Wurdi Youang, Aboriginal stone arrangement in Mount Rothwell, Australia.
Wurdi Youang is an irregular egg-shaped ring of about 100 basalt stones, roughly 50 m across with its long axis east-west, at Mount Rothwell near Little River. The stones range from 200 mm rocks to standing stones about 1 m high, with an estimated total mass of 23 tonnes. Three waist-high stones stand at the western end, the highest point of the ring.
The age of the arrangement is unknown; a suggested age of up to 11,000 years rests on carbon dating at nearby sites, not on the stones themselves. The Indigenous Land Corporation acquired the site on 14 January 2000 and transferred it to the Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative on 17 August 2006. It is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register as H1107.
The name Wurdi Youang comes from the Wadawurrung language and means "the big hill", the pre-colonial name of what is now Station Peak or Flinders Peak, the highest of the You Yangs. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the district between the You Yangs, Little River town and the river itself formed the Parish of Wurdi Youang in the County of Grant. The site is registered as the Mount Rothwell Stone Arrangement.
The stones lie in dry grass off Little River–Ripley Road at Mount Rothwell, with no marked path or shelter, so wear sturdy footwear and watch for snakes in warm weather. The low boulders and scattered flat stones are easy to miss from the road; approach slowly and avoid walking on the stones.
The stones mark where the sun sets on specific days of the year, acting as a kind of calendar. This arrangement reveals how the Wadawurrung understood the movements of the sky and tracked the seasons.
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