7/27/2019 Mystery Mountains of Australia (1954)

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The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Saturday 27 February 1954, page 11

National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18412437

Our Mystery Mountains

By BILL

BEATTY

AUSTRALIA has many**?

queer mountains-greatmounds of prehistoric rocks

which, somehow or other,

did not quite succeed in

making the change from vol-

canic to non-volcanic mass.

New South Wales has its

"Burning Mountain" - Mount

Wingen, where undergroundcoal-seams have been smoulder-

ing for tens of thousands of

Victoria has a "Breathing

Mountain" at Castlemaine, six

miles from the town. It marks

the scene of the pioneer gold

rushes, and has been breathing

for 65 years with deep, regular

breaths, each of which takes a

whole year to complete.

In a small opening in the soft

soil at the base of the mountain

lies its single nostril. Sixty-five

years ago a mining tunnel was

driven into the mountain, and,

when the workings were aban-

doned, the mouth of the tunnel

collapsed, leaving only this small

opening.

Anyone -wholistens-

at the"nostril" hears a noise like the

murmur of an underground river,

and,if

a flame is held there, the

movement of the flame shows

that the breathingis in progress.

In summer the air is gently and

steadily inhaled, and in winter it

is exhaled. Actually, the crest of

the breathing mountainis

one

foot higher in December thanit

is in July.

IT>UTit is in Queensland where

?*-*one finds mountains with an

aura of mystery.

A railway station and district

in that State are named in

honour of a notable pioneering

family-the Petries.

Because of their understanding

of the aborigines John Petrie and

his son, Tom, were beloved by

the native tribes who lived near-

by. Indeed, they regarded John,

by. Indeed,

and later his son, almost as gods.

One time, when John announ-

ced his intention of climbing

MountBeerwah,

in the Glass-

house Mountains, the natives

wereterrified. They begged and

implored him not to rr/ake the

ascent, saying that a great Spirit

dwelt on the summit of the

mountain who would punish by

blindness anyone daring to look

at him. They assured Petrie that

only once had the peak been

climbed and that, sure enough,

the foolish native who had ac-

complished it had been struck

blind.

John laughed at theirsuper-

stition and said that a white man

need have no such fears.

He ascended the peak of the

mountain but, by an extraordin-

ary coincidence, shortly after-

wards became totally and per-

manently blind.

The sinister and mysterious

Black Mountain-the so-called

"Mountain of Death"-is in the

far north of Queensland, about

20 miles south of Cooktown.

Ever since its discovery, in the

opening days of the great Palmergoldrush in 1873, this great ridge

has taken toll of human lives in

a.most uncanny fashion.

The mountain is a mass of

tumbled granite blocks, almost

devoid of vegetation. The only

living things there are black rock

wallabiqs and enormous pythons:

the latter are about 16 feet long,

and able lo swallow a wallaby

whole.

The ridge ishoneycombed with

caves, nearly all unexplored.

They dip down below ground

level, but nobody knows theirextent or contents.