Pick this place

G'day Mick, you're spot on and my photo was taken on Sunday 20 July 2014, not long after dawn.

Your turn now, who flattened the headstone.

Ruby Gap NT

You are on a roll today Mick. The headstone marks the grave of Fredrick Alfred Fox in Glen Annie Gorge in Ruby Gap Nature Park. The area was the site of a ruby rush in the 1880’s.

Australias Ruby Rush

Cheers, John

Here's putting the cat amongst the pigeons. It's not a grave at all but a memorial. In my early days of being a 4WD touring operator, like in the late 70's, I was told about the headstone that had been relocated up on top of the hill by Reg Smith from Henbury Station.
He told me that he and a couple of others had ridden horses down through the back of Glen Annie Gorge and had found the headstone laying amongst the rocks in the river. They looked around for the grave but it was obviously washed over by floods so they relocated the headstone to where it is now.
In our ultimate wisdom, at our "know everything" young age, we found the headstone which had fallen over. We stood it back up then formed a grave size rectangle around it using the red ironstone rocks that are to be found up on the hill.
After a few return trips we thought it needed a bit of improving so each time we visited I got the passengers to cart one white stone each from the river below to place on top. I've got a series of photos amongst the millions I have, taken every so often when we'd visit.

That's great info Gerry. Thanks. I found some really early reports that actually put the grave in or beside the creek not where it is now so that explains it and adds to the history of the place.

Cheers.

I'd be interested in any information or reports about the original grave site. Not that I want to try and find it, I'm sure the site has be washed over by floods over the years. Wouldn't mind some evidence to support my story! I don't know if I can give out my ph. No. or Email on this site.

Mick, because you have such an affinity for the area - somewhere in the Rudell River NP

No Dunc, a long way south east. Head back down the Gary Junction.

Hi Mick,

Near Papunya, NT?

Barry

Getting Warmer Barry but actually south west of Papunya and Haast's bluff and North west of Kings Canyon.

It's a hard one but I wanted one where you simply couldn't google it :-)

Here are the graves in zoom earth (better resolution than Google Earth); Graves

and on Google earth; Someone should now be able to tell us what this location is called.

Well Mick,

That made it easier as the place name was on the KMZ file.
"Graves at Mount Winter".

Barry

DOH!!

Thought I'd edited that off lol.

Correctamundo Barry. Thought we might as well make it as interactive as possible given we're probably largely stuck at home.

The graves are located at Mount Winter in the Cleland Hills.

I've added a bit from my journals from our 2014 expedition withwell known Alice Springs historian Dick Kimber. One of the conditions of our permit was that we undertook some clearing and maintenance of the grave sites for the Haasts Bluff elders.

Mount Winter first appears on W H Tietken's plan of exploration in 1890 in his "Cleland Hills" and is believed to originate from Ernest Giles 1873-4 journey and be named after William Winter of Stanhope, Victoria, and later of Rocklands Station near Camooweal, Queensland. Winter subscribed (financed) Giles exploration. The Luritja name for the area has always been ‘Puritjarra’ which simply means “shadow on the rock”.

Nearby, in the shadow of this remarkable place lie the graves of a father and son here who died in 1929. At that time a harsh drought was forcing the desert people out of the country and into Hermansberg. Reaching Puritjarra, the old man was simply too weak to continue on and his son refused to leave him. They died together and were interred near each other with the massive bulk of Puritjarra to watch over them.

The number of millstones or grindstones about the place is simply incredible and you have to be very careful not to drive over them. Cautiously moving our way through this delicate area, we retreated to the dunes to the east of the Mount and set up camp behind a belt of mulga. We can hardly wait to explore this fascinating area. We climbed to the top of a nearby dune at dusk to photograph the sunset.

and the next day;

Our first mission of the day was to clean up the areas surrounding the two grave sites which we cleared of scrub and then swept clean with native brush. Returning to the vehicles, we packed our cameras and headed into the canyon. On the northern side, a high, ridge runs along until it meets the rocky walls of the Range. On the sandy valley floor, a creek bed winds it’s way out of the gorge, the flow of water exposing the rocky nature of the underlying soil.

