Psychic Australian July 1977
Mysterious Egyptian Finds in NSW Mountains
By Rex Gilroy
Ancient Australia Visitors {Egyptian}
Some strange finds have come to light along the Hawkesbury River and even south along the adjoining Nepean River outside Sydney which suggests Captain Cook's discovery of Australia may have been anticipated even 3000 years before by mariners from the ancient world. Since I wrote "Ancient Australians", Psychic Australian June 1976, I have researched deeply into the records of ancient geographers and their theories 2000 or more years ago, about a great continent in the southern hemisphere, far from the known world.
Ancient Australian Names
The land was known under a variety of names. Claudius Ptolomy labelled it "Terra Incognita" on his AD 150 map. A thousand and more years before the time of Ptolomy the ancient Egyptians referred to the mysterious southern continent as Punt. (The name later given to Somaliland); to the ancient Greeks it was called Ausio, meaning "great south land of milk and honey". The ancient civilisations of Mexico and Peru also possessed knowledge of the great land (Australia) which they called Uru, meaning "Land of Gold." Even Norse Icelandic scholars in the 12th century drew maps of lands in the southern hemisphere, a region with which the Vikings have never been traditionally linked.
Maps Of The World
Among some of the most recent archaeological discoveries unearthed in the last few years overseas have been large numbers of carved stones in Iran which include maps of the world 3000 or more years old. These maps show besides the coast of Asia and a western land mass which could only be America, some of the islands of South-East Asia and a land mass which may or may not represent Australia.
Science Beliefs
All these facts, and still we are taught the same old nonsense by our educational authorities that Captain Cook discovered Australia. It is apparent that there exists an as yet untold chapter of Australian history, and of world history for that matter, of visits to this part of the world by the civilisations of antiquity who were also world voyages centuries before Magellan or Columbus. The university historians and archaeologists tent to unjustifiably dismiss such evidence out of hand since it disputes accepted dogmas which teach that the ancient civilisations were incapable of constructing and craft larger than small fishing boats which they hugged the coast, some races are even denied ever having possessed any form of water craft. Likewise they will disregard any ancient relics unearthed either in Australia, America or anywhere else which tend to support world voyages in ancient times, as being relics discarded in recent times by antique collectors or other people who bought them from their land of origin.
Ancient Relics
Indeed there have been found literally hundreds of ancient relics in this part of the world thousands of miles from their lands of origin which should completely refute any claims that the history of Australia only went back 200 years to the landing of Captain Cook, but it does not. Such enigmas of our ancient past are completely ignored by the academic establishment. Such enigmas are best forgotten about as far as our university 'experts' are concerned. After all, such finds are threats to long established dogmas. A relic of this category is the mysterious axe blade unearthed eight years ago near the Nepean River on Lapstone Gorge and which continued to provoke heated argument ever since. However, before I give chapter and verse to the discovery of this enigma of our ancient past I would digress to relate the many archaeological finds that have come to light over the years around the Hawkebury-Nepean river districts, relics which I believe are together with the Lapstone axe blade, links in some ghostly chain that extends from Australia to the land of the Nile.
Newcastle Harbour
North of the Hawkesbury_Central Coast districts lies Newcastle Harbour, where in 1953 dredge operator Mr. H. Robinson dredged up from 60ft below modern harbour mud layers a large jar. Antiquarians who later examined the jar identified it as ancient Palestinian at least 3000 years old.
Morrisset
Nearby at Morisset, a cliffside carving was discovered some years ago by a bushwalker. The "Morisset Deity" as it had become known, shows a seated human figure with an animal like horned head and surmounting sun-disk. It has been compared to the Egyptian god Amun of Thebes and is totally unlike any Aboriginal rock art of the district.
Mouth Of The Hawksbury
Near the mouth of the Hawkesbury River there have been found over a dozen human figures carved into rock shelves. Of undoubted Aboriginal origin, the figures are depicted as clothed in garments reminiscent of those worn by ancient middle-east seafarers. The Aborigines of the Dharuk tribe who formerly inhabited the Hawkesbury region referred to the river as Berowa, meaning "river of the sun." Berowa was the name given to the river Nile, which to them meant "river of the sun-god". These interesting comparisons become all the more meaniful in the light of further discoveries in the area of the ancient rock art, some of which cannot be ascribed to the early aborigines. These include strange script reminiscent of Phoenician letterings and a large human face, cut in relief out of a cliffside.
