Gulaga,

dual-named Dual naming is the adoption of an official toponymy, place name that combines two earlier names, or uses both names, often to resolve a disagreement over which of the two individual names is more appropriate. In some cases, the reasons are polit ...

as Mount Dromedary and also referred to as Mount Gulaga, is a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

located in the south coast region of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia. It rises above the village of Central Tilba and is within the

Gulaga National Park Gulaga National Park is a national park on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, about south of Narooma. The park is dominated by Gulaga, also known as Mount Gulaga (formerly Mount Dromedary). The former Wallaga Lake National Park, Go ...

. At its highest point, it measures

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. Najanuka / Little Dromedary Mountain, also dual-named, lies to the south-east, and both mountains are of great significance to the local Aboriginal people, the Dhurga-speaking

Yuin people The Yuin nation, also spelt Djuwin, is a group of Australian Aboriginal peoples from the South Coast of New South Wales. All Yuin people share ancestors who spoke, as their first language, one or more of the Yuin language dialects. Sub-group ...

. The area features the southernmost

subtropical rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropical rainforests or ...

in New South Wales.

History

Aboriginal significance

Gulaga is the place of ancestral origin within the mythology of the

, the Aboriginal people of the area. Gulaga itself symbolises the mother and provides a basis for Aboriginal spiritual identity; the mountain as well as the surrounding area holds particular significance for Aboriginal women. For the Yuin people it is seen as a place of cultural origin. The mountain is regarded as a symbolic mother-figure providing the basis for the people's spiritual identity. Gulaga, the mother, has two sons: Barunguba, also known as Montague Island, and Najanuka, named Little Dromedary by Europeans. The story tells that her second son was not allow to go far from home, as his elder brother did, and that Gulaga can see both of her sons in the distance. Text may have been copied from this source, which is available under
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
licence.

European discovery and mining

The first Europeans to sight the mountain were the crew of Captain Cook's ship, HMS ''Endeavour'' on 21 April 1770. ''Endeavour'' passed the mountain at a distance of offshore. Cook named it "Mount Dromedary", as its figure reminded him of the hump of a camel. In the mid-1800s Mount Dromedary, became a prominent site of

gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining. Historically, mining gold from Alluvium, alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. The expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface has led to mor ...

. Rev. W.B. Clarke first found traces of

alluvium Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

gold in Dignams Creek in 1852. Gold mining then became a common activity in the area. A significant amount of gold was found in deposits along streams coming from Gulaga's slopes. Between 1878 and 1920 approximately of gold was found in its slopes. Near the crest of Gulaga, reefs were discovered in 1877 that allowed for gold mineralisation. These

pyrite The mineral pyrite ( ), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue ...

-rich veins, ranging in size from , were mined by the Mount Dromedary Gold Mining Company mainly between 1878 and 1910.

21st century

In May 2006 the Gulaga National Park, incorporating the former

Wallaga Lake National Park Wallaga Lake National Park is a former national park in New South Wales, south-west of Sydney and north of Bermagui. It now forms part of a greater Gulaga National Park. In 2001, as part of the Southern Comprehensive Regional Forest Agreemen ...

, was handed back to its

traditional owners Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rig ...

, the

, in a historic agreement signed by the NSW Environment Minister and the Yuin people. The agreement also included

Biamanga National Park Biamanga National Park is a protected area in New South Wales, Australia, south of Sydney and north of Bega. The park forms part of the Ulladulla to Merimbula Important Bird Area because of its importance for swift parrots. Its name derives ...

, which incorporates Mumbulla Mountain, the "men's mountain". After a period of community consultation from mid-2021, The mountain was officially assigned the

dual name Dual naming is the adoption of an official place name that combines two earlier names, or uses both names, often to resolve a disagreement over which of the two individual names is more appropriate. In some cases, the reasons are political. Some ...

s of Gulaga and Mount Dromedary on 30 November 2021. Signage would place Gulaga first and the European name underneath it, reflecting the importance of the

Dhurga language The Dhurga language, also written Thurga, is an Australian Aboriginal language of New South Wales. It is a language of the Yuin people, specifically the Wandandian and Walbunja groups, but there have been no fluent speakers officially record ...

