Blue Mountains History Journal Issue 3

Blue Mountains Historical Journal 3;
FORENSIC HISTORY:
PROFESSOR CHILDE’S DEATH NEAR GOVETTS LEAP - REVISITED.
Peter C. Rickwood
BEES
University of New South Wales
Sydney NSW 2052
p.rickwood@unsw.edu.au
Abstract
The world-renowned, Australian born, archaeologist Professor V. Gordon Childe disappeared at
Blackheath in 1957, the first year of his retirement. His body was found next day and other bones two
years later. Many accounts of the death get some aspect of the event wrong, and they are inconsistent in
detail, so this is a re-examination of the reports in an attempt to reveal what actually occurred. Most
probably it was suicide but Childe was unsteady in balance, short-sighted and without spectacles at the
time, and he was known to take risks at cliff edges, so an accidental fall is a distinct possibility.
Key Words: Childe, archaeologist, suicide, Govetts Leap, Blackheath, Blue Mountains.
Introduction
Perhaps the most famous incident at Govetts Leap, ignoring the fictitious plunge of the supposed
bushranger Govett (Rickwood 2005), occurred on Saturday 19 October 1957 when Professor Vere Gordon
Childe failed to return from a walk south-eastwards along the Cliff Top Track at Blackheath. He fell over
the cliff near to Govetts Leap and his body was found next day on a ledge but it was two years later that
other bones were discovered on different ledges. Coroner John Ebenezer Tonkin gave his verdict on 6
December 1957 of death
“On the nineteenth day of October 1957 at Luchetti Look-out, Blackheath...”
as being
“... From the effects of injuries accidentally received, ...” (Thomas 2003, p.230) “… when he fell
From a cliff top.” (State Records 1957a).
but it masks the curious set of circumstances and inconsistencies in the reports of this event.
WHO WAS THIS MAN?
(Photo: Peter Rickwood March 2012)
Figure 1. The vandalised
grave of Stephen & Harriet
Childe, Wentworth Falls
Cemetery.
Vere Gordon Childe, called Gordon by his family, was the son of the
Reverend Stephen Henry Childe (Watson 1923, p.17) and Harriet Eliza
Gordon the second of his three wives (Allen 1979) (or the third of his four
wives according to Duvollet (1978) although that seems dubious), having
been born on 14 April 1892 in North Sydney (Anonymous 1957d; Slade
1990, p.5). His main connection with the Blue Mountains is that his
parents often took the family to their vacation house at 46, Wilson Street,
Wentworth Falls (Duvollet 1978) when it was called Chalet Fontenelle
(Dudman, 1991, pp.14-36); now it is Whispering Pines. But the
connection goes further for his parents, Stephen (died 23 May 1928) and
Harriet (died 26 July 1910 at Chalet Fontenelle (Dudman 1991, footnote
30)), are buried in the Church of England section of Wentworth Falls
Cemetery, in WCE4 Plot 5 (Figure 1), which is adjacent to the Great
Western Highway opposite the eastern boundary of Mountain High Pies.
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