It was sourced from Spring Hill near
Lauriston, Victoria,[2][3] and there is another historical reference to a source at
Green Hill near
Trentham, Victoria, but the exact location has not been confirmed.
Daniel James Mahony described ...water worn pebbles of pitchstone, a highly silicious volcanic glass associated with tachylite on the
Coliban River. Mitchell refers to the distribution of the material with: Small artefacts are common at
Willaura,
Burrumbeet,
Inverleigh,
Point Cook and as far north as Dooen near Horsham.[4]
Since 2016 the material is found on further sites on the traditional lands of the
Dja Dja Wurrung who were well regarded by other groups for the hard glassy stone that all valued and traded to use for superior stone weapons and tools.[5][6] Examples are held in the collection of the
Castlemaine Art Museum.[7]
Tachylite is a type of volcanic opaque glass, and is applied to
basalts with a glassy matrix that contain scattered small
phenocrysts (pyroxene, plagioclase, olivine). Aboriginal artefacts flaked from the material are characterised by a black internal colour, which is very often patinated on the surface to a pale grey. This patina rapidly darkens on contact with the skin, turning as dark as the core. Only a few pieces are generally found in archaeological assemblages in southern Victoria and around Melbourne, apart from at sites near Spring Hill, Kyneton, where it is the most common material.[8][9]
Tachylite artefacts have been noted in Aboriginal sites in Victoria from at least the 1920s, when
W. H. Gill recorded its occurrence in a large stone artefact and camp site complex at
Cape Liptrap.[10]
Tachylite has also been identified as a material used in manufacturing flaked stone artefacts in archaeological sites in Europe,[11] North America,[12] and India.[13]
^Willman, C. E., Bibby, L. M., Radojkovic, A. M., Maher, S., Haydon, S. J., Hollis, J. D. and C. R. Osborne, C. R. 2002 Castlemaine. 1:100,000 Map Area Geological Report. Geological Survey of Victoria Report 121. Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Melbourne
^Mitchell, S.R. 1949: Stone-Age Craftsmen. Stone Tools and Camping Places of the Australian Aborigines. Tait Book Co. Pty. Ltd. Melbourne. pp.90-91
^Smith, Diana; Kerr, Racquel (2016). "Djaara tachylite: Resource and distribution on Dja Dja Wurrung Country". In Spry, Caroline; Foley, Elizabeth; Frankel, David; Lawrence, Susan (eds.). Excavations, Surveys and Heritage Management in Victoria. Vol. 5. Bundoora, Victoria: Archaeology Program, La Trobe University.
ISBN9781326923549.
^Frankel, David (2017). Between the Murray and the Sea: Aboriginal Archaeology in Southeastern Australia. Sydney University Press.
ISBN9781743325537.
^"Axes". Castlemaine Art Museum Collection Online. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
^Clark, V. 2004. Calder Highway Kyneton to Faraday: Sub-surface Archaeological Investigations for Aboriginal Cultural Heritage in Sensitive Areas PAS1, SA1, SA4 and at Site AAV7723-0125, Near Malmsbury, Victoria. Report to VicRoads
^Clark, V. and Howes, J. 2010. Calder Freeway Faraday to Ravenswood, Harcourt North Section: Archaeological Monitoring During Construction. Report to VicRoads