, history and traditions. At the same time, Little Dromedary Mountain was dual-named Najanuka / Little Dromedary Mountain, and the island

Barunguba / Montague Island Barunguba / Montague Island is a Island#Continental islands, continental island contained within the Montague Island Nature Reserve, a state park, protected nature reserve that is located offshore from the South Coast (New South Wales), South C ...

Geology

When Gulaga / Mount Dromedary was once an

active volcano An active volcano is a volcano that is currently erupting, or has the potential to erupt in the future. Conventionally it is applied to any that have erupted during the Holocene (the current geologic epoch that began approximately 11,700 years ...

, part of a complex covering about , with the first of several eruptions occurring about 94 million years ago during the Mid Cretaceous. Its eruptions formed both Najanuka / Little Dromedary to the east and Baranguba/ Montague Island. Back then it would have been nearly higher than its current above sea level, with foothills stretching to Tuross Head. What remains today is the inner core of the original volcano. It has been dormant since end of the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

(65 million years ago). Gulaga is thus an

igneous rock Igneous rock ( ), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rocks are formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava. The magma can be derived from partial ...

complex, known as Mount Dromedary Igneous Complex. It comprises a group of igneous and

extrusive rock Extrusive rock refers to the mode of igneous volcanic rock formation in which hot magma from inside the Earth flows out (extrudes) onto the surface as lava or explodes violently into the atmosphere to fall back as pyroclastics or tuff. In cont ...

s of the

Shoshonite Shoshonite is a type of igneous rock. More specifically, it is a potassium-rich variety of basaltic trachyandesite, composed of olivine, augite and plagioclase phenocrysts in a Matrix (geology), groundmass with calcic plagioclase and sanidine and ...

association. There are also

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era, and the second of twelve periods of the Phanerozoic Eon (geology), Eon. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years f ...

sediments to the east and west of the villages of Central Tilba and Tilba Tilba. The mountain is composed of banatite ("a rock of intermediate composition between

quartz diorite Quartz diorite is an igneous, plutonic ( intrusive) rock, of felsic composition, with phaneritic texture. Feldspar is present as plagioclase (typically oligoclase or andesine) with 10% or less potassium feldspar. Quartz is present at between 5 an ...

and

quartz monzonite Quartz monzonite is an intrusive, felsic, igneous rock that has an approximately equal proportion of orthoclase and plagioclase feldspars. It is typically a light colored phaneritic (coarse-grained) to porphyritic granitic rock. The plagioclase ...

". There is an outer layer of

monzonite Monzonite is an igneous intrusive rock, formed by slow cooling of underground magma that has a moderate silica content and is enriched in alkali metal oxides. Monzonite is composed mostly of plagioclase and alkali feldspar. Syenodiorite is an ...

around the banatite core main core of Gulaga, probably emplaced by the vertical movement of magma which created intrusion into the surrounding Ordovician sediments. There are dykes within the complex, mainly composed of

dolerite Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro, is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grain ...

or quartz

feldspar Feldspar ( ; sometimes spelled felspar) is a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagiocl ...

. At its highest point, Gulaga measures

Activities

Gulaga is located within the Gulaga National Park and the area serves as a site for public activity as well as a place of significance for the Aboriginal peoples. The national park provides walkways along the mining roads, which provide views of the coastal lakes. The hike from Tilba to the summit is approximately ; taking about a half a day to complete. Though it is steep in a few places along the way, it is a fairly leisurely hike, requiring no special hiking equipment. Access to the park is approximately north of Bermagui. The lakes can be accessed by boat, which can be rented from Regatta Point or Beauty Point.

Gallery

File:Gulaga-Pinkwood & Syenite.jpg,

Syenite Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock with a general composition similar to that of granite, but deficient in quartz, which, if present at all, occurs in relatively small concentrations (< 5%). It is considered a pinkwood rainforest File:Pinkwood.jpg, Pinkwood at Gulaga Summit File:Gulaga - Eucalyptus fraxinoides & syenite.jpg, White ash on Gulaga File:Mount Gulaga temperate rainforest.jpg, Temperate rainforest near the summit