Wisemans Ferry
Near Wisemans Ferry is the carving of a ship with mast and sail. Unlike any European vessel of the last 200 years the ship resembles more closely a Phoenician Tireme or Egyptian vessel of the same period. Could the ship have been carved by an Aborigine who saw the mysterious craft on the Hawkesbury long ago? North of Wisemans Ferry are two strange human figure carvings. The head of one appears as if surmounted by horns and a circlet of what could be stars, while the second figure represented as bearing a wig with surmounting sun-disk. The figures are very much like those carved by the ancient Egyptians thousands of years ago.
Egyptian Axe Blade
Lapstone Axe Blade
In the light of these disclosures let us now return to consider the evidence of the Lapstone axe blade whose original bearers must surely be regarded as the first (unknowing) explorers to visit the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, the feat finally accomplished by Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson and their convict assistance in 1813. On the morning of 12 March 1969 my father, Mr. W.F Gilroy, now retired, but at that time a N.S.W. railways employee, was supervising the excavation of a deep trench for a pipeline at a point 2 miles inland from the Nepean River and above Lapstone Gorge on the north side of the railway line. Assisting him were Mr John Leigh, formely of Springwood, and Mr James Cleary.
The workmen were digging a 3ft wide by 6ft deep trench through virgin soil. At this point my father climbed into the trench to assist a workman with the shovelling of the dirt. Throwing a shovel of soil out of the ditch he had unknowingly dug out a dark rust-encrusted object. No sooner had the shovelful of dirt landed on the mullock heap above than his friend Johnny Leigh noticed the object hit the dirt. Drawing my fathers attention to the object, dad climbed out to have a closer look at the find. "An old fragment of railway steel," someone suggested. However dad, an old miner, realising the object had come from virgin soil could not agree. "perhaps a relic of the convict period," he thought.
So thinking nothing further of the object he put it in his coat pocket and bought it home to me that evening. It now rests in my collection at the Mount York Natural History Museum at Mt Victoria, NSW. For the next six months the strange metal object remained in a drawer among other curios, so covered in rust that I was hesitant to attempt to remove it to see if I could identify the relic. Then one day a scientific friend suggested I should have the object cleaned properly by certain university scientists who might also be able to have the relic identified. It was at this point that the story took a new and important turn. The rust removed, the object appeared to be a small blade, the fragment of a small axe and, it was agreed, was certainly no relic of the convict era.
A metallurgist confirmed the blade to be of hand smelted iron. A university archaeologist was shown the strange blade. Upon comparing it with a collection of other similar relics it was soon confirmed that the blade was of a type once used by ancient middle-east ship builders between 2500-3000 years ago and that it was probably used for fine detail work. I might add that up to this stage I had not revealed how or where the relic had been discovered. It was at this point that the good doctors enquired as to how I had come by the relic. Had it been given to me by an antique collector? No sooner had I revealed that it had been unearthed deep underground on the Lapstone Gorge than their whole mood suddenly changed to a sort of embarrassed consternation and I found myself being hastily escorted to the laboratory door with the excuse that they were very busy and could not spare me any more time.
From that day to this, in the face of press enquiries they have not only denied any knowledge of the axe blade, they have even denied of ever having heard of me. Today the principal counter-arguments of my opponents appears to bee that the blade must have been obtained in Egypt, probably by a member of the Sudan continent, and that it was bought to Australia by immigrants late 1800's who eventually discarded it at the spot where my father later found it. Another argument is that some early settler may have traded the object to Aborigines on the coast who subsequently carried it inland in the course of their migrations, which once led through the area where the blade came to light.
However, neither of these or any other of the several explanations dreamed up by the authorities bear serious examination. Besides, there is undisputable stratigraphic evidence, so important in the considerations of archaeologists in other matters, which in this case was completely ignored. Also, my father found the axe blade at a depth of 6 ft below ancient floaters (large rocks) among undisturbed soil layers which had formed in the course of centuries and had never before been disturbed by man, layers which could not possibly have beeen formed in the last 200 years allowed by our university historians. I am afraid that our "experts" are going to have to rewrite their history books. One wonders what the authorities fear from the discovery of one small axe blade of metal, even if it appears to be of ancient middle-east origin 6ft below the soil of Lapstone Gorge.
What could they possibly find wrong with an archaeological find which could put the history of Australia back to a period comparable with that of other nations. Surely such a find, or any other like it, could not affect the achievement of Captain Cook? Even if Cook, Dampier, Hartog, Tasman and the rest were after all the last explorers to discover our continent this would do nothing to discredit their importance to our history as a whole? Regardless of the attitude shown by Australian authorities the discovery was accepted in another light by more enlightened archaeologists overseas.
