Vol 31 No 3 - Confederation of Bushwalking Clubs

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Walk Safely—Walk with a ClubEngineers Track HeritageInfrastructure CommitteeNewsThe Engineers Track Heritage InfrastructureCommittee (ETHIC) was created lastyear and mentioned in Vol 30 Issue 3.Michael Keats reports that it has had itsfirst round of funding approved, for 06/07.The following is an extract of the planningapplication as submitted to NPWS:“A general survey of the route is includedin ‘Back from the Brink’ by Andy Mc-Queen, 1997 (pp 316-320).The original compass and chain surveyfield books (3) by the Royal Engineersfrom 1859 over the full length of the Trackare located in State Records, Kingswood.This survey is remarkably accurate whencompared to the modern 1/25,000 CMAmaps. The survey records bench marks,construction camp sites and other recoverablefeatures.A general survey of the overall track isproposed with a detailed survey westof Wentworth Creek for 10 km towardsthe Devils Wilderness past Dark Creek,Wilderness Brook and Luminous Creekincluding the 240 m long false lead upWentworth Creek. Also the top 2.5 kmfrom Darling Causeway down the westernside of Surveyors Creek, across the upperGrose then to under Ikara Head. In boththese locations there is extensive dry stonewalling and hand drill holes, and the EngineersTrack is 80% or more intact.Dunns LeapOne of the intriguing namesin the Blue MountainsBrian FoxJoseph Frederick Dunn was a publicanof the Post Office Hotel at Frederickton,about 10 km north of Kempsey. With hiswife Evelyn Isabel they had 5 children, allborn in the Kempsey district. In 1908 theydecided to go on holidays to Mount Victoria,most likely to visit other family members,(Mt Victoria school records show anumber of Dunns). However, this was tounlike most holidays where you returnhome safely and before you know what it’slike you’re back at work and you feel as ifyou’ve never had a holiday.An incident occurred which gave rise toa name and an intriguing feature whichis still there today, nearly 100 years later.While on the holiday two of the boys- Arthur in his early 20s and his youngerbrother Charles Daniel just 14 years of age,went exploring along the top of the cliffline just below Mount Piddington. One ofthe overhangs they explored has a slopingfloor and is made up of Mount York ClayStone. This is a reddish very fragile rockwith gives a very loose footing to walk on.It was at this point on Sunday 10 th May1908 that the younger boy slipped and fellover the cliff edge. He fell all of 55 m.If he had died that would have been a tragicend to their holiday, and over time theevent would have passed into history andbeen forgotten. But not only did the boysurvive, but he survived with only minorabrasions and bruises. While Arthur waswondering how he was going to tell hisparents, Charles was able to walk home!Now what makes this spot more intriguingis that at the top where he slipped an ironspike has been hammered in and a pieceof wire has been tied to the spike. At thebottom where he landed the other end ofthe wire is tried to the base of a sign. Thewire shows the trajectory of his fall, andthe sign reads ‘Dunns Leap 200 ft’.Access to the bottom of Dunns Leap is viathe Fairy Bower Picnic Area, near the oldToll House at Mount Victoria and a 170 mside track before reaching Coxs Cave. Thetop is reached via Mount Piddington, FerrisCave and a 30 m side track.Dunns Leap is just one of the many colourfulnames found in our Blue Mountains region,and 1 of 2166 names recorded in theBlue Mountains Geographical Dictionaryby the Author. This book can be purchasedfrom the author for $45 plus postage. Hecan be contacted on 02 6332 2590 AH.ernment has pushed to relax some of thedesign criteria for 406 MHz PLBs to encouragethe manufacture of smaller, lessexpensive PLB.Some current models of PLB that maybeuseful are the• McMurdo “Fastfind” & “FastfindPlus” (compact with a weigh of about 300g) http://www.mcmurdo.co.uk/Images/CMS_Images/Fastfind%20&%20Fastfind%20Plus.pdf• GME “MT400 406 MHz EPIRB”(not as compact and a weight of about 550g) http://www.gme.net.au/epirb/mt400.php• KTI “RB8 Personal Locator Beacon”(yet to be released) (http://www.kti.com.au/epirbs.htm) that promises to becompact and light. This PLB is expected | The Bushwalkerwithin 3 – 6 months time.One Australian supplier of the Fastfind isPilot Supplies (based in Victoria)http://ozpilot.com/cgi-bin/webitempage.pl?fastf with a list price of $1395.An Australian supplier of the GME MT400is Prospectors Earth Sciences (based atSeven Hills) http://www.prospectors.com.au/ with a list price of $539.WARNINGMany 406 MHz beacons available for purchase(eg via Google) from the USA have aP... registration code. These P... registrationcode beacons cannot be registeredin Australia! You need to check the webaddress to be sure that you are NOT buyingan incompatible beacon. Remember,however that registration of a 406 MHzPLB is free!MaintenanceGenerally all beacons have a test button toconfirm that they are operating correctly.As a minimum, test the beacon at the manufacturersrecommended interval. Batteriesare long life and require the manufacturer/ agent to replace them. Do NOT gopast the ‘use by’ date.Accidental AlarmThere can be heavy penalties for falsealarms. These penalties can be avoidedif you know your beacon has accidentallystarted sending a signal by phoning 1800641 792.Further Informationhttp://www.amsa.gov.au/search_and_rescue/index.aspis an excellent site.Vol31 Issue 3, Winter 2006
