Wadawurrung Place Names
Introduction
Across Wadawurrung Country in central and south-west Victoria, mountains, volcanic plains, granite ranges, and stony rises hold deep cultural, ecological, and spiritual significance. Long before colonial naming systems transformed the landscape, these mountains carried Wadawurrung names connected to ancestral beings, ceremony, navigation, trade, water systems, and ecological knowledge. For Wadawurrung peoples, mountains were not isolated geological features; they were living parts of Country connected to sky, lore, fire, water, and kinship.
Wadawurrung Country stretches across Djilang (Geelong), Balla Arat (Ballarat), the Bellarine Peninsula, the Surf Coast, the You Yangs, Brisbane Ranges, volcanic plains, and river corridors extending toward the Werribee plains. This landscape forms part of the wider Victorian Volcanic Plain, one of the largest volcanic provinces on Earth, shaped by lava flows, crater lakes, volcanic cones, and ancient uplands over millions of years (Clark 1990; Gammage 2011).
For thousands of years, Wadawurrung communities moved through these mountain systems using detailed oral mapping traditions connected to stars, rivers, seasonal food cycles, ceremony, and ancestral lore. Many mountains acted as meeting grounds, travel markers, ceremonial places, and spiritual observation points across Country.
Today, some Indigenous mountain names survive through towns, oral traditions, and language revival projects, while others were replaced during colonisation by British or European names honouring governors, military officers, or settlers. Contemporary revitalisation programs led by Wadawurrung Traditional Owners continue to restore and strengthen traditional place names and cultural landscapes.
Mountains and Volcanic Landscapes in Wadawurrung Country
For Wadawurrung peoples, mountains and volcanic landscapes carried multiple interconnected roles within cultural life.
These landscapes functioned as:
Ceremony grounds
Travel and navigation markers
Gathering places
Stone and tool resource areas
Story and lore sites
Fire management zones
Spiritual observation points
Seasonal meeting locations
Volcanic plains and elevated granite formations also shaped surrounding ecosystems by influencing:
Water movement
Wetlands and rivers
Grassland ecology
Animal migration
Fire behaviour
Food systems
Many mountains were associated with ancestral creation stories connected to Bunjil, Waa, volcanic fire, sky lore, and water beings.
Major Wadawurrung Mountain and Volcanic Names
Wurdi Youang / You Yangs
Colonial Name: You Yangs
Meaning: Often interpreted as “big mountain in the middle of the plain” or “large hill.”
Context: Granite mountain range rising from the western plains near Djilang.
Significance: One of the most significant mountain systems in Wadawurrung Country. Wurdi Youang served as a major navigation point visible across vast areas of the plains and coastline. The granite peaks held spiritual significance and were associated with ceremony, seasonal movement, and sky observation.
The nearby Wurdi Youang stone arrangement — aligned with solstice sunset positions — demonstrates sophisticated astronomical knowledge connected to Wadawurrung seasonal systems (Norris et al. 2013).
Buninyong / Buninyouang
Colonial Name: Mount Buninyong
Meaning: Often interpreted as “man lying on his back with knees raised.”
Context: Large volcanic mountain near Ballarat.
Significance: One of the oldest and most visually dominant volcanic cones in Wadawurrung Country. The mountain acted as a major gathering point and visual marker across the volcanic plains. Its elevated position provided long-distance observation across surrounding grasslands and lakes.
The volcanic soils surrounding Buninyong supported:
Murnong harvesting
Kangaroo grasslands
Waterbird habitats
Seasonal burning systems
Mermer / Mount Mercer
Colonial Name: Mount Mercer
Meaning: Associated with Wadawurrung language and volcanic plains Country, though interpretations vary across historical records and oral traditions.
Context: Volcanic rise and plains landscape west of Djilang and south-east of Balla Arat within Wadawurrung Country.
Significance: Mount Mercer formed part of the wider volcanic plains system that connected rivers, wetlands, grasslands, and travel routes across central Wadawurrung Country. Like many volcanic rises across western Victoria, the mountain acted as a visual navigation point across the open plains and was connected to seasonal movement, ecological observation, and cultural gathering systems.
The grasslands and volcanic soils surrounding Mermer supported:
Kangaroo grasslands
Murnong harvesting
Seasonal cultural burning
Wetland bird migration
Trade and movement corridors
Volcanic rises such as Mermer were important within broader Indigenous oral mapping systems, allowing communities to move between water systems, camps, ceremonial locations, and neighbouring clan estates across the plains (Clark 1990).
The surrounding volcanic Country also formed part of interconnected ecological systems linking:
Anakie uplands
Balla Arat volcanic plains
Moorabool river systems
Wurdi Youang
Barrabool hill systems
Like many mountains across Wadawurrung Country, Mount Mercer carried spiritual significance connected to elevated Country, sky observation, weather patterns, and ancestral presence.
Anakie
Colonial Name: Mount Anakie region
Meaning: Often associated with “little hills” or volcanic rises.
Context: Granite and volcanic upland region connected to the Brisbane Ranges.
Significance: Important forest and stone Country containing shelter, hunting grounds, medicinal plants, and travel corridors between inland plains and coastal regions.
Barrabool Hills
Meaning: Connected to elevated hill Country and Wadawurrung clan estates.
