The first settler was Charles Browning Hall who set out in search of a suitable grazing run when he found the cattle market at Port Phillip overstocked in 1841. He establishing a station just east of the Grampians in a spot known as "Mokepilli" to the indigenous inhabitants. By following Aboriginal tracks he came upon the gap which now bears his name.
The Venus Baths and the Elephant Hide are located via a 2.5km return walk out of Halls Gap in the Grampians mountain ranges. This location is an amazing, picturesque spot with many unusual rock formations.
The Elephants Hide is a Dip Slope. A Dip Slope is a topographic (geomorphic) surface which slopes in the same direction, and often by the same amount, as the true dip or apparent dip of the underlying strata. The Venus Baths run along the base of the Elephants Hide and offer an amazing location during the summer months to have a fresh 'dip' in the running water.
A dip slope consists of the upper surface of a resistant layer of rock, often called caprock, that is commonly only slightly lowered and reduced in steepness by erosion. Dip slopes form the backslopes of cuestas, homoclinal ridges, hogbacks, and flatirons. The frontslopes of such ridges consist of either an escarpment, a steep slope, or perhaps even a line of cliffs. Generally, cuestas and homoclinal ridges are asymmetrical in that their dip slopes are less steep than their escarpments. In the case of hogbacks and flatirons, the dip of the rocks is so steep that their dip slope approaches the escarpment in their steepness.
Dip Slope
This location in the Grampians area is know as a Cruesta. In general usage, a cuesta is a hill or ridge with a gentle slope (backslope) on one side, and a steep slope (frontslope) on the other.
The cuesta is the most important land-form because its distinctive shape gives the Grampians their characteristic appearance and also because it has a definite influence on the environmental habitats within the mountains. The important features of the cuesta in this regard are the slope of the sandstone beds, their characteristics of fracture and dissection, the slope of the ground surface, the depth of soil and the exposure and shelter provided. An important consequence of the fracturing of the beds is the degree of dissection of the dip slope. Dissection is severe where there is intensive and deep fracturing and mild where there is mild fracturing.
At this location, the land form converts from cuesta landscape to form a series of hogbacks where sandstone beds dip with very high angles and steep ridges.
Sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains. Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any color, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, grey, pink, white and black.
Q1 Standing here at the Venus Baths, look up the Elephants Hide. Describe the rock surface in your own words and the colours you see. Do you think it looks like an elephants hide?
Q2 Now explore the Venus Baths. Describe the creek rock at your feet in your own words. What colours do you see here. Is it smooth to touch or rough?
Please watch your step in this location. It can very very slippery at different times of the year with rainfall.
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References ~ brambuck & wikipedia