You Yangs
You Yangs
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You Yangs

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You Yangs

The You Yangs are a series of granite ridges that rise up to 319 m (1,047 ft) above the flat and low-lying Werribee Plain in southern Victoria, Australia, approximately 5 km (3.1 mi) due west of the rural town of Little River, 55 km (34 mi) southwest of Melbourne CBD and 22 km (14 mi) north of Geelong. The main ridge runs roughly north-south for about 9 km (5 mi), with a lower extension running for about 15 km (10 mi) to the west. Much of the southern section of the range is protected in You Yangs Regional Park.

The You Yangs sits about halfway between the Brisbane Ranges to the west and the nearest coast, at Corio Bay to the south-east. Although its highest point, Flinders Peak at the southern end, is only 319 m, the You Yangs dominate the surrounding landscape and are clearly identifiable from nearby Geelong, Melbourne and beyond.

The You Yangs are the site of a geoglyph of Bunjil, a Dreamtime creator deity to some of the Indigenous people of Victoria, depicted as an wedge-tailed eagle. The geoglyph was constructed by the Australian artist Andrew Rogers in recognition of the local Indigenous Wathaurong people. Unveiled in March 2006, the geoglyph has a wing span of 100 metres and 1500 tonnes of rock was used in its construction.

The name "You Yang" comes from the Aboriginal words Wurdi Youang or Ude Youang which could have any number of meanings from "big mountain in the middle of a plain", "big or large hill", or "bald". The Woiwurrung word for granite stone 'yow wong' is also a possibility. The Yawangi people enlarged natural hollows in the rocks to form wells that held water even in dry seasons. The area around the You Yangs was called Morong-morongoo after the murnong, or yam daisy, that was abundant there.

Explorer Matthew Flinders was the first European to visit the You Yangs. On 1 May 1802, he and three of his men climbed to the highest point. He named it "Station Peak" but the name was changed in 1912 to "Flinders Peak" in his honour.

The You Yangs have always attracted artists to paint them and feature most strongly in works by one of Australia's greatest artists, Fred Williams. Williams spent long periods developing his plein air representations of the You Yangs, and they have now become classics of Australian art – rugged, dramatic, yet sparse in their imagery – unquestionably of the Australian bush.

The You Yangs were chosen to depict some battle scenes for the HBO World War II series The Pacific.

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