History of the heiroglyphics
In the last issue of Peninsula News, bush walker Shirley Drake wrote about hieroglyphics she came upon on a recent walk.
Prompted by Shirley Drakes story, Wayne Peters of Coastal EcoTours has provided some details about the unusual Egyptian art.
Wayne still remembers when, as a local lad growing up in the area, there used to be an orchard on Kariong Hill not too far from Staples Lookout.
The farmer and his family had worked the land and maintained a "perfect balance" between its cultivation and the impact it had upon the Brisbane Water National Park that surrounded it.
The story goes that about 1950 the strange site was known to a few local families but then was lost to mythology for the next 20 or so years.
In the early 1970s, the son of the farmer went looking for his dog that had strayed off into the scrub.
The son eventually found the dog at the site where he also uncovered the mysterious Egyptian hieroglyphic walls and, understandably flabbergasted, grabbed the dog and bolted back home to tell his family of the astounding discovery.
At this time, the site had been partially buried under rubble piled into the crevice where the texts are inscribed.
Making their way back to the site, the farmer and his family plus a couple of close mates stood equally astounded at what they saw below them carved into the rock face.
As Wayne understands the facts from a relative of one of the invited mates, there was only one side of the crevice inscribed with the hieroglyphics texts, not two as currently stands.
Armed with the trusty black and white camera, the farmer took photos of the site and the texts to support what would otherwise have been a laughed at claim by authorities.
Having developed the photographs, it is believed that he then went off to see the local National Parks offices with his evidence to discuss what to do about the strange and unique site.
Surprisingly, it is believed that they denied the existence of the strange site lying within the boundaries of the Brisbane Water National Park.
Instead of finding out more, they promptly organised even more rubble to be filled into the deeply creviced site, said Wayne.
It obviously fell into the "too hard" basket for the National Parks to contemplate how to manage access to the site.
Thats when the site fell from knowledge until a few locals uncovered the site some time later, after talking amongst themselves and sharing local pioneering bushwalking adventure stories.
There is a cave at the site as well; with about four or five cave entrances, some of which have been sandbagged in previous efforts to disguise the location.
It is believed that at the time the site was initially reported, only one wall was inscribed.
The mystery of the origins of the second wall is easier to solve than that of the first.
National Parks ranger Neil Martin uncovered the second wall with newer inscriptions around 1984.
In fact, not only did ranger Martin uncover the strange hieroglyphic texts but he also recovered the 1/4 inch Sidchrome cold chisel used to inscribe the second wall, along with the scribe, hard at work, according to Wayne.
However, the original wall retains its air of mystery into the 21st Century.
The unique site has been investigated within the past 10 years by archaeological teams from both Newcastle and Macquarie Universities.
Stories and speculation confirm the texts to be good fakes.
The considered opinion was that a returned World War I or II veteran that had strayed into the bushland might have rendered the site walls.
He left chiselled into stone a unique record of what he had thought he had first seen in Egypt, during his time in the war effort.
The pyramid texts and tombs enclosing them were uncovered before World War I and may have been accessible to our diggers during their time away.
"This is where the conjecture begins," said Wayne.
Wayne Peters, September 19