Context: Hills south-west of Djilang.
Significance: Important movement corridor between the coast, plains, and inland volcanic systems. The hills provided elevated observation areas and formed part of trade and ceremony pathways across Wadawurrung Country.
Moorabool Uplands
Meaning: “Ghost” or “shadow” associated with spiritual presence.
Context: River valleys and upland volcanic terrain.
Significance: The river and surrounding hills were associated with water lore, camps, eel harvesting, and spiritual stories connected to movement through Country.
Balla Arat Volcanic Plains
Colonial Name: Ballarat region
Meaning: “Resting place.”
Context: Volcanic plains and hill systems surrounding Ballarat.
Significance: The broader volcanic region around Balla Arat formed an important ceremonial and trade area long before the colonial gold rush. Elevated volcanic rises provided observation points and gathering areas within the plains.
Corio Volcanic Plains
Meaning: Connected to grasslands and coastal volcanic systems.
Context: Plains stretching between Djilang and inland Wadawurrung Country.
Significance: Lava flows, stony rises, and wetlands created rich ecological systems supporting kangaroo, emu, eel migration, and yam daisy cultivation. Elevated volcanic rises acted as navigation points across the open plains.
Brisbane Ranges
Meaning: Traditional Wadawurrung names associated with forested upland Country survive in oral and reconstructed language traditions.
Context: Forested mountain range west of Melbourne.
Significance: The ranges provided:
Timber resources
Water sources
Shelter
Medicinal plants
Hunting grounds
Stone materials
The mountain forests also formed important refuge and travel routes between Wadawurrung and neighbouring Nations.
Lal Lal
Meaning: Believed to derive from Indigenous language associated with water or volcanic formations.
Context: Waterfalls and volcanic gorge landscape near Ballarat.
Significance: Volcanic escarpments and waterways formed important spiritual and ecological locations connected to freshwater systems and movement through the plains.
Mountains as Lore and Sky Observation Sites
Many mountains across Wadawurrung Country were connected to astronomy and seasonal observation systems.
Elevated landscapes allowed observation of:
Solstice positions
Star movement
Seasonal weather patterns
Animal migration
Fire conditions
Water cycles
The Wurdi Youang stone arrangement near the You Yangs remains one of the most significant known Aboriginal astronomical sites in Australia, aligned to solar positions during the solstices and equinoxes (Norris et al. 2013).
Mountains also carried strong spiritual associations connected to:
Bunjil the wedge-tailed eagle
Waa the crow
Sky lore
Ancestral transformation stories
Volcanic fire and creation
Colonisation and the Renaming of Mountains
During colonisation, many Wadawurrung mountain names were replaced or altered through British surveying and settlement.
Colonial naming systems frequently honoured:
Governors
British military officers
European settlers
Surveyors
This renaming process formed part of broader colonial systems aimed at claiming and controlling Country while suppressing Indigenous language and sovereignty (Broome 2005).
However, many Indigenous names survived through:
Oral tradition
Community memory
Local towns
Historical language recordings
Contemporary cultural revitalisation
Today, Wadawurrung Traditional Owners continue restoring traditional place names across Country through education, cultural mapping, and dual-language initiatives.
Contemporary Cultural Revitalisation
The Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation continues language and cultural revitalisation projects connected to mountains, rivers, and cultural landscapes across Wadawurrung Country.
Projects include:
Traditional place-name restoration
Cultural mapping programs
On-Country education
Youth language initiatives
Protection of sacred landscapes
Cultural tourism and interpretation
Ecological restoration programs
These initiatives strengthen the connection between language, Country, and community while educating broader Australia about the depth of Wadawurrung history.
Conclusion
Wadawurrung mountain names preserve ancient relationships between people, volcanic landscapes, sky systems, water, ecology, and ancestral lore. From Wurdi Youang and Buninyouang to Mermer, Anakie, Barrabool, and the volcanic plains surrounding Balla Arat, these landscapes formed interconnected systems of navigation, ceremony, astronomy, ecology, and spiritual knowledge.
Although many traditional names were disrupted through colonisation, their survival and revitalisation today represent ongoing cultural continuity and truth-telling across Wadawurrung Country. These mountains remain living cultural landscapes carrying stories and knowledge that extend back thousands of generations.
References
Blake, B 1991, Wathawurrung and the Colac Language of Southern Victoria, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra.
Broome, R 2005, Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.
Clark, ID 1990, Aboriginal Languages and Clans: An Historical Atlas of Western and Central Victoria, 1800–1900, Monash Publications in Geography, Melbourne.
Clark, ID & Heydon, T 2002, Dictionary of Aboriginal Placenames of Victoria, Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages, Melbourne.
Gammage, B 2011, The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.
Norris, RP, Norris, PM & Hamacher, DW 2013, ‘Wurdi Youang: An Australian Aboriginal Stone Arrangement with Possible Solar Indications’, Rock Art Research, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 55–65.
Presland, G 1994, Aboriginal Melbourne: The Lost Land of the Kulin People, Harriland Press, Melbourne.
Written, Researched and Directed by James Vegter (22 September 2025)
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Magic Lands Alliance acknowledges 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 respect 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 their respective communities.