Some years ago I had placed an audio recorder out at a place called Devil's Gap which is located in between Gibraltar Creek and Tidbinbilla and accessible by foot from the Tidbinbilla Ring Road or via the fire trail which starts just up from the woods reserve campground located on Corin Road.
It was mid winter at the time and I was attempting to record the sound of a lyrebird display. It is my habit to put out a sony voice recorder which will run for 4 days with high powered lithium batteries on super high quality. The 8gb memory card holds 16 x 8 hour files which matches the battery life.

I did manage to capture a lovely recording which had the claim to fame of being played on ABC Radio Canberra. I also captured some unidentified noises which had left me wondering for a long time as to what had made the noises.

I would describe the sounds captured as being like a very heavy man running past the recorder several times and at times striking the recorder. This was accompanied by the sound of tree branches/bushes being snapped in what sounded like an aggressive action and a separate approach by a set of walking sounds, stopping to rummage the granite rock that was placed on the plastic weather sheild that protected the recorder.

All this happened in the small hours of the morning in fairly dense scrub at an hour that I wouldn't expect bushwalkers let alone cross country runners.. I returned there 6 days ago and again set a recorder.. I picked it up today. Here is a short video of the set up..

A trip today with Vlad to Gibraltar Falls on Corin Dam Road to see some documented Indigenous grinding grooves. There are several grooves located within a few square metres along the edge of the creek above the falls.

Vlad tells me there are more undocumented grooves below the falls which can be approached via the Gibraltar Creek walking track which begins at Woods Reserve.

My first impression of the location was the impressive views that would have been on display as the person grinding worked. I took some video..

A trip today with Vlad to inspect the known Aboriginal Scar Trees in Wanniassa. Of particular interest to me was an old tree with a double scar near a small children's play area in Sainsbury Street opposite Spensley Place. The tree has two scars indicating two utensils were made. One, to me, appears to be the size of a large shield and the other a smaller coolomon.

The larger scar is impressive. In my opinion it is the most destinct scar I have seen in the Canberra region because of the way the bark regrowth on the scar's edge has grown symmetrically giving a good impression of the original size of the scar.

I took a few photographs..

A trip today with Vlad to inspect the Indigenous Scar Trees at Lanyon Homestead. Lanyon is an 1830's convict established Property originally owned by the early settler James Wright.

There are quite a few documented stories about Wright's interaction with the original People. These old, old trees are a tangible reminder of their heritage.

I took some video...

Recently an old blog post started showing up in the statistics.. At the time it was titled the same as the Australian National Library's Trove article it displayed..

"Canberra Blacks the Lost Tribe.

 There were two schools of thought in the 1920s as to the habitation and numbers of Indigenous People living in the (now) Canberra region at the time of European settlement/invasion. This article along with it's display of era racism nonetheless gives us some tantalising clues as to historical accuracy.

 The main early settler characters quoted are a relative of James Wright first settler of Lanyon Homestead in the 1830's and, after bankrupting, establishing Cuppacumbalong at present day Tharwa once "beyond the limits of habitation andA Mr Bluett who lived at Brindabella Valley and was somewhat the local historian.

 My thoughts on a video...


This is the old post in question..

 https://davesact.com/2011/02/canberra-blacks-lost-tribe.html

 And if you are interested in the original argument it can be found here..

 https://davesact.com/2012/08/the-lost-canberra-tribe.html

It's just gone past midnight and I had travelled 850km to attend a gathering of Yowie Researchers and interested people for the unveiling of a bust by artist Buck Buckingham of an alleged yowie that was photographed by Ray Doherty of the Australian Yowie Project.

There were three very interesting speakers dealing with varying aspects of yowie research in Australia followed by the final speaker, Ray, who detailed the story of how the photograph came to be.

Effectively the photograph was taken in Queensland and showed a blurry head sitting in a tree in a remote area. The photograph sat for a few years until some new software came onto the market that could refocus images.

From the clearer image Buck was asked to sketch the photograph and eventually create a lifelike bust from the drawing. I think the result is remarkable.

