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The Lost Civilisation of Australia The existence of little-known megalithic structures across the Australian landscape suggests we should revise our thinking on prehistory and human evolution. cattered across Australia stand enigmatic relics of a bygone civilisation: megalith- ic stone alignments, walls and other structures; pyramid-shaped mountains once utilised as astronomical observatories; serpent altars where unknown rites were performed; and mystery rock inscriptions of a long-vanished people. Who were they? What are the origins of the ‘lost civilisation of Australia’? I first became aware of this mystery race in January 1965 when, while exploring dense scrubland west of Sydney at an upper Blue Mountains site overlooking a valley, 1 came upon a 50-foot-tall pyramidal sandstone mound composed of rubble, formed from a huge rock in ages past. At its base I found two stone slabs forming steps on the western side of the mound and, above these, other collapsed slabs that appeared to have once formed more steps to the summit. Upon reaching the summit, I found myself standing on a flat sandstone base facing east overlooking the valley. Before me stood a large formation—a continuation of the same sandstone base rock—whose flat surface, I found to my surprise upon closer examination, had been carved out in the form of a serpent. Later I returned to measure the structure. The rock was undoubtedly an altar stone, 5 feet 8 inches long, by 2 feet 4 inches wide, by 4 feet high. It faced north-south in a curved formation, with a groove representing the serpent's mouth at its northern (head) end point- ing east. Beside the altar on its northern side stood a large boulder, also four feet in height, upon which was a long, deep groove obviously used for sharpening a stone knife. Had sacrifices, human or animal, once been performed upon this alter? I later measured the mound's base at 350 feet in circumference. Upon searching other nearby rocks I soon found another ‘serpent altar’ amid bushes . some yards to the west. It was part of a large sandstone block standing 10 feet tall on an east-west axis. The serpent, carved in relief, measured 13 feet 5 inches in length by one foot wide at the head, the body then measuring from 6 inches out to 14 inches as it enlarged in width toward a rounded end. Further west still, I later discovered another altar stone—a 10-foot-tall rock whose sum- mit bore the weathered relief carving of an eagle, 4 feet 6 inches long by 3 feet 6 inches wide across its single outstretched left wing, facing north as did the bird's beak. The fig- ure was on an east-west axis. A much larger ‘eagle altar’ came to light in 1974 at another upper Blue Mountains loca- tion, reached by climbing a 20-foot-tall rock. The bird measures 5 feet 10 inches in length from head to tail, its beak and outstretched right wing facing south. A small slab of rock at the monument's base contained the deep, weathered carving of an open-mouthed ser- nant pent. A number of other serpent and eagle altar sites were to come to light across the Blue Mountains over the years following the 1974 eagle altar find. However, it was the 1965 serpent altars discovery that first led me to speculate that here was evidence of a hitherto unknown Australian ‘lost' civilisation. In March 1969, at another Blue Mountains location, I stumbled upon a tall pillar-like rock standing 50 feet tall on a cliff edge overlooking the Jameison Valley. Upon climbing it, 1 found engraved in the flat ironstone summit a number of small symbols. They were not Aboriginal figures and appeared to be some form of hieroglyphic script. Later, in January 1973, I found the symbol of a flower engraved upon a small square ironstone slab at Blackheath. This new find led my wife Heather and me to undertake an all-out search for further examples of this mystery script—a search which continues to by Rex Gilroy, © 1994/95 Australian Unexplained Mysteries Investigation Centre 120 Robert Street Tamworth, NSW 2340 Australia Phone +61 (067) 62 2357 NEXUS ¢ 31 by Rex Gilroy, © 1994/95 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 1995