Mount Schank

F2

View from the rim into the crater

Mount Schank is an extinct volcanic maar in the southeast of South Australia near the town of Mount Gambier. He was in 1800 by James Grant, an officer of the British Royal Navy, named after Admiral John Schank, the designer of his ship, HMS Lady Nelson.

The emergence of Mount Schank is like that of the nearby Mount Gambier returned to the East Australia hotspot. The volcano has exactly like Mount Gambier a Holocene age of about 5,000 years. The volcano is an easy built cinder cones of about a hundred meters high, and the base of the crater does not extend below the water table, so here is a crater lake as not formed at Mount Gambier.

In addition to the main volcano are two smaller craters and some lava flows generated by the volcanic eruption. The northern crater is round and has a diameter of 300 m, the older southern crater is 200 m tall and is partially overlapped by the north. The nearby lava shows structures that are typical of a rapid cooling of lava on contact with sea water. These structures suggest that the area was covered during the eruption of water - not surprisingly, because the volcano is only 15 km north of the coast today. Mount Schank is a part of the Newer Volcanics Province, the youngest volcanic field in Australia.

The local Aboriginal people from the tribe of Bunganditj witnessed eruptions of Mount Schank. Your creation story of the volcanic landscape was recorded in 1880 by the Smith Cristina live there. The story tells of the giant Craitbul who was looking for a place where he could live with his wife and two children. They camped at Mount Muirhead and Mount Schank, but were driven off by a moaning of bird spirit. They fled to Mount Gambier and had their smoking ovens ( the volcanoes ) back. After some time had passed, the water came up and filled the ovens, put out the fire and drove out the spirit. Craitbul and his family continued to live in a cave on the slopes of Mount Gambier.

Mount Schank is accessible by road between Mount Gambier and Port MacDonnell, about 12 km south of Mount Gambier. At the foot of the mountain is a small car park and picnic tables. The road to the crater rim is equipped with steps to facilitate the short but steep climb. The trail over the edge of the crater itself is not difficult, but can be dangerous in windy weather.