History and Geology

Aboriginal people have occupied Australia for more than 50,000 years, adapting to the changing environment.

The aboriginal people of the Geelong region are known as the Wathaurong.  At the time of white settlement, the Wathaurong group included 16 clans. These included the Yawangi (later called the Worinyaloke) who inhabited the You Yangs. The name You Yangs comes from “Wurdi Youang” or “Wurdi Yawang” meaning Big Hills or Chucking Hills. 

Use of Natural Resourses
The itinerant lifestyle of the Worinyaloke involved seasonal movements following the availability of resources, taking full advantage of the environment for shelter, tools, medicine and food. Shelters of bark slabs or tree branches were built at favoured sites. Women had the responsibility of gathering vegetable foods and they taught these foraging skills to children who were old enough to accompany their mothers. Underground roots of a variety of plants would have been an important staple food, because many are available all year round and they are rich in carbohydrates. This included tubers and bulbs of orchids and lilies, as well as the rhizomes of bracken and rushes. The fruits, berries, cones and seeds of several plants are edible, while sweet drinks were made from soaking nectar from banksias. The men hunted communally for fast game and they regularly burnt off the grasslands to create fresh, green growth, which encouraged native grazers into closer hunting range. All mammals present were probably target species for hunting. Birds and eggs were taken, along with lizards and insects, while fishing occurred in both the freshwater creeks and rivers as well as in the bay.  Fur, skin and bone were also well utilised.

While finding food would have been important, other resources were required as well for the production of other materials. Wood and slabs of bark were used for building shelters and canoes to making shields and bowls, typically leaving scars on trees. Although not formally confirmed, there is a dead tree along a walking trail at Mt Rothwell that has a scar that may have been made by the Worinyaloke. Gum produced by Acacias was mixed with ashes or burnt shells to make a binding cement. Plant fibres were used to make baskets, string and nets for fishing. Stone was also important, being used as scrappers, blades, grinding stones, hammer-stones, anvils and cores.

Water was very precious and the Worinyaloke created numerous rock-wells in the granite to store it. Fires were set in the natural depressions in the granite, where water tended to pool, causing the rock to chip away more easily. Hollowed out over years, some wells are capable of holding 35L of water. These would have been protected from wildlife and covered to minimise evaporation.
The granite outcrops and site of the homestead would have been favourable campsites, for the views they provided of the plains and river would have enabled the Worinyaloke to see other people approaching or game to hunt.