Bonan Youang and Terrinalum: The Ethnogeology of Ballaarat’s Living Landscape

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This is a very nice and very concise introduction to ethnogeology through one very clear example from Australia.  I am very grateful to the authors both for the example and for the summary of the literature and very much look forward to sharing the article with my students.  The technique of placing a stories parallel to a standard geological text is very nice and makes for a very convincing article. The article is extremely well edited and written.  I am not an expert on the region and I am assuming that a knowledgable person from the region will be able to confirm how authoritative and complete the Wadawurrung ethnography is.  The one thing as an outsider that struck me is the lack of a conclusion (ethnogeological tapestry).  To complete the article it would have been nice to have had one or two paragraphs on the settler ethnogeology. Beyond the impossible names of geological provinces and eras often there is a subtle logic that is also intangible and yet structuring. After all, geology was the central insight which decentred Biblical chronologies and to a great extent the work of Lyell and Hutton built on local ethnogeologies in a different set of Grampian mountains in Scotland.  Some of this insight likely also whispers through this study and could be nicely add to the "emerging" field of ethnogeology.

Author Response

thanks you for these positive comments.

The 'tapestry' conclusion is now strengthened.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

thank you for your comments.

Additional strength in the text has now been added to address people’s perceptions, and their First Nations ecological knowledge to conserve the ecology and culture of the area.