Pick this place

Submitted: Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 09:14

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Cannings Cairn

Situated between wells 16 & 17 on the Canning Stock Route, Canning built this cairn in 1906 atop the Durba Hills. The short but sharp climb provides a spectacular vista north along the Durba hills

Member - JOHN C16

Pick this place

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Reply By: Gusthebus - Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 10:08

Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 10:08

Looks like Cairns?

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Follow Up By: Member - JOHN C16 - Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 10:29

Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 10:29

It is a cairn but it is not in Cairns.

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Follow Up By: Frank P (NSW) - Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 10:53

Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 10:53

Sturt's cairn north of Depot Glen/Mt Poole, NSW?

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Follow Up By: Member - JOHN C16 - Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 11:24

Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 11:24

Sorry Frank, it’s not Sturt’s cairn.

This cairn was built 60 years later and is not in NSW.

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Reply By: Mick O - Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 11:42

Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 11:42

Canning cairns on the Durba Range. You are looking out across the Great Sandy Desert towards Puntawarri.

''We knew from the experience of well-known travelers that the
trip would doubtless be attended with much hardship.''
Richard Maurice - 1903

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Follow Up By: Member -Pinko (NSW) - Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 11:51

Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 11:51

Hi Mick
I wonder if there is anything of significance in that cairn?

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Follow Up By: Member - JOHN C16 - Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 12:01

Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 12:01

Yes Mick, it is Cannings cairn on the Canning Stock Route.

Cheers, John

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Follow Up By: Mick O - Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 12:52

Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 12:52

Don't know Stan. Canning built it in 1906 and I reckon everyone whose visited since has added a stone. It would be double the size of the original at the very least. Did the drive out to Puntawarri and Jigalong back in 2008. An interesting drive.

John thanks for posting that. Bought back a lot of good memories. Makes me wonder if enough time has passed and i'm silly enough to do it all again.

Cheers.

''We knew from the experience of well-known travelers that the
trip would doubtless be attended with much hardship.''
Richard Maurice - 1903

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Reply By: gke - Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 14:00

Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 14:00

Many of the outback cairns are beautifully made with tapered stones carefully placed so any ground movement would cause the stones to tighten together and maintain the integrity of the conical shape.
I think it is a pity that travellers add more to them.
In 1999 , rightly or wrongly I removed stones from that cairn. I think many others must have done the same because my
1999 photos show the cairn to be considerably higher. ( unless that photo is earlier)

Graham.

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Follow Up By: Mick O - Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 17:01

Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 17:01

It would be interesting to see an early photo circa 1906 to check exactly what the original cairn looked like. Perhaps PhilB can help us. I don't have my Canning History handy.

''We knew from the experience of well-known travelers that the
trip would doubtless be attended with much hardship.''
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Follow Up By: Member - JOHN C16 - Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 17:59

Saturday, Jun 20, 2020 at 17:59

My photo was taken in 2014. I have visited the cairn five times and each time the shape of its top has been a little different. The first photo in ‘Places’ shows the top of a wooden stake inside the cairn. This might be the original top.

In the gully below the cairn car park there are unusual white marks on the sandstone.

White marks

I don’t know what the white marks are. It has been suggested that they may be fossilised tree roots. Can anyone identify these ?

Cheers, John

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Follow Up By: Member - rocco2010 - Sunday, Jun 21, 2020 at 13:52

Sunday, Jun 21, 2020 at 13:52

And I reckon it would be a good idea if people stopped making little piles of stones.

Like this

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Follow Up By: Frank P (NSW) - Sunday, Jun 21, 2020 at 15:47

Sunday, Jun 21, 2020 at 15:47

I agree, Rocco, but I'm not as passionate about it as one of my travelling mates. If he saw that we wouldn't be leaving until he had kicked them all down. Lol

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Follow Up By: Member - Jim S1 - Sunday, Jun 21, 2020 at 16:09

Sunday, Jun 21, 2020 at 16:09

I have been known to be glad of the odd pile of rocks that mark otherwise very hard to find walking tracks ........ usually over extensive rocky slopes.

Random piles however, are pretty mindless.

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J

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Follow Up By: Member - rocco2010 - Sunday, Jun 21, 2020 at 16:17

Sunday, Jun 21, 2020 at 16:17

Jim
No argument there. That is of course in many cases in historic times, and even pre historic, what cairns were for.
In case anyone is wondering that picture is near Glen Herring gorge near Marble Bar.

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Follow Up By: Member - rocco2010 - Sunday, Jun 21, 2020 at 17:51

Sunday, Jun 21, 2020 at 17:51

Canning's cairn as it appears in the second edition of the Gard's Canning Stock Route Guide.

Certainly seems to have shrunk.

edit

Hope I haven't breached copyright here. The third edition has a picture with people in it which I won't copy but cairn looks very similar.

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Follow Up By: Mick O - Sunday, Jun 21, 2020 at 18:16

Sunday, Jun 21, 2020 at 18:16

Shape of it appears to have changed markedly mind you from the looks of it, it wouldn't take to many rocks to dislodge for good sections of it to come tumbling down. Certainly a lot tidier back then.

Thanks Rocco

''We knew from the experience of well-known travelers that the
trip would doubtless be attended with much hardship.''
Richard Maurice - 1903

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Follow Up By: Phil B (WA) - Tuesday, Jun 23, 2020 at 21:10

Tuesday, Jun 23, 2020 at 21:10

Sorry I can't help with an early photo of the cairn - here's the entry from Canning's report:

'We camped on the 11 July near some very prominent sandstone bluffs in a patch of good mulga and grass country; on the hills close to the edge of the bluffs we erected a post and cairn.'

Canning initially called the hills Highclere Hills later changing the name to Durba Hills.