Meeting Place

The legend goes as follows...

Before there was Armidale, there was the Meeting Place. The Meet Place was the site where the Indigenous Aniwan (Anaiwan)and (Gumbayniggir) people would meet to discuss their differences. A sacrifice of blood on the altar would feed the hungry earth, and the hungry earth would and avenge the petitioner if they were assaulted at the meeting place. "Let no blood be spilled, except on this altar", stories would say.

Geography

The meeting place 5km to the NW of the Armidale city centre, 1162 meteres above sea level and ~52m above the city of Armidale. The topology of the area, with the characteristic crater in the centre of the hill, is suggestive of a meteor strike or some other explosion. However, geologists have not discovered any material in the area to support these hypotheses, and the unusual 'crater' is believed to be the result of a glacial corrie.

There are three statues of the 'old gods' of Armidale. The position of the statues suggests a fourth statue, but no evidence of such a statue has been found by archaeologists. The current theory is that these statues were part of the set that were never finished.

The Altar

At the Norhtern tip of the crater is a roughly crate-shaped rectangular slab of stone referred to as the Altar. Local pagan groups often meet at this site to sacrifice foodstuffs in celebration of events such as equinoxes and the start of seasons.