Indigenous History and Natural Science
A Deep-Time Story of Land, Water, and Culture
The geology of Australia tells one of the oldest and most stable stories on Earth. Beneath its deserts, mountains, and coasts lies a geological record spanning more than 4 billion years, from the earliest continental crusts of the Archaean Eon to the young volcanic plains of Victoria’s Western Districts.
Australia’s geology is a tapestry of ancient shields, folded mountains, marine basins, and volcanic provinces, shaped by the movements of tectonic plates and the cycles of water, fire, and time.
For Victoria, these forces created an extraordinary diversity of landscapes — from the granite uplands of the Grampians (Gariwerd) to the fertile basalt plains around Ballarat, the limestone coasts of Port Campbell, and the ancient marine sediments beneath Melbourne.
For Aboriginal peoples, these geological features are not inert rocks but living Country — the physical expressions of ancestral beings whose creative acts shaped rivers, mountains, and volcanoes. The Dreaming stories of Bunjil, Budj Bim, and others embody a deep-time understanding of the same geological processes that science reveals today.
Australia’s Geological Foundations
The Ancient Cratons
Australia’s continental crust is among the oldest and most stable on the planet. It is built upon three main Precambrian cratons (ancient continental cores):
The Yilgarn Craton (Western Australia), formed over 2.7–3.5 billion years ago, consists largely of granite and greenstone belts.
The Pilbara Craton, containing some of the Earth’s oldest rocks — including 3.5-billion-year-old stromatolites, the earliest evidence of life.
The Gawler Craton (South Australia), rich in volcanic and sedimentary sequences formed around 1.6 billion years ago (Blake et al., 2011).
These cratons welded together during the Proterozoic Eon to form the supercontinent Rodinia, which later fragmented and reassembled multiple times, culminating in Gondwana — the great southern continent that included Australia, Antarctica, India, Africa, and South America (Scotese, 2015).
From Gondwana to Australia
Around 180 million years ago, Gondwana began to break apart.
Australia and Antarctica separated during the Cretaceous (≈100–80 million years ago), opening the Southern Ocean (McGowran et al., 2004).
As the landmass drifted northward, its climate became increasingly dry, transforming ancient rainforests into the arid landscapes we see today.
Sedimentary basins such as the Great Artesian Basin (Queensland–South Australia) and Murray Basin (Victoria–New South Wales–South Australia) recorded the environmental transition from inland seas to desert plains.
By the Cenozoic Era (66 million years ago–present), Australia had achieved its isolation, setting the stage for the unique flora, fauna, and geology that define it.
The Geology of Victoria
1. Palaeozoic Orogenies and the Birth of Mountains
Victoria’s geological history begins in the Palaeozoic Era (541–252 million years ago), when the region lay under an ancient ocean basin on the margin of Gondwana.
Sediments accumulated on the sea floor, later compressed and folded into mountains during a series of tectonic events known as the Lachlan Orogeny (Gray & Foster, 2004).
These mountain-building phases (Ordovician to Devonian) created the Lachlan Fold Belt, a complex system of metamorphic rocks, granites, and fault zones stretching from the Grampians to eastern Victoria.
The uplift and erosion of these mountains produced rich alluvial gold deposits, which fuelled the Victorian Gold Rush in the 1850s.
2. Devonian–Carboniferous Volcanoes and Sediments
Following the orogenies, Victoria experienced extensive volcanic activity and marine deposition.
Volcanic rocks such as andesites and rhyolites formed around Bendigo, Ballarat, and Castlemaine, while marine limestones developed in western Victoria.
Intrusions of granite, such as those seen in the You Yangs and Grampians, solidified deep underground.
3. Mesozoic Landscapes and River Systems
By the Jurassic–Cretaceous (201–66 million years ago), Victoria had stabilised as part of southern Gondwana.
Sedimentation in the Otway Basin and Gippsland Basin recorded shallow seas rich in marine life.
Coal-bearing deposits formed in ancient swampy forests, later becoming the Latrobe Valley coalfields, central to Victoria’s industrial history (Holdgate et al., 2003).
4. Cenozoic Volcanism: Fire and Transformation
The Cenozoic (66 Ma–present) brought dramatic volcanic activity across western Victoria.
