Mystery rock cairn on Gossan Hill in Canberra keeps growing

Imaginative readers have pointed the finger at just about every suspect, from bored (and artistic) school kids to aliens. Yes, aliens. Why some intelligent inter-galactic life form would travel all the way to Earth, then choose a hill in suburban Belconnen to their leave the mark has got me beat. Who knows, maybe it's to offset their crop circle creations in the United Kingdom?

One of the more rational theories is the cairn is the result of management practices of park managers, who following the establishment of a nature reserve, selectively pile up rocks in order to clear areas for mowing.

One now retired park ranger who used to work in Canberra Nature Park (of which Gossan Hill is part of) back in the 1970s reports "one of our least liked jobs was this so-called "rock picking".

"The task was to pick up all the rocks in a defined area (usually behind houses), place them in the bucket of a front-end loader which loaded them onto a tip truck and they were then taken away somewhere," the parks insider explains.

This was done so the area could be slashed for fire fuel reduction. While my informant remembers this being done on Mt Painter behind Cook and in other reserves too, photographic evidence obtained by this column shows this was unlikely to be the genesis of the Gossan cairn which was barely noticeable just six years ago and has grown rapidly to now feature thousands of rocks.

Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate's acting executive director Daniel Iglesias has his own ground-breaking theory which may bring those who advocate the conjecture of cosmic connections, back to earth.

"Clearly the Gossan Hill walkers have a quirky thing going with the cairn build-up," says the Parks head honcho, who urges Canberrans not to pile rocks in nature parks.

"I would appeal to walkers to think twice about contributing any further to the construction," says Iglesias. "Movement of rocks within a reserve does impact on available habitat to a range of plants and animals."

One reader who agrees with Iglesias' advice is fellow Canberra Times columnist Rod Taylor of ''Ask Fuzzy'' fame, who reports his wife once undertook a field trip to study scorpions that live under rocks scattered around Gossan Hill.

"So in moving so many rocks, their homes are being wrecked," says Taylor.

However, it seems not everyone is sympathetic with the conservation-minded Iglesias and Taylor, with one reader claiming, "I have it on good authority that the not-so-fleet-footed lizards in the area have just moved into the cairn."

Talk about a biodiversity hotspot!

Perhaps the last word for now should go to Irene (no surname provided) who says, "Wake up folks, it's a pile of rocks … not indigenous, not an environmental disaster, not extra-terrestrial but a simple pile of rocks."

Given the cairn's recent increase in size, there's probably only one way to solve this curious case once and for all - a good old-fashioned stake-out atop Gossan Hill.

I'll bring the donuts if someone else brings the takeaway coffee (oh, and a trail camera might come in handy too).

Meanwhile, it's time to crack open the bubbly, for the location of an ''unidentified'' church, one of this column's longest running mysteries, has finally been solved.

Following a request from ArchivesACT, a circa 1960-1966 photograph of the steep-roofed church first featured on these pages last August.

The photo was part of a collection of the late Oskar Pumpurs, a planner with the National Capital Development Commission, whose photographs were donated to ArchivesACT and The ACT Heritage Library aftetr his death late last century.

While the eagle-eyed archivists were able to identify most of Pumpurs' prized photos featuring mid-20th century Canberra landmarks, the location of the grainy old church left them stumped.

Fortuitously, this column's recent renewed push to uncover the church's location (Cryptic Church, February 3) found its way to Murwillumbah in northern NSW, home of John Pumpurs, Oskar's son, who was promptly able to positively identify the church.

So where is it? Well it turns out Sherlock Holmes wannabes who were searching within the confines of the ACT border, which was the focus of Pumpurs' work, were barking up the wrong tree.

"Our family bought 'Tara', a property at the end of Keirs Road, across the border near Murrumbateman, around 1964," reveals Pumpurs.

According to Pumpurs, his dad spent most of his spare time out there. He "was particularly interested in old buildings, including this church which was located on private property just off Keirs Road, near Murrumbateman Creek".

Not only can Pumpurs identify the photo of the church, which "at the time belonged to the Butt family and was being used to store hay", but he also remembers the very day it was taken, for he was there.

"It was the winter of 1966 and dad wanted a photo of the church with snow on the ground," says Pumpurs.

In fact, the NCDC happy snapper liked the church so much he even asked his artist friend ''Shibu'' to paint it.

"It's painted from a different angle to the photo, and has some surface damage in the sky area, but you can definitely see the resemblance," says Pumpurs.

During the week, this column confirmed that the church is not only still in situ on the property, now called Winstonwood, but is used as an office by owners Murray and Loraine Dwyer.

Purveyor of fine wines and dabbler in local history, Ken Helm, whose winery adjoins Winstonwood, says, "It was originally known as Armstrong's Church, built of rammed earth from the creek circa 1901 on the property Greenwood, before the property was sold off in blocks in 1973."

Helm further reports that in Errol Lea-Scarlett's Gundaroo (Roebuck Society Canberra, 1972) "there's a wonderful description of the Nanama [local name given to that part of Murrumbateman] Creek people, who, in spite of Methodist prejudices against dancing, held maypole dances and harvest festivals around the church, and even auctioned off local produce from a high step at the back of the church."

While the rediscovered church may not have hosted a maypole dance for many a year, I'm sure the good folk at ArchivesACT are today dancing around the office that their mystery photo has finally been identified.

If you have an historic photo of Canberra you'd like to be identified, please let me know.

After perusing this column's recent exposé on out-of-place pythons around Canberra, (The mystery that's more than ssskin deep, February 3), John Pumpurs reports, "We live in python heaven up here in northern NSW, the discarded skins are always stretched when dry so it is difficult to know the exact size of the snake it came from."

Pumpurs confesses as a youngster he was scared of the big brown snakes that were probably hiding out in the aforementioned church when it was full of hay. "We also had a quite a few big brown snakes in and around the huge storage shed at Tara, including a big one which used to frequent Oskar's sauna, much to his disgust."

I'm not exactly sure if it is the result of speculation in this column that aliens could be responsible for the rock cairn on Gossan Hill, but there's been a corresponding spike in the number of extraterrestrial-themed photos lobbing into my inbox.

These include this ''ET log'' which Ron Jacobs of Calwell recently stumbled on during a trip to Marthavale, Victoria.

Indeed, even your akubra-clad columnist has been caught up in alien fever. While recently fossicking on the shores of Lake Burrinjuck, I nearly tripped over this piece of driftwood.

While it does looks a bit like one of ET's fossilised cousins, I'm not sure it could build a rock cairn.

Clue: Also beware of the nurse lurking under the cattle grid.

Degree of difficulty: Medium.

Congratulations to Lexa Hains of Canberra City who was the first reader to correctly identify last week's photo (above) as the courtyard at the Hotel Kurrajong Canberra, in leafy Barton. Hains, who beat Ian York and June McKenzie to the prize, immediately recognised the scene for she "recently watched a family of fairy wrens playing in the fountain."

Originally opened in 1926, the hotel's corridors are steeped in the nation's political past. History buffs will enjoy a guided tour of the landmark building which is followed by a traditional high tea, including a glass of bubbles. Next tour: March 10. $55 per person. 12pm and 2.30pm seatings. To book, call 6234 4444 or email meet@hotelkurrajong.com.au. I might see you there.

How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to timtheyowieman@bigpond.com. The first email sent after 10am, Saturday February 17 will win a double pass to Dendy.