In the words of Proffesor Jean Louis Bernard, Proffesor of Egyptology, Paris France, who examined photographs of the axe blade and confirmed the earlier identification. "The finding of a this hand-forged iron axe blade in Australia confirms my conviction that the Egyptians surely visited the Pacific region in ancient times. Attempts at suppression could not stop news of the find leaking out. The find reached the ears of a Sydney man who visited me with a story he had been told many years before by his grandfather.
Stone Images {Lapstone Gorge}
It appears that during the 1850's when the first railway line over the Blue Mountains was being constructed through Lapstone Gorge, somewhere in the vicinity of the axe blade fine workmen, including the great grand father of my informant, unearthed a number of stone images of various sizes. Were they egyptian figurines? Whatever they were, no-one can say, for the mysterious relics were removed by the workmen and no further trace of them has been found. Nearby Lapstone Gorge lies the town of Glenbrook, where early Aboriginal original cave art includes the painting of a human figure clothed in garments identical to those worn by the ancient Egyptians.
Strange Slab Of Ironstone
I would like to interpolate here another more recent find made by a Katoomba ambulance driver, Mr Ted taylor, who in January 1974 was searching thick scrub outside the upper Blue Mountain township of Wentworth Falls, when he picked up a strange slab of ironstone bearing what he thought was the remains of an Aboriginal carving. Knowing my interest in such matters he took the piece to me for possible identification. The relic, now in my museum collection puzzled me at first, then I noticed a resemblance it had with certain other (but complete) examples from Egypt. The Wentworth Falls carving shows the legs and apron of a human figure and is not unlike Egyptian examples of an aproned figure bearing a staff. Ted taylor later returned to the scene of his find in search of possible fragments but found nothing. perhaps the carving was part of a much larger hieroglyphic inscription left thereabouts by ancient visitors but which has long since disintegrated with time.
Rock Carvings
Further south along the Nepean River in 1970 I was shown by a farmer a number of rock carvings and edge-ground stone axe grooves left by the early aborigines. Again in 1973 I returned to the area with well-known Gosford Ufologist Alan Tasker to search for further possible carvings. We found instead in another area nearby several carved symbols which were totally unlike any Aboriginal motifs. Among these we found a five-branched candelabra and a symbol for a scroll of papyrus denoting a repository of knowledge. Further searching in the same area since has revealed more equally mysterious inscriptions.
Cambelltown
South of Liverpool and east of the Nepean River lies the farming district of Cambelltown. It was here during 1970 that two very important objects turned up in the course of ploughing on neighbouring farm properties. The first is a bronze arrowhead which may or may not have been of ancient middle-east origin, and the second object, a carving of a seated human figure with animal-like head cut into a slab of ironstone. The carved human-like figure, obviously a deity of some sort, is comparable with other similar carved figures in ancient Egypt.Here my imagination goes into top gear.
Ancient Egyptian Mariners
I speculate that in ancient times exploring mariners from ancient Egypt, perhaps members of an expedition of considerable size, in the course of trading with the peoples of South-east Asia, penetrated Torres Strait and sailing southward down our east coast entered the Hawkesbury River. Here they could have spent some time during which they left carved inscriptions as evidence of their visit to this part of the ancient world. In those times our geologists tell us the oceans of the world were much higher than than they are now and that our present eastern coastline was in many areas situated further to the west than it is now.
During this long period the Hawkesbury and Nepean rivers were much wider and deeper than they are nowdays and Lapstone Gorge would have been filled with over 30ft of water, making it navigable far inland. Perhaps some of the expedition's partly used the gorge to venture further inland in search of food, in the course of which the axe blade was discarded where it was found 3000 years alter by my father. It might also have been that an expedition was dispatched to search far inland, eventually to reach the present Wentworth Falls district where they left a rock face inscription as a record of their visit.
Of course these are but mere speculations based upon the meagre evidence at our disposal. yet I feel that the history of Australian discovery and exploration is still very much an open question in which no theory on the subject can be out of place.
Egyptian Journeys
Let us suppose that after venturing further south from the Lapstone Gorge our Egyptian explorers left the carved inscriptions discovered near the river in 1973, and perhaps the bronze arrow head and stone carving at Cambelltown. Perhaps they then sailed for home, returning by the same route by which they had come, and upon arriving in Egypt like returning astronauts of modern times went to their Pharoah to make a full report of all they had achieved, with the news that "to the south there is a great land".
Paranormal and
Psychic Australian October 1977
Dinosaurs Hunted By Aboriginals
By Rex Gilroy
Dinosaurs Hunted By Aboriginals
