Gulaga,

dual-named 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 ...

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

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 (topography), summit area, and ...

located in the

south coast South Coast is a name often given to coastal areas to the south of a geographical region or major metropolitan area. Geographical Australia *South Coast (New South Wales), the coast of New South Wales, Australia, south of Sydney * South Coast (Q ...

region of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, 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 north of Bermagui. The park is dominated by Gulaga, also known as Mount Gulaga (formerly Mount Dromedary). The former Wallaga Lake National Park, ...

. At its highest point, it measures

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

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

Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

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-groupi ...

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 Montague Island (Barunguba) is a continental island contained within the Montague Island Nature Reserve, a protected nature reserve that is located offshore from the South Coast region of New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The nearest town l ...

, 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 her both her sons in the distance. CC-BY icon

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 resources by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. However, with the expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface ...

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

alluvium Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') 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. Alluv ...

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 Iron, FeSulfur, S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic Luster (mineralogy), lust ...

-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 Agreement ...

, was handed back to its

traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

, the Yuin people, 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 recorded ...

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

Barunguba / Montague Island Montague Island (Barunguba) is a continental island contained within the Montague Island Nature Reserve, a protected nature reserve that is located offshore from the South Coast region of New South Wales, in eastern Australia. The nearest town l ...

Geology

When Gulaga / Mount Dromedary was once an

active volcano An active volcano is a volcano which is either erupting or is likely to erupt in the future. An active volcano which is not currently erupting is known as a dormant volcano. Overview Tlocene Epoch. Most volcanoes are situated on the Pacific Ri ...

, 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 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

(65 million years ago). Gulaga is thus an

igneous rock Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main The three types of rocks, rock types, the others being Sedimentary rock, sedimentary and metamorphic rock, metamorphic. Igneous rock ...

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 Earth's atmosphere, atmosphere to fall back as Pyroclastic ...

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 groundmass with calcic plagioclase and sanidine and some dark-colored v ...

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. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start ...

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 and ...

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 o ...

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-grained ...

or quartz

feldspar Feldspars are 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 ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) feldsp ...

. 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%). Some syenites contain larger proport ...

Boulder and

pinkwood ''Eucryphia moorei'', commonly known as pinkwood, plumwood, or eastern leatherwood is a tree found in southeastern New South Wales, Australia. It also occurs just over the border at the Howe Range in Victoria. Pinkwood is the dominant tree speci ...

rainforest File:Pinkwood.jpg,

Pinkwood ''Eucryphia moorei'', commonly known as pinkwood, plumwood, or eastern leatherwood is a tree found in southeastern New South Wales, Australia. It also occurs just over the border at the Howe Range in Victoria. Pinkwood is the dominant tree speci ...

at Gulaga Summit File:Gulaga - Eucalyptus fraxinoides & syenite.jpg, White ash on Gulaga File:Mount Gulaga temperate rainforest.jpg, Temperate rainforest near the summit