Lake Bolac stone arrangement

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Lake Bolac stone arrangement - Wikipedia

Coordinates: 37°42′25″S 142°51′05″E / 37.706834°S 142.851478°E

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Lake Bolac stone arrangement
History
Kuyang stone arrangement
Coordinates	37°42′25″S 142°51′05″E / 37.706834°S 142.851478°E / -37.706834; 142.851478
Type	Aboriginal stone arrangement
Length	176 metres (577 ft)
Volume	Stone sizes vary from about 30cm to 150cm
Builder	Australian Aboriginal
Material	Basalt stones
Founded	c.1500 BCE ^{[citation needed]}
Cultures	Wada wurrung, Girai wurrung and Djab wurrung clans
Events	Gathering place to celebrate the life cycle of eels
Site notes
Condition	Damaged
Ownership	Private land
Management	The Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation
Public access	No
Designation	Aboriginal sacred site

The Lake Bolac stone arrangement, also known as the Kuyang stone arrangement, is an Aboriginal ceremonial site near the town of Lake Bolac in the Western District, north-east of Hamilton, Victoria, Australia.^[1] It is one of several Aboriginal stone arrangements scattered across Australia. It was registered on the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Register in 1975, and is protected by the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006.^[2]

The basalt stones are arranged in two lines and are said to resemble a giant eel.^[3] The stones vary in size from about 30 centimetres (12 in) to 150 centimetres (59 in), with some possibly having been embedded in holes in the ground so as to make them stand upright.^[4]

The Lake Bolac ceremonial site, and the similar Wurdi Youang site, were identified as being Aboriginal structures on the basis that there was "no counterpart among colonial structures and there was no evidence that they ever formed part of any type of fence or building".^[5] Both arrangements are on land that had been owned by a single European Australian family since first settlement, and there existed no tradition within those families of the arrangements having been built by Europeans.^[6] Massola utilised similar criteria to identify the Mount Franklin stone arrangement as a potential Aboriginal stone alignment.^[7]

The importance of eels to the Aboriginal economy was recognised early in the site's history: "Lake Boloke is the most celebrated place in the Western District for the fine quality and abundance of its eels, and, when the autumn rains induce these fish to leave the lake and to go down the river to the sea, the Aborigines gather there from great distances".^[8]

At some stage, some of the stones were removed to make way for a road (now the Glenelg Highway to Adelaide).^[1] In April 2021 the stone arrangement, which is on privately-owned land, was found to have been damaged.^[9] The Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation, after viewing the site from the road, said that up to 60 metres (200 ft) of the stone arrangement may have been destroyed.^[2]

The Lake Bolac Eel Festival is a community music and art festival held each autumn on the foreshore of Lake Bolac since 2004, inspired by the fact that Lake Bolac was a traditional gathering place for Indigenous people before white settlement.^[10] This festival has helped to make the site well-known to both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.^[2]

External links

Lake Bolac Eel Festival

References

^ ^a ^b Flanagan, Martin (2 January 2009). "The lady of the lake". The Age. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
^ ^a ^b ^c Wahlquist, Calla (6 April 2021). "Traditional owners devastated by alleged damage to 1,500-year-old stone arrangement in Victoria". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
^ Aboriginal Affairs Victoria, Miniposters #10: Stone Arrangements Archived 4 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine
^ Long, A. & Schell, P., 1999, 'Lake Bolac stone arrangement (AAV 7422-394); management plan'. Aboriginal Affairs Victoria: 20-21
^ Aboriginal stone structures in southwestern Victoria report to Aboriginal Affairs Victoria Sharon Lane Revised December 2009 Archived 25 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine
^ Lane, L. and R.L.K. Fullagar 1980 Previously unrecorded Aboriginal stone alignments in Victoria Records of the Victorian Archaeological Survey 10:134-151
^ Massola 1968
^ James Dawson, Australian Aborigines 1881.
^ Johnson, Sian; Bewley, Caitlin (5 April 2021). "Aboriginal group 'traumatised' by alleged partial destruction of ancient Lake Bolac eel-shaped stone arrangement". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
^ "Grampians:Lake Bolac Eel Festival". Visit Melbourne. Archived from the original on 18 October 2011.

Aboriginal Victorians

Peoples

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Registered Aboriginal Parties /
Land councils

Sites

Bend Road Box Gulley Carisbrook stone arrangement Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park Cloggs Cave Grampians National Park Keilor Kow Swamp Lake Bolac stone arrangement Mount William stone axe quarry New Guinea II cave Sunbury earth rings Tarragal Caves Wurdi Youang
See also	Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Register Victoria Archaeological Survey

State organisations

Legislation

Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 Aboriginal Protection Act 1869 Half-Caste Act Laws concerning Indigenous Australians
Cases:	Members of the Yorta Yorta Aboriginal Community v Victoria Wotjobaluk, Jaadwa, Jadawadjali, Wergaia and Jupagulk Peoples v Victoria

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