A Revelation about Lost Rock

[DickSmith]

Hi Bushwalkers, Dick Smith here!

As you may know, I'm passionate about bushwalking in Australia and history.

You may have read, or contributed to these discussions on this forum viewtopic.php?f=36&t=26775&p=349174&hilit=Revelation+rock+Revelation#p349174, about a place called Lost Rock, in Kanangra NP, which I visited 50 years ago with my Scout group and my fiancé, Pip. It was significant to us, and also the Sydney Uni Rover Crew (SURC), who's name holds to the UniRover Trail that passes by it.

Back then, we all knew it as "Revelation Rock," and so I was surprised to find that the name had disappeared from today's toppo maps, to be replaced by "Lost Rock".

I wanted to get to the bottom of how, and why this happened. So, over the last year or so, I've been working on a report to determine if there is a case for putting a submission to the Geographical Names Board to see what can be done.

I wanted to share the report with the bushwalking community, and open it up to comments and fair discussion. The knowledge and expertise of bushwalking history in this forum is rich, and I'm sure that there is further information and facts that may need to be considered. I'm open to hearing them.

You can read a copy of the report here - http://rosiereunion.com/file/revelation_rock_report.pdf

Yours in bushwalking,
Dick

[DickSmith]

It appears that the Geographical Names Board had planned to call the feature Lost Rock Lookout. Myles Dunphy made the below submission objecting to the name. It appears that point (b) hasn’t been scanned properly and should possibly read "a large rock is a feature, a lookout is not.

Dick

[crollsurf]

Thanks Dick, interesting and well researched. Would have loved to read the rest of Dunphy's letter to Abrahams. Maybe it was different back then but he wasn't holding back

[wildwalks]

Hi Dick
Thanks for sharing this report and info here.
Sounds like a good argument to me. There have been a bunch of weird name changes on NSW topos over the past few editions, but this one is much older and more complex.
Great that Alix and Caro have been involved, might also be worth having a conversation with Micheal Keats, he also lives on the north side of Syd and has a great deal of passion and information about place names in the mountains (pretty sure Caro knows him well, otherwise I can put to in touch).
https://www.bushexplorers.com.au/books/bmge1.htm

But I don't think you need more information or evidence, seems like you have a good rationale. Be good to present it to GNB and see their response. It should not be a single attempt limit with the GNB, if they feel it is lacking then they can guide you in the direction of what information they need.

Keep up the good work.

Matt

[kanangra]

Dear Dick,

Welcome to the forum and thank you very much for posting. You have won me with your well researched arguments. Good luck with the campaign to have the record corrected.

K.

[FatCanyoner]

Very interesting read, and very well researched. I'm definitely sold on the correction. Of course, this is just one of many errors found on the topo maps.

Without being too snarky, I will say that certain other bushwalkers -- known for their rewriting of history and replacement of well-known place names -- could take a lesson from Dick. Rather than their habit of going for a bushwalk and renaming places (then trying to formalise their inventions with books or in extreme cases having those invented names formally gazetted), they should follow this example of exploring the history of a place, and celebrate the old names.

Dick, one other suggestion -- given your obvious passion -- would be to try and apply similar rigour to examining the old writings of early explorers and settlers to try to rediscover the many First Nations names that have been lost in the Blue Mountains. I'm sure there would be wholehearted support from local Indigenous groups for such an effort.

[rcaffin]

Hi Dick

I have just read your Revelation Rock Report: very complete.

Dare I point out a typo on page 36, where you mention Image 27 as referring to the BM & BVTMap? Image 27 is of dairy page. I think the 27 should be 31, as this is the referenced map.
Hope this helps.

Cheers
Roger Caffin

[rcaffin]

Typo on p36: 'Image 27' should read 'Image 31'.

Cheers
Roger Caffin

[DickSmith]

Thanks. I will fix!

[DickSmith]

I have recently submitted two forms to the Geographical Names Board. One is to have the name of “Lost Rock” changed to “Revelation Rock”, the other is to place a new name on the map - the "Dungall Boulder". Time will tell what happens.

[Warin]

Good luck to both to them ..
sort of like launching a ship?

[DickSmith]

I am pleased to confirm that the Geographical Names Board has officially recognised Revelation Rock and Dungall Boulder as geographical names. I've been advised that the relevant maps will soon be updated to reflect this. This puts to rest the confusion about Revelation Rock being incorrectly labelled "Lost Rock" for many years. It also clarifies that the Dungall Boulder is the correct name [after Myles Dunphy and Bert Gallop], for the rocky tor discovered by Dunphy and Gallop in 1914.

[potato]

That's a great outcome! Great work Dick and thanks for the update.

[juxtaposer]

Well I'll be, there was indeed another candidate for the original Lost Rock out there. Well done to Dick and Alex and Caro for finding it.