Psychic Australian November 1976
Bathurst Stonehenge
By Rex Gilroy
Megalithic Stone Structures
I know its going to surprise a great many Australians, but Megalithic stone structures reminiscent of England's famous Stonehenge exist in central western New South Wales. How did they get there? Who built them? The answers to these and many more questions arising from these enigmas our ancient past may for the present only be guessed at, but to my mind these mysterious structures point to the existence, here in Australia, of an advanced civilisation that flourished before the dawn of recorded history.
Since most Australians have for so long been conditioned into believing that our history only commenced with the arrival of Captain Cook, it is not at all surprising to me that nobody ever thought to even consider the possibility that an earlier civilisation may have occupied this continent thousands of years ago. In fact, I could never bring myself to believe that Australia merely sat there in limbo of unchartered seas just waiting for the coming of Captain Cook and British settlement. This conviction led me years ago to seek out the truth. The search has since taken me far and wide and over the years my findings have multiplied far beyond anything that I had ever thought possible.
Granite Boulders
In April 1969, while crossing a hillside near the Fish River, just west of the Blue Mountains and some miles from Lithgow, N.S.W., I came upon a large granite rock. Of course granite is the principle rock of the central west and white granite boulders lay there abouts in great profusion, this particular specimen seemed different from the rest, as if it had in fact been deliberately erected upright by human hands. The rock was about 15 ft. tall and about the same in circumference. What appeared to have been carved symbols upon the stone were so badly weathered as to be indistinct. Later, in September of that year, I learnt of a mysterious set of granite structures in the vicinity of Cooma, in southern N.S.W., and later, of another similar formation in the New England district of New South Wales.
Extensive Field Research
These reports led me to commence an extensive field search throughout the central west of New South Wales in the belief that there might well be other similar structures there abouts. My investigations at first drew a blank, until, one wet and miserable day in August 1974, I found myself in a grass covered-field in pouring rain, standing before a row of crudely shaped granite rocks that seemed to stretch into the distance across neighbouring properties. I had just found what was going to become my greatest archaeological discovery. Excited at the immense importance of my find, as you might well guess, I followed the line of stones through pouring rain until the freezing conditions forced me to reluctantly to abandon the field.
Stone Alignments
Within a fortnight I was back at the site in good weather equipped with cameras, pen, pad and tape measure to commence a detailed investigation of these structures which continues to the present day. The stones, the average weight of which was 120 lbs, although some were even heavier, extended in a straight line from east to west in distances of from a few feet to several yards apart for up to 2 miles. I soon found, however, that the relative distance between each stone repeated themselves at intervals throughout the entire alignment. During discussion with a farmer I was excited to learn he also had such an alignment of stones on his property. It soon became obvious from my measurements of this new series of stones that the alignment was situated 2 miles from the first series, was 2 miles in length, and like its counterpart, also pointed in a straight line from east to west.
Bathurst Alignment
Then, nearby the eastern end of the first alignment, I came upon a structure which gave me even greater surprise. Erected upon a granite base about 4 ft. thick and 30 ft. wide, I found a circular formation of 10 large granite boulders, a minature Stonehenge I thought to myself. Certainly no other structure of this kind had yet been found anywhere else in Australia. One of these large granite blocks however, I found to have been deliberately cut and shaped to form an altar stone. Leading from this circular structure a few feet away, I noticed three other stones seperated a few feet apart and erected one behind the other in a north-west direction. On my next visit I continued my investigations by following in the north-west direction indicated by these three stones in the hope of locating further structures.
Collapsed Structure?
Several hundred feet away upon a hill top I came across a pile of granite rubble. Either this pile was the remains of a great boulder which had crumbled with age, or else it was the remains of a collapsed structure. I continued in a north-west direction some hundreds of yards until I found myself looking at three huge balancing rocks. A natural enough sight, I thought to myself, as such formations are quite common place throughout the district. However, I could not help but feel there were something un-natural about them. Measuring their relative distances apart I soon found that they formed a perfect triangle, being 60 yards by 69 yards by 60 yards apart! A few hundred yards further on again I was to discover, during my third expedition to these large structures, a large 15 ft. tall by 33 ft. circumference granite rock.
Not only did I soon realise that this undoubted Menhir had been erected upright, but that it stood upon carved granite blocks forming a 16 ft. wide base. These stones, covered by several inches of soil, were cleared at the southern end to reveal three blocks, the largest of which was 8 ft. long by 4 ft. wide and 3 ft. thick, the other two being 4 ft. by 4 ft. by 4 ft. each. Nearby, over another hill, I found four smaller granite stones forming a perfect square. But it was in the vicinity of the north-west alignment of stone structures that I was to find what I consider to be the most remarkable of the entire series of Megalithic structures.
Guarding Sentinals
There before me they stood, like sentinels guarding the works of some vanished race-three carved human heads! The largest is a 20 ft. tall by 15 ft. circumference head and torso figure. It is badly weathered and the facial features are indistinct. However, its two smaller relatives are clearly defined. Both are 6 ft. 10 ins, tall and 6 ft. in circumference. In a flash I seemed carried back to Easter Island . However, these carved heads are quite distinct from their more famous Pacific island counterparts. Where-as those gigantic heads of Easter Island are mere caricatures with no forehead and only suggestions of eyes, these examples possessed, very high foreheads, their eyes, nose and mouth being close to the base.
But who built these structures, and how? I asked myself. Certainly not the primitive aborigines. They were never stonemasons like those highly advanced civilised peoples of the ancient Americas, the Middle and Near-East. Although my measurements are to date far from completed, the entire site cannot be anything else than a great open-air astronomical observatory. We are now presents with the problem as to how the larger structures were carried and erected, even with the primitive means that scholars suggest were available to man of that period. But we can be certain that, whoever the builders were, they worked with advanced building techniques which to this day are unknown to modern science.
Ancient Stonemasons
A good example of their abilities exists nearby one of the 2 mile alignments. Upon a hillside I found a 1 ft. wide by 2 ft. long and 3 ft deep water hole which had been cut out of a solid granite rock face. But how? The granite hearabouts blunts any modern engineer's drill! Certainly no known stone artifact could have done the job (and we certainly have yet to learn how these ancient stonemasons carved the other artworks hereabouts), and none have yet been found anywhere in this district. Could it be, as is suspected with the ancient civilisations of the Americas, that the builders employed some stone-softening liquid unknown to modern man.
Granite Water-Hole
Many people have asked me for the exact location of these structures. Regretably this I cannot yet reveal, apart from saying they are situated in the Bathurst district. Vandalism soon follows in the wake of interested visitors once an important site becomes to well known. I believe that an entire network of the Megalithic stone astronomical structures await discovery across a wide area of New South Wales stretching from north to south. Although many years of field research lie ahead of me before we may be able to draw the final conclusions of these structures, I do believe that these enigmas of our ancient past will ultimately change the face of Australia's history.
Psychic Australian December 1976
Australian Monsters
By Rex Gilroy
