Art. IV. — Tlie Antiquity of Man in Victoria. 



By J. W. GREGORY, D.Sc, F.R.S. 



(Professor of Geology, at the University, Melbourne). 



Contents. 



PAGE 



I. — Introduction - - - - - - - 120 



II. — Reported Human Relics of the Victorian Volcanic 



Period - 121 



III. — The Distribution of Aboriginal Remains in Super- 

 ficial Deposits - - - - - -126 



IV. — Footprints in the Dune Limestone of Warrnambool 130 



V. — Traditions of the Victorian Eruptions - - - 133 

 VI. — The Evidence of Aboriginal Names of Extinct 



Craters - - - - - - - 134 



VII. — The Traditions and Geological Evidence - - 136 



VIII. — Traditions of Geographical Changes - - - 138 

 IX. — The Possible Occupation of Victoria by a Pre- 



Aboriginal Race - - - - - - 138 



X. — The Length of the Human Occupation of Victoria 140 

 XL — Conclusion - - - - - - - -143 



I. — Introduction. 



At the end of a paper on the geology of Mount Macedon, read 

 before this Society in 1901, I expressed the view, which seemed 

 to me the general belief in Victoria, that man witnessed the last 

 of our volcanic eruptions. " It is not improbable," the paper 

 concluded, " that Mount Macedon is one of the volcanic piles 

 that mark the beginning of the great period of volcanic activity, 

 of which the last eruptions built up still-existing craters, and are 

 recorded in the legends of the Victorian aborigines."^ I had not 

 then had time to consider the evidence critically ; but it seemed 

 to justify the current opinion, that the human occupation of 



1 The Geology of Mount Macedon, Victoria. Proc. Roy. Soc. Vict., vol. xiv., n.s., 

 1902, p. 214. 



