Mount Leura

Mount Leura is a 313-metre scoria cone surrounding a dry crater 100 m deep and is the central and most obvious component of a larger volcanic complex southeast of the town of Camperdown located in western Victoria, Australia, 194 kilometres (121 mi) km south west of the state capital, Melbourne. The inactive volcano is thought to have last erupted between 5,000 and 20,000 years ago. The name means "big nose" in local aboriginal dialect.

Leura Maar

Mount Leura, together with nearby Mount Sugarloaf, forms part of a large extinct volcanic complex known as the "Leura Maar".^[1] The complex includes a broad shallow maar crater measuring 2.5 km by 1.7 km surrounded by a low tuff ring, inside which are the secondary eruption points of Mount Leura and several smaller unnamed mounds and cones of scoria. These may represent eruptions along a north-south fissure. The walls of the cone are alternating layers of tuff and scoria with numerous blocks and volcanic bombs. Mount Sugarloaf is a perfect conical mound on the southwestern flank of Mount Leura and represents a final stage of activity of the Leura volcano, when a small vent ejected a large volume of lava fragments in a short time, without a change in the direction of the eruption column. This produced a steep, symmetrical, conical mound of volcanic ash, scoria and larger blocks and bombs.

Mining

Numerous quarries operated within the "Leura Maar". Quarries also provide significant exposures of bedding in tuff and scoria and many xenoliths are obtained from these. The scoria at Mount Leura is notable for the inclusions of high temperature megacrusts and xenoliths (fragments of the lower crust and mantle of the earth) which occur here in unusually high concentrations. Most of the quarries now are closed and some are used for dumping landfill.

Tourism

The volcano lies within the 'Lakes and Craters' region, an access road was built in 1932. It allows vehicles the size of buses to access the lookout on top of Mount Leura. On a clear day you can see the Grampians and Mount Buninyong to the north, Mount Porndon to the east and Lavers Hill to the south. To the immediate west are the deep volcanic crater lakes Bullen-Merri and Gnotuk while to the east is the crater Lake Purrumbete popular for its Trout and Chinook Salmon fishing. ^[2]

Hillclimb

Mount Leura has hosted the Australian Hillclimb Championship twice, 1985 and 1997. The access road to the summit is closed for the competition. The Australian Hillclimb Championship has been sanctioned by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport since 1954.^[3] Prior to this it was sanctioned by the Australian Automobile Association,^[4] with two events having national championship status in 1949.

References

↑ Volcanic landforms in the Camperdown area of Victoria
↑ http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/DPI/Vro/coranregn.nsf/pages/corangamite_eruption_points_leura
↑ Past Title Winners, 1980 CAMS Manual of Motor Sport, page 57
↑ Jim Shepherd, A History of Australian Motor Sport, 1980, page 235

Mountains in Victoria, Australia

Grampians

William (1,167 m or 3,829 ft)
Difficult
Wilson
Zero

Victorian Alps

Bogong High Plains	Nelse West (1,893 m or 6,211 ft) Nelse North (1,885 m or 6,184 ft) Fainter South (1,883 m or 6,178 ft) Hotham (1,862 m or 6,109 ft) McKay (1,849 m or 6,066 ft) Cope (1,837 m or 6,027 ft) Spion Kopje (1,837 m or 6,027 ft) Jim (1,818 m or 5,965 ft)

Cathedral Range	Lake (1,482 m or 4,862 ft) The Green Hill (1,241 m or 4,072 ft) Sugarloaf (904 m or 2,966 ft) The Cathedral (801 m or 2,628 ft) South Jawbone Peak (761 m or 2,497 ft)

Cobberas Range	Cobberas No. 1 (1,810 m or 5,938 ft) Cobberas No. 2 Moscow Peak Middle Peak Cleft Peak

Cobbler Plateau	Speculation (1,648 m or 5,407 ft) Cobbler (1,628 m or 5,341 ft) Koonika (1,545 m or 5,069 ft) Despair (1,460 m or 4,790 ft)

Other	Bogong (1,986 m or 6,516 ft) Feathertop (1,922 m or 6,306 ft) Loch (1,865 m or 6,119 ft) Buller (1,805 m or 5,922 ft) Wills (1,755 m or 5,758 ft) Gibbo (1,750 m or 5,741 ft) Stirling (1,749 m or 5,738 ft) Howitt (1,742 m or 5,715 ft) The Horn (1,723 m or 5,653 ft) Buffalo (1,723 m or 5,653 ft) Wellington (1,634 m or 5,361 ft) Buggery (Alpine) (1,598 m or 5,243 ft) Baw Baw (1,567 m or 5,141 ft) Torbreck (1,516 m or 4,974 ft) St Gwinear (circa 1,500 m or 4,921 ft) Mueller (1,460 m or 4,790 ft) Selma (1,456 m or 4,777 ft) Useful (1,435 m or 4,708 ft) Tambo (1,430 m or 4,692 ft) Selwyn (1,411 m or 4,629 ft) Terrible (1,325 m or 4,347 ft) Donna Buang (1,250 m or 4,101 ft) Buggery (Wangaratta) (1,153 m or 3,783 ft) Bulla Bulla (906 m or 2,972 ft) Dom Dom (740 m or 2,428 ft) Brumby Point Pine

Other
mountain ranges

Central Highlands	Macedon (1,001 m or 3,284 ft)

Dandenong Ranges	Dandenong (633 m or 2,077 ft)

Pyrenees Ranges	Avoca (747 m or 2,451 ft) Warrenmang (537 m or 1,762 ft)

Strzelecki Ranges	Tassie (740 m or 2,428 ft)

Other	Matlock (1,377 m or 4,518 ft) Ritchie (1,259 m or 4,131 ft) Toorongo (1,247 m or 4,091 ft) Horsfall (1,130 m or 3,707 ft) Kaye (998 m or 3,274 ft) Elizabeth (941 m or 3,087 ft) Ghiran (924 m or 3,031 ft) Disappointment (794 m or 2,605 ft) Riddell (781 m or 2,562 ft) Beenak (745 m or 2,444 ft) Alexander (744 m or 2,441 ft) Buninyong (719 m or 2,359 ft) Hanging Rock / Diogenes (718 m or 2,356 ft) Warrenheip (714 m or 2,343 ft) Franklin (648 m or 2,126 ft) Beckworth (634 m or 2,080 ft) Corhanwarrabul (628 m or 2,060 ft) Tarrengower (556 m or 1,824 ft) Warrenmang (526 m or 1,726 ft) Teneriffe (444 m or 1,457 ft) Napier (440 m or 1,444 ft) Briggs Bluff (420 m or 1,378 ft) Arapiles (369 m or 1,211 ft) You Yangs (352 m or 1,155 ft) Leura (313 m or 1,027 ft) Noorat (310 m or 1,017 ft) Elephant (240 m or 787 ft) Warrnambool (216 m or 709 ft) Eccles (178 m or 584 ft) Wycheproof (148 m or 486 ft) Cooper (137 m or 449 ft) Fraser Hopeless Typo

Coordinates: 38°14′S 143°09′E / 38.233°S 143.150°E / -38.233; 143.150

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