Chambers pillar
Submitted: Monday, Oct 02, 2017 at 20:23
ThreadID:
135688
Views:
4854
Replies:
6
FollowUps:
3
This Thread has been Archived
Member - bill j (VIC)
Just read a post on westprint maps and thought i would post it here. may already have been done anyway here goes. copied as is.maybe someone knows them.
I would like to single out these two special people who have visited this site recently. These two have put their names on
Chambers Pillar this year (as probably have others but these two dated their efforts). While I understand that much of the historical value of
Chambers Pillar could be termed as graffiti, the names on the base that these two people have now defaced, take it to a new level. The
explorers and early settlers who came here earned their right to carve their names on the Pillar. It was one of the few ways to let people following know the route they had taken. They did not come by 4WD with air conditioning, power steering and sealed windows to keep out the dust and the flies. They did not have a tent, camper trailer or swag with a mattress. They did not have a fridge, freeze dried or packaged food, they did not have communications for someone to pick them up and collect them if they got stuck. They earned the respect of the people who followed them and the respect of travellers from that time since. You, Gavin and E.J. do not have the right to erode an already fragile landscape and you have not earned the respect to list your names on this pillar. I sincerely hope that these photos come to the attention of someone who knows who these people are and that they are made accountable for their actions.
1
2
Reply By: Mick O - Tuesday, Oct 03, 2017 at 08:59
Tuesday, Oct 03, 2017 at 08:59
A couple of years back we had the distinct privilege of being given permission to visit the
Cleland Hills and in particular Puritija, Marunji
Rockhole and Thomas Reservoir. We were accompanied by
well know
Alice Springs historian and respected elder Dick Kimber. You can imagine the disgust we felt when at Murunji, we were shown recent damage done to ‘historical’ graffiti by some mis-guided individual. Some of the first European visitors to the area had left their initials in
the rock over 100 years previously. While at odds with traditional carvings in the area, the CLC recognised the historical significance of the etchings and included them in preservation efforts. Some mindless fool had tried to erase these historical carvings with a screw driver or other implement
Disgruntled or offended TO’s perhaps. No it’s not as you’d imagine. Imagine our disbelief when we were told that the culprit was a white fellow, not a TO and even worse, it was believed to be someone
well known to us. Personally I had a hard time swallowing that pill as I know the person to be a keen student of explorer history, I didn’t believe that he would be capable of such a wanton act, but the CLC were pretty adamant.
Far from being ordinary graffiti, some of these scrawls are often a window to the past and a record of the first presence of Europeans into what were then harsh, hostile and unknown areas. Imagine if someone were to deface the offerings of that serial engraver Frank Hahn, the drawings left at Glen Edith by Giles Party and so on. I makes me ill just to think of it.
Tread lightly.
AnswerID:
614133
Reply By: Michael H9 - Friday, Oct 06, 2017 at 19:41
Friday, Oct 06, 2017 at 19:41
Personally, I'm against the practice, but we had a discussion, coincidentally at
Chambers Pillar, about this very topic just two days ago. Historical significance is all about timing. If it's done yesterday then it's vandalism, if it's done 200 years ago then it's historically and culturally significant. Take the aboriginal middens at
Stockton as an example. They are a rubbish dump that is now culturally significant. I'm sure my local tip will be too in 1000 years time. I also wonder how many kids got into trouble by their mothers for putting hand prints on the walls of caves?
People have been putting their mark on things since there have been people. It certainly is upsetting when it defaces somebody else's existing mark, but it seems that if you have the gene that compels you to scratch your name into things then you just have to do it. I don't even need to take a photo on my travels, so missed the gene altogether it seems.
AnswerID:
614209