Strange Phenomena September 1979

Australia's Lost Civilisation

By Rex Gilroy 

Lost Civilisations

There are many remains of "lost civilisations" scattered throughout the world. With the notable exception of Atlantis, fragmentary remains of unknown civilisations of the past have come too light in the most surprising places. For example, Atlantis is by no means the only submerged civilisation. Submerged ruins of ancient cities have been located of the Bay of Bengal, the north coast of Papua New Guinea, Torres Straight, the Cook Islands, and even Australia.

And then there were the enigmatic remains on Easter Island, with its mysterious roads that lead out into the sea, ostensibly to now-submerged cities of much larger pre-diluvian land mass. The whole Polynesian rave extending from Hawai to New Zealand, preserves traditions of "Uru," or the "Great West Land," which to the Maoris was located directly to the west of New Zealand, and which they said was inhabited by a race of people who built in stone and were expert astronomers.

The Maoris even claimed decent from this mysterious race. Belief in far away China of a mysterious "land to the south" had persisted since the dim ages of pre-recorded Chinese history. Known as the land of Locack, its existence today is verified by ancient maps, some dating back 2500 years, which besides the islands of South-East Asia, display the undoubted though crude outline of Australia. According too ancient traditions the land of Locack was a vast continent so plentiful in Gold and other precious minerals that it surpassed all over lands.

Also its inhabitants were said to be idolators and expert astronomers. Who were this mysterious people? Certainly not the primitive Aborigines, a stone age race which has never risen above the carving of crude petroglyphs or cave paintings. The Aborigines worship mysterious "culture heroes" and a supreme being called Biame. In some ancient legends these "culture heroes" came to Australia from across the sea in great vessels, as is the case of the north-west Kimberley tribes, whose cave art often depicts these strange visitors which they called the Wandjina.

But the Wandjina are represented often clothed in garments typical of ancient Egyptians. This may be further supported by the presence of Middle East blood groups, racial features, and ancient Egyptian words still spoken by tribes-people to this day. In other parts of Australia the "culture heroes" re-appear as people who entered the continent to "carve out the mountains and hills."

Or who, as in the case of the "culture heroes" said to have inhabited the Bathurst district west of Sydney, built large structures out of often enormous stones. it is evident that there were many different "culture heroes" visiting and staying lengthy periods in Australia. Just who were these various "culture heroes" remains a mystery-but it is certain evidence that Australia was a land known to many ancient civilisations many, many thousands of years before recorded history. Among the enigmatic "culture heroes" are a mysterious people called the Uru, a white-skinned race which, the Aborigines say, watched the stars, shaped the countryside, and erected "sacred stones" and other structures.

The disclosures support the traditions of the ancient Chinese chroniclers, and it was these very same traditions which prompted the early Chinese navigators to undertake extensive sea voyages southward beyond their traditional trading base in the islands of South East Asia, to the mysterious southern continent which today we call Australia. The fact that the peoples of the Pacific, and also the Inca and Maya of ancient central America, knew of the land of Uru may help to explain certain enigmatic relics which have come to light in the Australian-New Guinea region.

Two Easter Island type stone heads have been recovered in Emerald in far north Queensland. Similar heads occur in the Whitsunday Passage off the north Queensland coast. Inca rites and beliefs have been recorded in Central Australia. An enormous Mayan-like stone head has been dug up near Cambelltown south of Sydney. All of which give credence to the abilities of these ancient peoples to span the Pacific in their ancient balsa wood rafts. Such evidence lead me to believe that Australia may hold the answers to many mysteries concerning human migration even before the dawn of recorded history.

Around far-off Tiahuanaco high up in the Peruvian Andes live a strange people who call themselves the Uru. They are a fair-skinned race who say in their folklore that they came from across the western ocean from a great continent. There is also another great mystery surrounding archeological remains in both Peru and Yucatan. Here scientists have excavated in recent years human skeletons dating back many thousands of years, which may have been identified as Australoid. What were Australian Aborigines doing in far off South America? At a central western Queensland site, remains of walls and buildings have been unearthed below surface deposits.

