The Indigenous Australians must have seen some of the eruptions as they told stories about rocks and fires coming from some mountains. Stone tools have been found buried in volcanic ash near Warrnambool. Major Thomas Mitchell was the first European to describe the Western Volcanic Plains. He climbed Mount Napier in 1836 and wrote that it looked as if the volcano had been active not that long ago. Early settlers liked the plains as they could easily grow crops in the rich, fertile soil. They used the volcanic stones to build dry stone walls around their farms.