The Aboriginal Axe-stone Quarry 

 at Mount William near Lancefield 



by l>. A. Cv-si.y* 



We ftfC indebted to the publisher-, ol the Bush Inn AVtev, Official Journal 01 

 hp Cjxborne and District (historical SoctelJ ten pbttifefati to reprint Itie Poilawinj 

 grille which appeared in that journal for March-April 1V7I. 



flic Aborigines have been in Aus 

 lor a very long lime unleeil. 

 certainly far 20,000 years and prob 

 ,hlv for considerably longer than this 

 Drv.'inalK 'heir stone implements were 

 ,j n ipl\ pieces ol stone with crudely 

 chippctl cutting or chopping edges. 

 Later Ihey made many tinei and im- 

 ptoveO sorts ol implements hut all 

 with working edges which were 

 rnercly chipped lo shape by trimming 

 ilu-m vvith a hammer stone later 

 ..1,1! dicv adopted the technique ol 

 DfliSlBg llWtt 1 10 shape by nibbing 

 Ihctn against some hard abrasive 

 ,>,„■. s>' ITWtl it was possible lo pro- 

 duce u much better and more effl- 

 uent cutting edge. It is not known 

 tfi when ground edge implements 

 7i-ic lost generally adoplcd in Atw- 

 :nli,i but it was in comparatively 

 ,- kji nines When Europeans lirsi 

 ume to south-eastern Australia Ihe 

 i'l.uind-edgc stone axe was the almost 

 universal stone implement of the 

 n.,iius These so-called axes were 

 mounted on short wooden handles, 

 Mhieh were bent around them, and to 

 which they were fixed with resin and 

 Ml string. They were thus hatchets 

 rather than axes and they were known 

 lo the early M-tileis by the American 

 bufan name, tomahawk. 



I hey were made from a wide range 

 ul different sorts ol stone, bin in 

 Vietoim id least most of them wcie 

 m»dc front dWWMi a hard lough 

 Jark grwn sione which was very 

 i l l. lor the purpose Diabase ic 

 W be found in various places in 



central Victoria but the principal 

 somee ol n which was exploited by 

 the Abungines was at Mount Wil- 

 liam. Every Aboriginal man would 

 have, or would wish lo have, a stone 

 axe. and so the demand for this 

 KMtie was very great. The outcrops 

 ol it at Mount William were exten- 

 sively worked, and u considerable 

 barter trade in this material was deve- 

 loped 



The stone was extruded and 

 broken down and trimmed into pieces 

 ol convenient si/.e for making into 

 axes. The implements were not 

 finished at the site, but the roughed 

 out axe blanks were taken away for 

 filial trimming and grinding else 

 where. They were bartered with mem 

 bcrs of neighbouring, and distant, 

 tribes who brought such things as — 

 reed spears, animal skins, wooden 

 implements, etc., to exchange for 

 them Actually no finished axes or 

 stone implements of any sort have 

 vo far been found at ihe quarry site 



It is convenient to refer to the sile 

 as a qnorry. bill it would be perbups 

 more correct to describe it as n series 

 of quarried outcrops. The outcrops 

 occur over an area of 100 ncres oi 

 more, jnd virtuallv Ihe whole of this 

 area is covered with chips and frag- 

 ments of broken stone resulting from 

 the quarrying operations. Much ol 

 lMa '• now Mi.Akee" by soil and the 

 etowth of tftltt. t,ut many heaps of 

 debus indict particular working 



Mll'll I UHR>'|. r tT, K 1 „„„ I ,M,^„.„ 1 l( VWIIllfc 



Orisbe., 1971 



2/3 



