Mount Arapiles is a rock formation that rises about 140 metres (460 ft) above the Wimmera plains in western Victoria, Australia.

It is located in Arapiles approximately 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) west of the town of Natimuk and is part of the Mount Arapiles-Tooan State Park.

[1] The Djurid Baluk clan of the Wotjobaluk people inhabited the nearby area for thousands of years prior to the European colonisation of Australia.

As with many groups affected by Australia's policy of Assimilation, the Djurid Balud were displaced from the area following European settlement in the mid-1840s, leading to the breaking up of the clan.

The loss of the resources that the mountain provided, the ravages of European disease, and armed clashes with the settlers were all contributing factors.

An extract from Mitchell's diary on 22 July reads: "This certainly was a remarkable portion of the earth's surface, and rather resembled that of the moon as seen through a telescope.

Mount Arapiles is primarily composed of quartzite, a metamorphic rock that was originally quartzose conglomerate and sandstone (quartz arenite).

Evidence for that deposition can be seen in the decimeter-meter scale cross stratification and lateral accretion surfaces visible in the cliffs, and the presence of many beds containing well rounded, pebble size clasts.

The nearby Grampians/Gariwerd mountain range contains some more distal facies of the same depositional system, which is evidenced by the lesser quantity of conglomerate and smaller average grain size.

Arapiles is preserved due to a granitic intrusion that was emplaced below the sandstone and conglomerate approx 400 Ma, or 20 million years after sedimentation.

That intrusion advected heat from lower in the crust, facilitating pervasive quartz cementation of the detrital grains.

Although the unmetamorphosed, but otherwise similar, sediments surrounding "the Mount" have eroded away, Arapiles has been preserved, because the total occulsion of pore space related to the cementation helps to limit erosion.

The route blasts up the middle of a blank, attractive orange wall and gave Arapiles (and Australia) international exposure.

The warm weather, accessibility, quantity and quality of climbs have helped to maintain the popularity of Arapiles with locals, Australians and international travellers alike.

Historical exceptions to this stance include routes such as: Steps Ahead, London Calling, 'Sean's route in The Bluffs', Ethiopia, Punks in the Gym, Lord of the Rings, Wackford direct, Pet Abuse, Slopin' Sleazin' and Cecil B de Mille, many of which were the hardest climbs done in Australia at the time.