When you grow up in an area you tend to ignore the features in the landscape. That's certainly true for me. I grew up on the Victorian Volcanic Plains, an area of lava flows covering 23 000 sq. kms. Many of the 400+ volcanoes that erupted over millions of years stand above the plain, looking spectacular, but we get so used to seeing them that we don't 'see' them.
The plains are flat - well, perhaps if you were riding a bicycle you'd disagree - so the low volcanoes can be seen from a great distance and were navigational points for the early settlers.
Mount Elephant is a stand-out scoria cone, 240 metres high with a crater 90 metres deep, and well known because it's on a highway. It used to be privately owned but the local community purchased it in 2000 and are replanting with indigenous grasses and herbs. Several years ago they organised a successful 'Music on the Mount' event, using the crater as a natural amphitheatre.
The second picture below was taken into the sun so looks very washed out, but it does show why it's called Mount Elephant. The lake in the foreground is Lake Gnarpurt, dry of course because most of our lakes are dry.
The plains are flat - well, perhaps if you were riding a bicycle you'd disagree - so the low volcanoes can be seen from a great distance and were navigational points for the early settlers.
Mount Elephant is a stand-out scoria cone, 240 metres high with a crater 90 metres deep, and well known because it's on a highway. It used to be privately owned but the local community purchased it in 2000 and are replanting with indigenous grasses and herbs. Several years ago they organised a successful 'Music on the Mount' event, using the crater as a natural amphitheatre.
The second picture below was taken into the sun so looks very washed out, but it does show why it's called Mount Elephant. The lake in the foreground is Lake Gnarpurt, dry of course because most of our lakes are dry.
1 comment:
I am really enjoying these posts about the W Volcanic Plains!
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