Myles Dunphy and William CuneoTwo misguided nomenclaturists of the Blue MountainsDuring the Dreamtime pursuit of the“Rainbow Serpent” Gurangatch by theQuoll Mirragan, through the BurragorangValley, Gurangatch rested in a number ofwaterholes along the Wollondilly and CoxRivers. In his unpublished notes on thisGundungurra story R.H. Mathews listedthree of these waterholes on the Wollondilly:Goorit, Kweeoogang and Mullindi.None of these names appear to have everbeen published on any map of the WollondillyRiver. However the waterhole nameKweeoogang was to have the curious fateof being moved by white men to two differentmountains far from the waterhole.The only published use of the place nameKweeoogang (as Queahgong) in its correctcontext appears in an account of a trip byRobert Etheridge of the Australian Museumto the Burragorang Valley in the early1890s. He was accompanied by MauriceHayes, Burragorang Valley landowner andWilliam Albert Cuneo, Thirlmere StationMaster. Hayes had been familiar with theBurragorang Valley since the early 1840sand had purchased two portions of landbeside the Wollondilly River in the 1850s.He would have had ample opportunity totalk to the Gundungurra people of the valley.His property was called Queahgong.Mathews does not give the exact locationof Kweeoogang waterhole but does describewhere Goorit and Mullindi waterholeswere, and Hayes’ property lies betweenthese. This property name probablyreflects Aboriginal usage for this locality.Etheridge’s account of the expedition alsouses “Mount Queahgong” to describe thebluff on the cliff top above the road descentinto the valley. This is over 3 km SSE ofthe waterhole and at the top of a verticalcliff some 150 m high. This name appearsnever to have been published. The featureis called “The Bluff” on current maps. WilliamCuneo was probably responsible forthe origin of the name Mt Queahgong for“The Bluff”.It was bushwalker, cartographer and conservationistMyles Joseph Dunphy (1891-1985) who applied ‘Queahgong’ to a peak32 km to the NW of the Wollondilly waterhole.Dunphy was probably the most prolificplace namer of the 20th century, bestowingnames across the Blue Mountains,Warrumbungles and Hawkesbury districts.In a few cases Dunphy may have recordedauthentic local Aboriginal place names, butthe great majority were taken from publishedbooks of Aboriginal words from allJim Smithover Australia. Some are made-up pseudo‐Aboriginalwords. Dunphy also usedhistorical references such as Barrallier’sdiary of his 1802 Burragorang Valley explorationas sources for commemorativenames, finding places to put the names ofall the Aboriginal people met by Barrallier.One of Dunphy’s worst habits was to takeAboriginal place names that were in verbaluse by local communities but not yet usedon a map and put them where he pleased.Dunphy first explored the BurragorangValley in 1912-13. He apparently heardthe name Queahgong used by the valley’ssettlers and decided to use it for the peakbetween Mt Jenolan and Mt Guouogang onwhat he called the Krungle Bungle Range.Dunphy may have wanted to match thesounds of Queahgong and Guouogang (forwhich he suggested the pronunciation Kuo-wo-gang).Jenolan and Guouogang aregenuine Gundungurra names first recordedby surveyors Henry White and WilliamGovett respectively in 1833.Another name moved by Dunphy was DungallaCascades. The Burragorang community,probably reflecting Aboriginal usage,applied the name Dungala to rapids in theupper Burragorang near Coleman’s Creek.Dunphy moved the name to a waterfallnear Tuglow Caves about 40 km to the NWof Coleman’s Creek. Dunphy enjoyed thedouble entendre of this name with the firstsyllables of Dunphy and his walking companionHerb Gallup.It is ironic that the names Dungalla Cascadesand Mount Queahgong were approvedin 1931 by the Surveyor General,Hamilton Bartlett Mathews (1873-1959),Walk Safely—Walk with a Clubthe son of R.H. Mathews (1841-1918).Mathews senior took considerable care tolocate Aboriginal place names accurately.In 1931 his notebooks, which included theone that gave the true location of Queahgong,were still in the possession of hisfamily. The sheer volume of place namesproposed by Dunphy meant that Mathewsjunior and his successors were never ableto have them investigated properly.I believe that it is now time to re-examinethe Dunphy legacy. The pseudo-Aboriginalnames should be the first to be removed.Place names derived from Aboriginal languagesfar distant from where they havebeen applied could be replaced with genuinelocal words supplied by local Aboriginalcommunities. Where there are localplace names that have not been used beforePart of an early 20th century panorama of the Burragorang Valley, looking up the Valley ofthe Wollondilly River. The Bluff on the right side of the picture is Cuneo’s Mt Queahgong andhis Mt Kamilaroi is the pointed peak on the left side. Kweeoogang waterhole is behind The Bluff,four kilometres downstream of the junction of the Nattai and Wollondilly Rivers. This junction ismarked with an ‘x’. Photo from J. Carne, Geology and Mineral Resources of the Western Coalfield,Government Printer, Sydney, 1908.they can be used to replace Dunphy’s lessappropriate suggestions.Although the original Kweeoogang waterholehas been submerged by Lake Burragorang,the small headland that projectsinto the lake on the southern boundary ofHayes’ portion 34, Parish of Bimlow couldbe called Kweeoogang Point.There would be resistance amongbushwalkers to removing names such asMt Queahgong. Dunphy’s nomenclaturalzeal was part of his strategy for “claiming”the areas he wanted for bushwalking andconservation purposes. His names haveallowed generations of bushwalkers tocommunicate with each other about theirjourneys. Hopefully bushwalkers will acceptthat the claims now being made by thedescendents of the Aboriginal people wholived in these landscapes include the rightto suggest more authentic place names thanthose made up by Dunphy or stolen by himfrom their rightful locations.Vol31 Issue 3 Winter 2006The Bushwalker |
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Vol 31 No 3 - Confederation of Bushwalking Clubs

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