Of immediate impact were the sheer number of grindstones lying about the area. It was simply amazing. In one area I stood and within 10 square metres, counted more than a dozen grind stones intact with the remnants of many more broken implements lying about. It seemed that every rock you turned had a grinding groove in it, on one side or both. Dick informed us that many of the Grindstones found in collections or front doorsteps around Alice Springs had been “souvenired" from this area by the less scrupulous travellers from the 1930’s onwards.

As we approached the end of the gorge, the sand gave way to a slope of huge, rough boulders. We had to scramble over this jumble of room sized rocks and push our way through scrubby thickets finally reaching a fine pool of water. Deep in shadow, the dark, cool climate promoted some very different types of vegetation including vines, mosses and lichens. The sheer rock walls towered a hundred metres above us and it would have been most impressive to witness water flowing over this long drop into the pool below.

On flat surfaces and in caverns surrounding the pool we found rocks thick with carved ‘rain lines’, grooves worn into the rocks as part of a rain making ceremony. Together with Scott I climbed up the walls above the pool to investigate larger caverns where we found softer substrate weathered in remarkable honey comb patterns. From the edge of the gorge, we gained a remarkable view back along the valley and onto the plains to the east. Carefully picking our way down from the vantage point, we joined the group and retraced our steps back along the valley to camp. A spot of lunch and we were on our way north west into the Cleland Hills.

The Cleland Hills are a low, western outlier of the George Gill Range and are surrounded by sand plains and dune fields in the predominantly flat landscape of the Great Sandy Desert. The Hills are mostly composed of Mereenie sandstone and hold water that supports plant species with restricted ranges. The hills support open-woodland with an undergrowth of spinifex grassland.


Driving along the northern edge of this range, the geological history of the area is written deeply in the weathered sandstone strata. In this area, the sandstone takes a finely banded form in conical structures not dissimilar to that found in Purnululu (The Bungles) of WA. Weathering of the northern ridges has resulted in large caverns, many of which were used as a place of regular habitation by the nomadic desert people. One of the largest is also referred to as ‘Puritjarra’ and set the archeological and anthropological record of the red centre on its head with discoveries showing regular habitation of the cavern for a period of 35,000 years. It is also a place that Dick played a significant part in the rediscovery of in the 1980’s.


Puritjarra was first discovered by Europeans in a 1969 expedition to the Cleland Hills by Robert Edwards, curator of anthropology at the South Australian Museum. Edwards had found the place on foot after the radiator had boiled on his Land Rover, in remote country near the Cleland Hills. He was still some distance from his destination at Thomas Reservoir (Alalya), where he was taking a party to photograph and document deep ancient rock engravings. While waiting for the radiator to cool, Tjukadai, Edwards’ guide from Haasts Bluff, took a walk towards Mt Winter. He returned with news of a rock shelter with cave paintings:

“We found it was huge — two hundred feet long and sixty feet high … Numerous ochre paintings were around the wall in red, white, yellow and black. There were simple hand stencils, hand prints, bird tracks, kangaroo tracks, circles and snakelike designs. Then, delightedly, we came upon ancient engravings ... But more precious, the floor of the main cave was covered with pieces of charcoal, and a small test pit showed many feet of accumulated occupation deposit”.

Excited by the discovery, but short of water and time, Edwards and his party had been forced to move on to reach Murantji rock hole. Edwards never returned.

When the archaeologist Mike Smith began his work in Central Australia in the 1980s, he and his colleagues had evidence for people dwelling in the Central Australian deserts up to 3000 years ago. Puritjarra radically changed this. Smith grabbed at a chance opportunity and a permit to travel to Thomas Reservoir in September 1986. On the ground, with aerial photographs in hand, he begged a few hours to scout the Mt Winter area on foot. His mate, Dick Kimber, went south.

