STONE CIRCLES
at
MOUNT ELEPHANT
Fact or Fiction
From the front page of the
New Zealand Standard
1st May 1877
No.1…. DUNEDIN 1st May 1877 Price 6d
STONE CIRCLES at MOUNT ELEPHANT
In various regions are found rude stone monuments which are a puzzle to antiquarians.
When they were erected and for what propose nobody can tell exactly, history and legend being silent on the subject.
All that can be fairly said is that they have been erected by the primitive
inhabitants of the localities where they are found, and that they constitute the sole memorial they have left future ages.
Probably they were originally consecrated to religious uses, or what is more probable is that they were tombs, before they were temples primitive religion having apparently grown out of, or having been at all events closely associated with a certain form of worship addressed to the spirits of deceased ancestors.
In that case it maybe easily conjectured that the stones referred to are relics of larger structures, presenting in their complete form a mound like appearance and that the stones are merely what remain of the structure when the clay, timber and other materials have disappeared.
The stones are often of immense size and they are generally raised to form a circle.
Stonehenge presents a familiar example of such structures and similar stone circles are met with as far north as the Hebrides and as far south as Australia and the islands of the pacific.
Mr Ormond in a letter to Sir J. Y. Simpson says that he has seen many, especially near the Mount Elephant Plains in Victoria.
They are “from ten to one hundred feet and sometimes there is an
inner circle.
The stones comprising these circles or circular area’s vary in size and shape.
Human bones have been dug out of mounds near the circles; the aborigines have no traditions respecting them. When asked about them they invariably deny all knowledge of their origin”.
Photo and text courtesy of the Internet and the New Zealand Standard
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Well, it would appear that there could have been a lot of truth
in this newspaper article,
A local resident of the Derrinallum area wrote the following to me
confirming the existance of a number of stone circles in the area:
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Well, it would appear that there could have been a lot of truth
in this newspaper article,
A local resident of the Derrinallum area wrote the following to me
confirming the existance of a number of stone circles in the area:
February 2011
"You were right in assuming the stones were used for building materials, one of the stones is in the a local woolshed doorway.
I have a photo somewhere of 6 stonehenges between Camperdown and Mt Elephant by a New Zealand newspaper, maybe the same paper that took the one you have.
I contacted the paper to try to get all the glass plates, but had been bought out by a big media operation and they threw the old stuff away.
Some of the old round mounds can be seen from the air apparently. My Uncle was a pilot and was quite well versed in stonehenges around the world. Australia has three main sets of them, one of which was near Mt Elephant.
The farm Mt Elephant Station had some too.
My uncle flew the area around Mt Elephant in the 1970s and found several sites where the stone circle remains were. All the big stones were gone for building purposes, but there was enough remnants remaining for him to find some of the rounds. One local family let him on their property to record some of the sites and to see some of the stones in buildings.
Unfortunately my uncle passed away in Broken Hill in 2010 and I do not know where all his stuff ended up".
"You were right in assuming the stones were used for building materials, one of the stones is in the a local woolshed doorway.
I have a photo somewhere of 6 stonehenges between Camperdown and Mt Elephant by a New Zealand newspaper, maybe the same paper that took the one you have.
I contacted the paper to try to get all the glass plates, but had been bought out by a big media operation and they threw the old stuff away.
Some of the old round mounds can be seen from the air apparently. My Uncle was a pilot and was quite well versed in stonehenges around the world. Australia has three main sets of them, one of which was near Mt Elephant.
The farm Mt Elephant Station had some too.
My uncle flew the area around Mt Elephant in the 1970s and found several sites where the stone circle remains were. All the big stones were gone for building purposes, but there was enough remnants remaining for him to find some of the rounds. One local family let him on their property to record some of the sites and to see some of the stones in buildings.
Unfortunately my uncle passed away in Broken Hill in 2010 and I do not know where all his stuff ended up".
If anyone has more details or locations of these
Stone Circles
please let me know so that I can add it to this page.
Stone Circles
please let me know so that I can add it to this page.