Tower Hill

The Tower Hill State Game Reserve and the adjoining land which is part of the volcanic landform and enhances interpretation and understanding of cultural values at the site.

How is it significant?

Tower Hill State Game Reserve and Surrounds as defined below is significant for scientific reasons, including geology and revegetation work, at an International/ national level. (Note that the "International" classification is based on the decision of the Geological Society of Australia to classify the geology and geomorphology at this level.) The site is significant for aesthetic and cultural reasons, including historic and social aspects, at a National level.

Why is it significant?

Tower Hill is a geological and geomorphological site of International significance as a type example of a nested maar, a volcanic crater formed by a series of phreatic explosions with late stage scoria cone development.

Tower Hill is of scientific significance at the National level for the revegetation work within the crater, which has been described as the most ambitious scheme of this type in Australia, and the only one where the placement and species used in the planting were based upon an early painting of the area. Skills developed in the course of this work, and subsequently applied in other parts of the country, include an understanding of the importance of using species indigenous to the local area, requirements for re-introduction of native fauna, and awareness of the need for re-establishment of understorey species. The social history of habitat restoration at Tower Hill is of National significance as the first time that not only government and academic scientists but also a large number of community groups, were involved. The latter included branches of most of the important social organisations in rural Australia in the 1960s. The success of this involvement was one of the factors behind the introduction of the Landcare program which started in Victoria in the 1980s, and subsequently spread to other parts of Australia.

In terms of aesthetic significance, the scenic and visual qualities derive from the relationship of Tower Hill to the relatively flat and cleared coastal plain, the height and slope of the enlarged crater and the internal cones, the vegetation cover and the contract between landform and vegetation and the lake and its associated marginal wetlands. Tower Hill and Surrounds is of National significance for heritage landscape values. Viewed from the sea the hill formed a major landmark for early explorers of the Victorian coast, and from the land it served as a guide for the overlanders who brought livestock into the area. The crater was reserved for public use in 1866 (Downes, 1969), and in 1892 it became the first National Park created in Victoria. The immediate surrounds still show the early colonial landscape of scattered Irish-style rural dwellings set alongside small roads dividing fields in which early settlers grew potatoes and onions. This rural landscape is integrated seamlessly with a historic market town, Koroit, one kilometre north of Tower Hill, where many of the buildings date from the 1850s and the main street have been recognized as significant by the National Trust.

Classified 27/02/2006

Group

Landscape - Cultural

Category

Other - Landscape - Cultural