Within half an hour Smith struck the Puritjarra rock shelter, one of the biggest he had seen. It was a veritable gallery of rock art and it had an undisturbed earthen floor. The artifacts Smith dug from the site showed dates of 35,000 years, that is penetrating well back into the Ice Age. This is a very long history of dwelling in a place where it is believed the current arid environment has existed for the past 100,000 years, conditions that made it difficult for people to find water, food and shelter. Much of the desert country was believed to have been empty of human habitation for between 10-15 thousand years until the retreat of the last ice age.


With Dick’s intimate knowledge of the desert people, the Puritjarra area, Smiths work and the cultural significance and meaning of much of the rock art, we were indeed fortunate and made our visit incredibly special. Dick was able to provide the stories of the etchings, stencils and art work. We listened with wrapped attention as he spoke of the emu dreaming which certainly put a lot of the rock carvings into perspective for us. Puritjarra is one of the few places where the hand stencils of children can be found adorning the gallery, much of the art being between 200 and 4700 years old.

Mick,
I have never seen rain marker grooves and that was the best grinder.
Covers are on the caravan and cars.

???? Staying at home

Hi Mick,
Easter greetings, I trust all is well.

I'm fascinated by the photo of the vertical grooves on the rock face. I've seen many of these over the years and have been told they are spear sharpening grooves (which I doubt) then other theory I’ve been told is the ground powder is thrown in the air to show respect for the country. But I haven’t heard them being used as rain making grooves.

Google wasn't much help in this regard. Do you have any references?

Phil,

these grooves are only 160cm above ground making it near impossible to use in sharpening a spear given most hunting spears are never shorter than 2.4m and mostly a lot longer. It's simply not possible to get a fire hardened spear to bent enough to accommodate the grooving and even upside down would be near impossible.

Specific reference from Michael Terry in relation to his 1961 trip to the Clelands. He was referring to marks at Thomas reservoir. Our friend and guide Dick Kimber also gave us stories as they were relayed to him (those parts that he by the lore could share) but that's something I'll share with you around a fire. I believe that Al McCall found another element of the Rain making ceremony on one of his trips on the form of intricately carved boards. I'd like to compare those patterns to what we found in the Clelands as well. The overhang at Thomas Reservoir was incredible.

I believe that individual stones were used for spear sharpening because it gave greater control while working on the points. Example was the stone I found in the dunes out past the McLarty Hills. I believe you say this stone as well when you went through a couple of years later. Relics in that sand blow indicated it was somewhere the locals sat and worked. (last photo)

Phil, just another point for thought. Think about those grooves in the top of the cavern at well 38 on the Canning we were always told were for sharpening spears. Always struck me as a bloody odd spot to be trying to 'sharpen a spear'. Very short grooves and the height would again make it difficult to sharpen a spear longer than 160cm. Grooves are right above a ephemeral waterhole as the grooves in the Clelands are.

Just sayin' :-)

At well 38 there are also similar grooves in pockets under rock ledges. They are particularly concentrated around vertical shafts. These places would be inaccessible to a spear.



I read somewhere that the rock engravings were thought to be 20,000 years old and represented a method of communicating with the deceased. I thought that the grooves around the shafts were well suited to this purpose as dust would likely rise up the shaft and towards the sky.

Cheers, John

Hi Phil

Yes we came across those sharpening grooves at Sydney Yeo Chasm as well as well as other remote desert locations.

The most accessible sharpening grooves here in South Australia can be found on a popular tourist drive right here in the Mid North, less than 100 kilometres from where I live in Clare.

There are good engravings, a rock wall art site that is now covered over to stop it from being damaged and dozens of sharpening grooves, the most that we have ever found in one very small location.


Keep Safe


Stephen

Hi Stephen, Happy Easter to you and the bride, I trust all is well.

You've got some great spear grooves in those photos, just goes to show how widespread 'grooving' was practiced.

all the best.