If you are interested in the details please go to the Project's website at..

http://theaustralianapeproject.blogspot.com

I took a little video on the day and was allowed to film the bust and the artists sketch of the photograph as long as due credit is supplied.. Credit: Australian Yowie Project and artist Buck Buckingham.

This image in so little words has stuck with me since I read it. Was, what we might call today a, yowie killed by a group of Aboriginals near the time of European settlement? "It was like a black man, but covered in grey hair."

I think that is somewhat odd..

A walk today up Stirling Ridge in the Canberra diplomatic suburbia of Yarralumla. I am slowly revisiting sites of documented Indigenous heritage that I know of for a fellow researching the Yuin and Peoples of the surrounding area. These sites are ones that I haven't seen since 2010-12 so any changes in 2018 should be evident.

We met up at the site of the old Westlake Settlement where the early construction of Canberra's workers were housed.. There is new signage since I was last there which I think is appropriate and informative.

As for the scar trees on my short visit I could only relocate one. This doesn't mean the others are gone just that I have a short memory.


Another suburban expedition will be launched on the appropriately weathered day.

A trip this morning to meet up with Vlad who is researching South Coast and Canberra region Indigenous remnant artifacts that luckily remain dotted around the suburban countryside. Today we met up on the banks of Ginninderra Creek in the Canberra suburb of Latham armed with, what turned out to be, a vauge map to the location of 18 documented Indigenous grinding grooves.


The stone is decribed as Volcanic tuff which I am told is very hard which explained why the original survey indicated they were shallow. We managed to locate only two grooves out of the marked eighteen.

It is possible the remaining grooves are overgrown as the creek edge foliage was lush and covering up to the waters edge. The locations indicated several groups of two grooves, two groups of 3 and one group of seven grooves.

I took some video of the two grooves we found..


Some photos..

A visit today to the Symonston Aboriginal Quarry site in Canberra. I haven't been here in 8 years so I was interested in seeing its condition after that time. Apart from a bit of rubbish and a covering of dead pine needles it does not appear to have changed although, from memory, there was more "chert" flakes years ago.

Unless you were specifically researching the site its not a site you would just stumble upon. It is very close to a major industrial/commercial development. I took some video..

I decided to spend my birthday eve at a nearby campground I had overlooked all my life. Just another year until a passing thought reminded me that the next time I need renew my driver's license I will be 60.

I collected the camera this morning as the weather was forecasted for rain. Sitting here writing this I note we have had less than 1 mm of liquid. No sign of a break to the current drought.

The camera was set to take 1 photograph and 30 seconds of video every 10 minutes and I was trying to identify the source of a light I photographed that appeared to be hovering and pulsating above Mount Tennant near Tharwa in the Australian Capital Territory.

I took some video today which is posted below as I recovered the camera. When I got home I again detected a light, which appeared to remain visible for less than an hour, above Mount Tennant. I am sort of confident that the light is too high to be the firetower when I compare daytime still captures with the night.

 I'll leave it up to you..

I visited an Indigenous heritage site today that I have visited every few years by habit. Today the flat beds of stone were prominently exposed with the surrounding  grassland totally eaten down to the ground I suspect by local Grey Kangaroos. Grinding grooves are created in the process of grinding shape and edges to stone implements, crushing ochre and grinding seeds are some of the known uses.

I was disturbed however to see a nearby, un-grooved as far as I remember, rock that had been smashed with a melon sized rock which was located nearby..


The rest appeared as they had last time I visited with a considerable amount of washed in sand grit and leaves in the large bowls..




Located in the Canberra Nature Reserve. Entrance off Christmas Street Theodore, Canberra ACT.

I'm currently curious about a bright light I have captured in a still frame and a thirty second video just after midnight on tuesday 18th of September for one night near Canberra. (The dates on the timestamps are wrong.)

There was only a ten minute window of opportunity for the light to be captured as the camera reset to take one photo and thirty seconds of video every 10 minutes.