They are constructed of bricks of a triangular shape whose mortar seems more durable than the bricks themselves. Similar ruins exist in Western Australia and on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. Other mysterious ruins have lately come too light across a wide area of the Papua New Guinea hinterland. Whether or not these remains are evidence of Ancient Egyptian settlement of New Guinea remains uncertain, even though other undoubted remains of Egyptian presence have already come to light.

A number of archeologists-anthropologists and ethnologists who have undertaken extensive field research over the years have come to the general agreement that, based upon ancient relics, the customs and beliefs of the present day New Guineans, that a super civilisation may have once existed in New Guinea, and which has left its mark upon certain racial features and the social organisations of the Melanesians. Archaeologists have been carrying out a search for the submerged remains of an island which native tradition says once existed somewhere between Papua New Guinea and Australia and which was destroyed by a volcano. Recently divers uncovered a number of large carved stone heads. Nearby on a small island, remains of temples have been found.

Other native traditions maintain that the former land bridge link with Australia, of which the Torres Strait region was part, was the location of a civilisation of which now submerged ruins near Port Moresby are but a surviving remnant. Other mysterious ruins which have raised much speculation exist near Alice Springs. They consist of four terraces up to 40 ft tall. The terraced wallas are constructed of large stone blocks closely fitted together in a way not unlike the mysterious stone walls of Tiahuanaco. Similar stone walls from the mysterious ruins which lie submerged off the Queensland coast north of Brisbane.

Recently further similar stone ruins were found in Western Australia. In the New England district of northern New South Wales, a series of two sets of human footprints have been found preserved in mudstone, dated by Archaeologists to be 25,000 years old. While one set are those of a modern-type child's footprints, the second set are those of an adult's sandal prints. At a South Australian site another set of human footprints dating back 10,000 years have come to light. Who, living in Australia 10,000 and 25,000 years ago were so advanced that they made sandals?

At a Northern Territory site statues made from soapstone and standing 4 ft high have been recovered by archaeologists near engravings and rock shelter paintings of non-Aboriginal culture. Carbon 14 dated samples taken from the rock shelter floors have dated the art at between 20,000-25,000 years.

Further mystery surrounds the remains of the large-temple like structure built of large stone blocks which stands in the Woomera district of South Australia. If the remains of the submerged ruins of Torres Strait, Queensland, NSW, South Australia and Western Australia pose riddles, how else are we to explain the many stone and earthen pyramidal structures that have been found scattered throughout Queensland and New South Wales-as the work of world travelling Egyptians?

These pyramids {to be fully investigated in a future Strange Phenomena}, sometimes hundreds of miles apart, are arranged in definite alignments. Whatever their true purpose, they are undoubted evidence of the presence hearabouts of a highly advanced race of people who built often enormous structures on a grand scale.

These Pyramids, extending over a vast range from Cape York are to be found elsewhere in western Queensland and down the coast through Townsville to northern NSW. They are next met with south of Sydney to Cooma and the Murray River; another may exist in Victoria. That these pyramids were built for astronomical reasons, as well as trappers and conveyors of some natural energy filed, can be debated.

At Gosford on the central coast north of Sydney, there stand large stones amid circular raised earthen mounds. These central stones have been hollowed out saucer fashion into which water was poured, by which the ancient astronomers were able to see a reflection of the heavenly movements at night. Atop a mountain near Gosford is a flat area now covered with trees, but which thousands of years ago would have been cleared.

For here stand sandstone blocks, the remains of some enormous edifice. In the same area upon a flat shoal of rock, are 50 circular symbols some joined by lines, others in formations, representing perhaps movements of certain stars. At another "astronomical observatory" further south near Wyong, atop a flat mountain summit, stands a large rock shoal upon which have ben carved circular markings believed to represent the phases of the moon. Situated at another site deep in the forest country west of Gosford, and standing against a cliffside, is a remarkable "door-like" structure.

Constructed of two upright stone pillars. Its purpose beyond some lost ceremonial significance, remains a mystery. South of Sydney near Cambelltown and situated in thick bushland above the Georges River, strange stonework exists which has lain there since before the coming of the early European settlers. Nearby is a large hill whose summit is flattened by a base of stone blocks.

