There was high drama on Mount Ainslie, reported on this day 40 years, after a schoolboy "tumbled down a cliff".
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The front page of The Canberra Times reported the 15-year-old boy had to be carried out on a stretcher after falling about three metres while abseiling on the popular inner north vantage point.
The boy, Dominic Sirone, of Ashfield, suffered minor head injuries and cuts in the fall.
He was with a party of about 30 others from the Boys Brigade centenary camp.
There were about 1500 boys at the summer holiday camp, being held at the National Exhibition Centre.
One of the Boys Brigade leaders, Glen Roser, said the boy had been practising abseiling at about 3.45pm with about six others when his belt had become loose and he slipped.
He had been in an area of the quarry where there is about a 30-metre drop.
He fell near a ledge at the bottom.
Some of the boys made a bush stretcher and he was carried part way down the steep rough slope below the quarry on the southern slope of Mount Ainslie.
Some other boys ran to the main road to get help.
Photos taken by The Canberra Times at the scene showed police and paramedics working on difficult terrain to get the boy to hospital.
He was carried to a four-wheel- drive track and loaded into a police Land Cruiser which took him to the main road up Mount Ainslie.
He was taken to Royal Canberra Hospital for observation.