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
that forms them was originally a mass of magma
Magma
Magma is a mixture of molten rock, volatiles and solids that is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and is expected to exist on other terrestrial planets. Besides molten rock, magma may also contain suspended crystals and dissolved gas and sometimes also gas bubbles. Magma often collects in...
that had worked its way up into the surrounding sedimentary rocks during the Devonian
Devonian
The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic Era spanning from the end of the Silurian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya , to the beginning of the Carboniferous Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya...
period, when the land surface in Victoria was several kilometres higher than today.
The magma crystallised before it reached the surface, so it did not produce any volcanic activity. Instead, a very slow cooling rate allowed many large white crystals of feldspar
Feldspar
Feldspars are a group of rock-forming tectosilicate minerals which make up as much as 60% of the Earth's crust....
to form. These can be seen in many of the granite outcrops throughout the ranges. In places the crystals appear to be lined up, probably because the sticky magma was still moving around when they were growing. The rock enclosing the big feldspar crystals mainly contains crystals of greyish quartz
Quartz
Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
and two black minerals (hornblende
Hornblende
Hornblende is a complex inosilicate series of minerals .It is not a recognized mineral in its own right, but the name is used as a general or field term, to refer to a dark amphibole....
and a variety of mica
Mica
The mica group of sheet silicate minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. All are monoclinic, with a tendency towards pseudohexagonal crystals, and are similar in chemical composition...
known as biotite
Biotite
Biotite is a common phyllosilicate mineral within the mica group, with the approximate chemical formula . More generally, it refers to the dark mica series, primarily a solid-solution series between the iron-endmember annite, and the magnesium-endmember phlogopite; more aluminous endmembers...
).
There are also some tiny crystals of two minerals, allanite
Allanite
Allanite is a sorosilicate group of minerals within the broader epidote group that contain a significant amount of rare earth elements. The mineral occurs mainly in metamorphosed clay rich sediments and felsic igneous rocks...
and titanite
Titanite
Titanite, or sphene , is a calcium titanium nesosilicate mineral, CaTiSiO5. Trace impurities of iron and aluminium are typically present...
, that contain radioactive elements such as uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
and thorium
Thorium
Thorium is a natural radioactive chemical element with the symbol Th and atomic number 90. It was discovered in 1828 and named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder....
. Titanite crystals have been used to calculate that the You Yangs granite solidified 365 million years ago. In many places in the granite there are dark grey clots and lumps. These are called xenoliths and are pieces of sedimentary rock that have been caught up and baked by the magma.
The land surface has been lowered by erosion
Erosion
Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...
over the millions of years since the granite solidified, so it is now exposed. Because it is a hard rock, it has resisted erosion better than the rocks that surrounded it. The size and shape of the rounded tors are controlled by fractures in the granite that resulted from slight shrinkage during cooling. Weathering and erosion of the granite has formed a blanket of sandy soil that covers any contacts with surrounding rocks.
Climate, vegetation and wildlife
Owing to the rain shadowRain shadow
A rain shadow is a dry area on the lee side of a mountainous area. The mountains block the passage of rain-producing weather systems, casting a "shadow" of dryness behind them. As shown by the diagram to the right, the warm moist air is "pulled" by the prevailing winds over a mountain...
created by the Otway Ranges to the southwest, the You Yangs are in the driest part of Victoria south of the Great Dividing Range
Great Dividing Range
The Great Dividing Range, or the Eastern Highlands, is Australia's most substantial mountain range and the third longest in the world. The range stretches more than 3,500 km from Dauan Island off the northeastern tip of Queensland, running the entire length of the eastern coastline through...
. Annual rainfall is as little as 450 millimetres (17.7 in), with the result that the vegetation is grassland
Grassland
Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...
or low woodland rather than forest.
The You Yangs are home to more than 200 bird species such as White-naped, White-plumed, New Holland and Brown-capped Honeyeaters, Kookaburras
Laughing Kookaburra
The Laughing Kookaburra, Dacelo novaeguineae, is a carnivorous bird in the kingfisher family Halcyonidae. Native to eastern Australia, it has also been introduced to parts of New Zealand, Tasmania and Western Australia. Male and female adults are similar in plumage, which is predominantly brown and...
, White-winged Chough
White-winged Chough
The White-winged Chough is one of only two surviving members of the Australian mud-nest builders family, Corcoracidae, and is the only member of the genus Corcorax...
s, Crested Shrike-tit
Crested Shrike-tit
The Crested Shrike-tit is a bird endemic to Australia where it inhabits open eucalypt forest and woodland.-Taxonomy and distribution:...
s, Purple-crowned Lorikeet
Purple-crowned Lorikeet
The Purple-crowned Lorikeet, Glossopsitta porphyrocephala, is a lorikeet found in scrub and mallee of southern Australia...
s, Eastern Yellow Robin
Eastern Yellow Robin
The Eastern Yellow Robin is an Australasian robin of coastal and sub-coastal eastern Australia. The extent of the Eastern Yellow Robin's residence is from the extreme southeast corner of South Australia through most of Victoria and the western half of New South Wales and north as far as Cooktown...
s, and Scarlet Robin
Scarlet Robin
The Scarlet Robin is a common red-breasted Australasian robin in the passerine bird genus Petroica. The species is found on continental Australia and its offshore islands, including Tasmania...
s, as well as Eastern Grey Kangaroo
Eastern Grey Kangaroo
The Eastern Grey Kangaroo is a marsupial found in southern and eastern Australia, with a population of several million. It is also known as the Great Grey Kangaroo and the Forester Kangaroo...
s, Sugar Glider
Sugar Glider
The sugar glider is a small gliding possum originating from the marsupial family.The sugar glider is native to eastern and northern mainland Australia and is also native to New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago.- Habitat :Sugar gliders can be found all throughout the northern and eastern parts of...
s, Brushtail
Brushtail possum
The brushtail possums are the members of the genus, Trichosurus, a genus of marsupial in the Phalangeridae family.It contains the following species:*Northern Brushtail Possum, Trichosurus arnhemensis...
and Ringtail Possum
Common Ringtail Possum
The common ringtail possum is an Australian marsupial. It lives in a variety of habitats and eats a variety of leaves of both native and introduced plants, as well as flowers and fruits. These dietary factors have, over time, aided burgeoning introduced populations in New Zealand...
s and Koala
Koala
The koala is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia, and the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae....
s. The nearby Serendip Sanctuary
Serendip Sanctuary
Serendip Sanctuary is a 227 ha protected area in Victoria, Australia, near the You Yangs and the town of Lara, some 22 km north of Geelong and 60 km south-west of Melbourne....
, a Victorian government wildlife research centre now open to the public, has been involved in breeding endangered Victorian wildlife species, such as the Australian Bustard
Australian Bustard
The Australian Bustard, Ardeotis australis, is a large ground bird of grassland, woodland and open agricultural country across northern Australia and southern New Guinea. It is also commonly referred to in Central Australia as the Bush Turkey, particularly by Aboriginal people.The male is up to ...
.