The History of Blackwood – By Margot Hitchcock, Historian for the Blackwood & District Historical Society. April 2019.
Diprotodon or Giant Wombat bones found in Bacchus Marsh, near Blackwood .
Following on reading a book I have entitled – ‘The Bacchus Story’ – a History of Captain Bacchus and Bacchus Marsh, I read with interest how ‘bones were unearthed of a Diprotodon or Giant Wombat in a soil pit he owned on the Korkuperrimul Creek in Bacchus Marsh which is near Blackwood.
Large jaw pieces were collected which revealed the animal had incisors about four inches long. Carbon tests showed the Diprotodon dated back 30 thousand years. Other bones of ancient animals dating back to the late Pleistocene Age were also found, including those of Procoptodon goliah, or the giant kangaroo. The gentle grass eating Diprotodon (about the size of a Hippopotamus) is the largest known marsupial. The National Museum of Victoria considered this a significant find. It is believed the Diprotodon became extinct about 10 thousand years ago, possibly owing to climate changes and shortage of food supply. They were also hunted by Aborigines. The Aborigines who lived in the area, now called Bacchus Marsh belonged to the Kurung tribe. The dark forests, west of Mount Blackwood were avoided for it was believed that there evil spirits dwelt.’
In a New Guinea newspaper on ‘Trove’ I read how in 1973 bones were unearthed by the daughter of Mr Hine of The skeletons of Diprotodons in her fathers quarry.
Papua New Guinea Post-Courier Friday 9 November, 1973 – A sharp eyed 12 year old girl was responsible for the discovery in Victoria, Australia, of the skeletons of five or more Diprotodons— the largest marsupials the world has known. The skeletons of the Diprotodons – the ancestors of all modern Australian vegetarian mammals are thought to be 30,000 years old. They are the first whole articulated skeletons of the extinct giant marsupials to be found in Victoria though fossil remains are abundant and widely distributed in other parts of Australia. The animals were found only in Australia. The largest species — Diprotodon opatum was the size of a large rhinoceros. The latest discovery is probably of a smaller species. The diprotodon- was a plantigrade type, walking on all fours. Its foot structure shows evidence of its descent from tree-climbing ancestors. Its enormous teeth were adapted for cropping and mastic-eating tough vegetation. Papua New Guinea Post-Courier (Port Moresby : 1969 – 1981)
On May 8th. this year, Kerry Hine, daughter of one of the owners of a large clay-pit near the town of Bacchus Marsh, 33 miles north-west of Melbourne was walking around the pit where her father was working when she noticed some large bones. They had been uncovered by a bulldozer. One was part of the jawbone of a large animal with enormous teeth still in their sockets. She took it to the Baccchus Marsh High School where she is a pupil, and Mr Royce Borgelt, a science teacher at the school, sent it on to the National Museum, Melbourne. It was identified by the curator of fossils at the museum, Mr. Thomas Darragh, who made a trip to the clay pit to see for himself. Quickly an excavation team was formed comprising Mr Darragh, his technical assistant, Mr Ian Stewart, and Mr Kenneth Simpson, his research, zoology assistant at the Monash University, Melbourne. With the willing help of the Hine family most of the bones were removed and taken to the National Museum. There they are being cleaned and a detailed assessment made of them. Parts of the fossils will later be put on display. Some bones remaining were covered with earth and later, probably, in the spring, these will be removed and a further search will be made of the area. The fossils are at the bottom of a 15 ft deposit that once was a stream bed.
Mr Graham Pizzey, a prominent Melbourne naturalist, says that diprotodons were a large group and were of various sizes and forms. They appear in the fossil records in Australia as early as any marsupial, at the beginning of the Tertiary period about 60 million to 70 million years ago. It was during the Pleistocene period that spanned the last million years to the beginning of the present period that disaster overtook the diprotodons. Perhaps in the space of 30,000 years the last of these vast creatures perished. A general view is that the collapse was caused by climatic change. As vegetation being sparse and hard – leaved in response to aridity and as river systems dwindled, their numbers would have fallen back into pockets of verdure. In such refuges the last diprotodons perished while lesser creatures, like the burrowing wombats or the possums, survived. The unknown factor is the contribution of man to their disappearance. Mr Pizzey believes it is far from proved that aboriginals killed diprotodons. Only by continued research and investigation of more deposits like those of Bacchus Marsh and of prehistoric aboriginal culture will the story of the aboriginals or the diprotodons be documented.
Photo – KERRY HINE at the spot in the-Bacchus Marsh clay pit where she found the 30,000 year-old bones. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article250469932
Found in another article in relation to geological and fossil remains was in the –
Herald (Melbourne, Wednesday 22 July 1914,
Glacial period in Victoria – “Lecturing last night in the Canterbury Hall on the subject of “Notable Australian Fossils,” and touching upon the remarks of Professor Benek that there were traces of the glacial period in the Irwin River district in West Australia, Mr F. Chapman, A.L.S., said that there are strong indications of this period at Bacchus Marsh and in parts of New South Wales. Australia, he said, was rich in geological and fossil remains, especially Queensland, which only needed exploring to bring to light many valuable specimens, particularly of the crustacean period. Victoria had her share of geological formations in Lancefield, Bacchus Marsh, Colac, Footscray, and in the quarries at Lilydale. The earliest period (Eozoic) went back 52 million years, and the most recent (Anthropozoic) 200,000 years. There was an idea that all extinct animals were large. That was not so. At one period Australia had Kangaroos (Diprotodon Aus.), which were a cross between the phalanger and the wombat, with a tall a foot long. The lecturer said that some of the names sounded peculiar, but sometimes they had a poetical and appropriate meaning. For Instance, the teeth of the tooth-whale were named “Kekenodon Onamata,” which meant in Maori “Seal of bygone days.” The address was given in connection with the University Extension lectures, and was illustrated.
The youngest Palaeozoic strata in the Melbourne district – the Early Devonian Humevale Formation, exposed in cuttings around Lilydale – contain a rich assemblage of brachiopods, bivalves, sea lilies and trilobites. Corals are found in the Lilydale Limestone in the Lilydale Quarry, the only outcrop of limestone in the Melbourne suburban area.
Researched by Margot Hitchcock from her forthcoming book ‘The History and Pioneers of Blackwood’, hopefully to be published soon. Other books published by Margot Hitchcock – “Aspects of Early Blackwood”, Some History of Simmons Reef, Blackwood” and “The Billy Pincombe Tragedy”. See – www.blackwoodpublishing.comFor help with information on Blackwood ancestors contact Margot Hitchcock – email – margothitchcock@bigpond.com
