| Abstract/Description |
The Tower Hill State Game Reserve is an area of approximately 6.2 sq km, 3 km inland from the coast between Warrnambool and Port Fairy managed by Parks Victoria since 1997. The Reserve consists of a volcanic crater of nested maar type bounded by the encircling crater rim that forms a highly visible landmark in the surrounding plain. The crater, filled by a lake and series of islands, themselves volcanic cones, was formed at least 30,000 years ago when a hot rising basaltic magma came into contact with the subterranean water table. The violent explosion that followed created the funnel-shaped crater (later filled by a lake) and the islands. Artefacts found in the volcanic ash layers show that Aboriginal people were living in the area at the time of the eruption. The Warrnambool area was a rich source of foods for the Koroitgundidj people, whose descendants retain special links with this country.
The first confirmed European sighting of Tower Hill crater was by French explorers sailing with Captain Baudin aboard the Geographe in 1802 who named the crater 'Peak of Reconnaissance'. Throughout the 19th century sailors used Tower Hill as a landmark for entering the harbours of Port Fairy (Belfast) and Warrnambool. The name Tower Hill came into common usage in the 1840s. The crater formation, noted by early European settlers for the beauty of its vegetation was memorialised in the landscape painting of Eugene von Guerard in 1855.
By the late 1850s substantial amounts of forest had been cleared in and around the crater. In 1866 when the crater and inner rim were temporarily reserved for public recreation, the Acclimatisation Society of Victoria was appointed the Committee of Management (1866-1869). The Society had formed in 1861 with the aim of introducing exotic plants and animals to suitable parts of the colony and accordingly introduced goats, pheasants and rabbits to Tower Hill. In 1873 the area was permanently reserved for public purposes and in 1892 in an attempt to halt the environmental damage to the crater Tower Hill Reserve became the first National Park to be declared in Victoria. It remained under the control of Koroit Council which permitted clearing of native vegetation, grazing and the quarrying of scoria to continue. By the 1930s the landscape was bare and little wildlife remained. |
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