The Newer Volcanics Province is a complex of volcanic centres formed by the East Australia hotspot

East Australia hotspot

The East Australia hotspot is a volcanic hotspot that forces magma up at weak spots in the Indo-Australian Plate to form volcanoes in Eastern Australia. There have been no eruptions in Australia during historic times. It does not produce a single chain of volcanoes like the Hawaiian Islands...

 across south-eastern Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It has an area of 6,000 square miles (15,000 square km) with over 400 vents and contains the youngest volcano

Volcano

2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...

es in Australia. The youngest eruptions in the volcanic field

Volcanic field

A volcanic field is an area of the Earth's crust that is prone to localized volcanic activity. They usually contain 10 to 100 volcanoes, such as cinder cones and are usually in clusters. Lava flows may also occur...

 took place at Mount Schank

Mount Schank

Mount Schank is an inactive maar volcano in the south-east of South Australia, near Mount Gambier. It was named by James Grant in 1800 after Admiral John Schank, designer of Grant's ship, the HMS Lady Nelson....

 and Mount Gambier

Mount Gambier (volcano)

Mount Gambier is a maar complex in South Australia associated with the Newer Volcanics Province. It contains four lake-filled maars called Blue Lake, Valley Lake, Leg of Mutton Lake, and Brownes Lake...

 about 5600 years ago, when explosive activity formed several maar

Maar

A maar is a broad, low-relief volcanic crater that is caused by a phreatomagmatic eruption, an explosion caused by groundwater coming into contact with hot lava or magma. A maar characteristically fills with water to form a relatively shallow crater lake. The name comes from the local Moselle...

s and associated lava flows.

Volcanoes within the province include:

• Mount Schank
  Mount Schank
  Mount Schank is an inactive maar volcano in the south-east of South Australia, near Mount Gambier. It was named by James Grant in 1800 after Admiral John Schank, designer of Grant's ship, the HMS Lady Nelson....
  
  
• Mount Napier
  Mount Napier
  Mount Napier in Victoria, Australia, one of the youngest volcanoes in Australia, last erupted about 5,290 BCE. Mount Napier State Park is located 270 kilometres west of Melbourne and 17 km south of Hamilton. The Mount Napier Lava Flow reached nearby Mount Eccles which is 25 km...
  
  
• Mount Gambier
  Mount Gambier (volcano)
  Mount Gambier is a maar complex in South Australia associated with the Newer Volcanics Province. It contains four lake-filled maars called Blue Lake, Valley Lake, Leg of Mutton Lake, and Brownes Lake...
  
   (including Blue Lake
  Blue Lake (South Australia)
  The Blue Lake in Mount Gambier, South Australia is a large monomictic lake located in an extinct volcanic maar associated with the Mount Gambier maar complex. It is one of four crater lakes on Mount Gambier...
  
  )
• Tower Hill
  Tower Hill (volcano)
  Tower Hill is an inactive volcano on the southwest coast of Victoria, Australia. Within the crater the explosion also formed a series of small cones and spheres surrounded by a crater lake.Tower Hill volcano is roughly 4 km wide and 80 m high...
  
  
• Mount Elephant
  Mount Elephant
  Mount Elephant is a 240 m high conical breached scoria cone formed by an Extinct volcano, located 1 km from the town of Derrinallum in southwestern Victoria, Australia. It is a prominent landmark....
  
  
• Mount Eccles
  Mount Eccles
  Mount Eccles is an inactive volcano in southwestern Victoria, Australia near Macarthur. It is composed of scoria hill from a series of volcanic vents. The Gunditjmara name for the mountain is Budj Bim meaning High Head...
  
  
• Mount Leura
  Mount Leura
  Mount Leura is a 313 metre scoria cone surrounding a dry crater 100 m deep and is the central and most obvious component of a larger volcanic complex southeast of the town of Camperdown located in western Victoria, Australia, 194 kilometres  km south west of the state capital, Melbourne...
  
  
• Mount Noorat
  Mount Noorat
  Mount Noorat is an extinct volcano, situated on Glenormiston Road north of the township of Noorat, and approximately six kilometres north of Terang, Victoria, Australia...
  
  
• Mount Buninyong
  Mount Buninyong
  Mount Buninyong is a hill overlooking Ballarat in Victoria, Australia. Formed from an extinct volcano, it rises to above sea level. The mountain was originally named Mount Bonan Yowing which is said to derive from an Aboriginal word meaning a man lying on his back with his knee raised...
  
  
• Lake Bullen Merri
  Lake Bullen Merri
  Lake Bullen Merri is a brackish crater lake near Camperdown in Victoria, Australia. It has a maximum depth of 66 metres, with a clover leaf outline indicating that it was probably formed by two overlapping maar volcanoes. The lake is depicted in beautiful work by Eugene von Guerard...
  
  
• Lake Purrumbete
  Lake Purrumbete
  Lake Purrumbete is a volcanic lake located in the Western District of Victoria . Lake Purrumbete is approximately 15 km east of the town of Camperdown.The lake is a popular trout fishing spot and is a wildlife sanctuary....
  
  
• Red Rock
  Red Rock Reserve
  Red Rock Reserve is a major volcanic site made up of several large maar craters, some of which are intermittently filled by lakes. It is situated in Victoria, Australia, about ten kilometres north of Colac.-References:*...