Mystery surrounds the author of an inscribed rock jutting over a cliff overlooking the Jamison Valley in Wentworth Falls, just south of Sunset Rock on the Kings Tableland.
Amateur botanist, David Coleby of Leura, came across ‘The Colraine Rock’ by accident in May last year while looking for new locations for Eucalyptus cunninghamii, the Cliff Mallee Ash.
“I was searching a clifftop area of Kedumba Walls between the large gate on Kedumba Valley Road, and 200 metres down from Sunset Rock, both on Kings Tableland, Wentworth Falls,” he said.
“The location is in a mixture of habitats, but The Colraine Rock itself juts out of the cliff, over the abyss which is the Jamison Valley.”
He said the rock shows up as a bright rectangle on Google Earth (satellite) and doesn’t recommend trying to get to it.
“It is a very hard bush bash”, he said.
Mr Coleby has searched far and wide for information about the rock.
“Asking around, I have drawn a blank everywhere. National Parks at Blackheath had never heard of it, nor had [historians/authors] Michael Keats, Brian Fox, John Low, Ian Brown, Jim Smith, the Blue Mountains Historical Society, the Blue Mountains Association of Cultural History Organisations, the Blue Mountains Conservation Society, BM City Council, and the Geographical Names Board.”
“Two of them (John Low and Jim Smith) came up with a plausible theory that the inscription was carved by a patient at the nearby Queen Victoria Hospital, but sadly there is no proper evidence. Apparently the patients were encouraged to walk in the bush for exercise, and they would most likely go to the (nearer) Sunset Rock.
The Heritage newsletter of the Blue Mountains Association of Cultural History Organisations ran an article in August last year to its 400 members about the rock, but no-one responded.
“And a search via the internet drew a world-wide blank,” he added.
Mr Coleby said the carving looks very professional.
“It’s not the kind of thing a day-tripper would do, and more likely to be a stonemason’s work, perhaps somebody who was used to carving inscriptions on gravestones. Whoever it was took time and trouble to make it look good.”
He said investigations by Brian Fox drew blanks at Coleraine (Victoria) and Colerine (Ireland).
He is curious whether anyone who attended the hospital in the early to mid 1900s might know more.
“There has been talk about the Colraine Rock, but no one really knows who did the carving, or why. We may still find out,” said Jan Koperberg, a member of the Blue Mountains Association of Cultural History Organisations.
The rock now forms an entry in the recently published Blue Mountains Feographical Encyclopaedia by Brian Fox and Michael Keats, published by Keats Holdings.
Mr Coleby would like to hear from anyone who can “throw some light on this modern mystery” at davidcoleby@bigpond.com.