Cairn ‘clue’ to first arrivals
MYSTERY surrounds a longstanding Far North rock cairn that could shed light on Australia’s earliest European explorers.
Renowned conservationist and shipwreck discoverer Ben Cropp AM last month teamed up with local historian Jim Parker to investigate the landmark, said to be on a clifftop at Forsberg Point, about 25km south of Cooktown.
They heard about the cairn from former ranger Pat Shears, who saw it marked on a map of the region believed to have been drawn by legendary Australian geologist and explorer Robert Logan Jack in 1890.
After arriving at an isolated beach by dinghy, the pair embarked on an “arduous climb” to the top of a steep cliff.
They soon found the rock cairn, about 1.3m tall, and immediately went searching for clues to its origin.
“When (Robert) Logan Jack asked the local Aborigines, they knew nothing about it and said, ‘been here long time’,” said Mr Cropp, who turns 80 next month.
“That was in 1890 but before then had it been there for 10 years or 1000 years? We really don’t know.”
Mr Cropp said the cairn could have been made by 16thcentury Portuguese explorers – contended to have discovered Australia and known for building the rock markers – or by the Chinese to “guide illegal gold diggers” during the gold rush in the late 1800s.
He said the answer could lie in a nearby cave, about 500m from the cairn, which is rumoured pottery”.
But the terrain was so littered with fallen trees that the pair were unable to explore the cave, even though it was within sight.
“The identity and date of the pottery should be able to tell us the nationality of who built the cairn,” Mr Cropp said.
“We just need to get our hands on some of it.”
Mr Cropp said the cairn could be one of the most “significant clues” that Portuguese sailors discovered Australia, despite Englishman Captain James Cook going down in history as the east coast’s first European explorer. “It’s all very intriguing. “There are clues all around Australia but I’m looking for absolute proof and not just hearsay,” he said.
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