The Western Victorian Volcanic Plains, one of the largest volcanic provinces on Earth, contain more than 400 eruption points, including Mount Napier, Tower Hill, and Budj Bim (Joyce, 2010).
These eruptions created lava flows, scoria cones, and maars, shaping the landscape between Ballarat, Camperdown, and Portland.
The fertile basalt soils support rich agricultural regions and sustained Indigenous aquaculture systems for thousands of years.
Indigenous Knowledge and Geological Storytelling
For Indigenous communities, the geological landscapes of Victoria are not abstract scientific phenomena but ancestral presences.
The Gunditjmara people’s story of Budj Bim, the volcanic creator being, describes the eruption and the creation of waterways and eel traps — an account that aligns closely with geological evidence of Holocene volcanism (~30,000 years ago) (UNESCO, 2019).
The Wadawurrung and Wurundjeri stories of Bunjil link granite peaks and rivers — such as the You Yangs and Yarra — to ancestral creation and law.
These oral histories represent geological knowledge encoded in cultural form, passed through generations as a living record of land transformation (Rose, 1996; Neale, 2017).
This intersection between science and story underscores how First Peoples’ perspectives reveal not only cultural but also scientific insight into Earth processes, often predating Western understanding.
Modern Geology and Conservation
Today, Victoria’s geology is central to its economy, ecology, and conservation.
Gold, coal, and mineral sands remain economically vital.
Geological formations such as the Twelve Apostles, Grampians sandstone ranges, and volcanic lakes (e.g., Lake Purrumbete) draw millions of visitors annually.
Conservation efforts now integrate geological heritage with cultural preservation, particularly at Budj Bim, where both Earth and cultural histories are recognised as inseparable.
Modern geological science in Australia increasingly works alongside Traditional Knowledge, acknowledging that Aboriginal Country is both geophysical and spiritual, reflecting millions of years of connection between people and land.
Conclusion
The geology of Victoria and Australia spans a story of deep time and living Country — from the billion-year-old cratons of the interior to the young volcanoes of the south. These landscapes, sculpted by fire, water, and tectonic motion, continue to shape climate, culture, and biodiversity.
For Aboriginal peoples, this geology is not history but presence — a continuing relationship between land, law, and life. Modern science, in dialogue with this knowledge, reveals that the geological and the cultural are inseparable in understanding the story of Australia.
References
Blake, T. S., Buick, R. & Brown, S. J. A. (2011). Geology of the Yilgarn and Pilbara Cratons. Geological Society of Australia.
Gray, D. R. & Foster, D. A. (2004). ‘Lachlan Orogen: Accretion and deformation of the eastern Gondwana margin’, Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 51(6), pp. 773–797.
Holdgate, G. R., Sluiter, I. R. & Kelman, A. P. (2003). ‘The origin of brown coal deposits in the Latrobe Valley, Victoria’, International Journal of Coal Geology, 54(1–2), pp. 77–99.
Joyce, E. B. (2010). The Western Victorian Volcanic Plains: A Field Guide to the Newer Volcanics Province. Geological Society of Australia.
McGowran, B., Li, Q., Cann, J. & Padley, D. (2004). ‘The Cenozoic of the Australian southern margin: evolution of a rifted continent’, Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 51(1), pp. 125–145.
Neale, M. (2017). Songlines: The Power and Promise. Canberra: National Museum of Australia.
Rose, D. B. (1996). Nourishing Terrains: Australian Aboriginal Views of Landscape and Wilderness. Canberra: Australian Heritage Commission.
Scotese, C. R. (2015). Paleomap Project: The Evolution of Australia and Gondwana. University of Texas.
UNESCO (2019). Budj Bim Cultural Landscape World Heritage Nomination. Paris: UNESCO.
Written, Researched and Directed by James Vegter 07/10/2025
Magic Lands Alliance
Sharing the truth of Indigenous and colonial history through film, education, land and community.
Copyright of MLA – 2025
Magic Lands Alliance acknowledge the Traditional Owners, Custodians, and First Nations communities across Australia and internationally. We honour their enduring connection to the sky, land, waters, language, and culture. We pay our respects to Elders past, present, and emerging, and to all First Peoples communities and language groups. This article draws only on publicly available information; many cultural practices remain the intellectual property of communities.