The full view of the heavens in every direction suggests this site to have been an ancient astronomical observatory. Nearby a number of highly polished stone adzes and axes have ben dug up over recent years. The artifacts are unlikely any of the cruder Aboriginal tools found in the district. Residents of the Dapto district north of Wollongong on the NSW south coast still talk about the "Dapto Stonehenge" that until several years ago stood near the town.

Consisting of 12 huge boulders arranged in a circle, it was needlessly blown up and bulldozed by a construction team who turned the site into a park. It is believed that the structure had ben built for an ancient astronomical site. In our search for surviving traces of the mysterious lost civilisation of Uru which, it is postulated, occupied the Australian continent perhaps as far back as 25,000 years, let us now examine the sunken pavements of Newcastle NSW, and off the west coast of Tasmania.

These pavements, dismissed as mere "tesselated pavements," a natural geological feature, nonetheless display features of having been deliberately shaped. The Tasmanian pavement extends from near the shoreline for some distance out to sea, they are perfectly shaped and cemented together.

Nearby remains of ruins have ben uncovered by skin divers. It is evident that some of the submerged ruins of the Australian region were submerged due to the gradual inundation of low-lying coastal areas towards the close of the last great ice age, which some authorities place as late as 12,000 years ago, but it could have been much earlier. There is an island accessible from Adelaide, SA, called granite Island. It is surrounded by stones which visitors have said to be carved in the shape of various animals and people. They vary in size from enormous to small.

On animal looks like a dinosaur-style creature, another couple of figures look like a "mother and child" {a similar "mother and child" carving exists high on the mountain outside Gympie in southern Queensland}; other figures resemble human figures in bent postures as if looking out to sea. Further enigmatic stone structures have been found on the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. These consist of strange altar stones.

These altars, sometimes situated near astronomical sites, are unlike any of the archaeological mysteries so far encountered in our search for the lost civilisation of Uru. The astronomical sites, always upon flat surfaces, consist of carved lines, dots and circles. The lines could have ben used to line up with various heavenly bodies and the circles could have depicted major bodies such as the moon. Nearby are often strange carved symbols, perhaps the script of the Uruans.

Some of the symbols can be compared with Easter Island glyphs. Although some rough translations of the Blue Mountain glyphs have ben attempted the symbols remain largely undecyphered, but it is Suspected they may relate to astronomical observations. The altars spread across a wide area of the Blue Mountains are carved in two recurring motifs, ie in the forms of eagles and serpents. Eagle and Serpent altar stones are to be found in Central and South America as well as ancient Egypt, where in both hemispheres these symbols were associated with sun worship.

Perhaps this was also the function of the Blue Mountain altars here in Australia. each of the Blue Mountains altars is placed upon mountain tops, rock mounds or on cliff edges; anywhere that a clear view of the heavens could be obtained.

The most elaborate of these dozen or so altars is perhaps a serpent altar situated upon the summit of a pyramidal-shaped mound of rocks 50ft high and 350ft in circumference. The altar itself stands 5ft 8 inches long, and 2ft 4 inches wide. It measures 4ft high. The mouth of the serpent consists of a small groove. next to this altar is a smooth boulder containing along groove. It may be speculated there here a knife was sharpened for sacrificial purposes. A second altar, that of an Eagle, stands 4 miles away and is situated upon a 20ft high rock mound.

It is accessible only by climbing with the aid of grooves cut deep in the rock in ages past. Once atop the structure the visitor finds themselves standing upon the tail of the large bird. it measures 128cm in length by 72cm in width. The Eagle altars are interesting in that all with one exception display the right wing extending with the left wing barely represented.

The Serpent was the personification of many things to the ancients. To the Atlanteans it symbolised "the fires of underneath." To the Mayans the Serpent's mouth represented the letter"M" {in our language}, pronounced as "Nim" or "Nnm"-the Snake God-personification of the Sun and its powers. Also the "fires of the underneath" {as with Atlanteans}, also with the forces within the human body-the lower nature but also the symbol of drive, and power.

The Uruans may have approached their Serpent altars with the intention of tapping the forces of nature for their daily needs. We might speculate also upon the origin of the many stone alignments, standing stones, carved heads and other remains found over a wide area of Australia, structures of an undoubted astronomical nature; but the builders identities remain an enigma.

Strange Phenomena January 1980

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