The Temple of Nim Newsletter - February 2008

7/31/2019 The Temple of Nim Newsletter - February 2008

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The Temple of NimMonthly Newsletter

ofBlue Mountains UFO

Research Club.Vol. 4 Issue No 2

February 2008

Ann Taylor at the Katoomba Cascades in January. Note the orbs.Photo copyright Rex Gilroy 2008.

INSIDE:

Planned Gilroy/Taylor Burragorang Valley Investigation.UFO Nest at Kanangra.UFO Mysteries of the Burragorang Valley.Search for the Little Scrub Moa of New Zealand.


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Blue Mountains UFO Research Club Newsletter February 2008. 2

Blue Mountains UFO Research Club News. Our meetings are held on the third Saturday of the month, [exceptMarch this year] at the Gilroy residence, 12 Kamillaroi Road, SouthKatoomba, from 2pm onwards.

We are situated on the corner of Kamillaroi Road and Ficus Street, and as we always say, park in Ficus Street where thereis safer parking.PLEASE NO SMOKING ON THE PREMISES.

ALSO, NO LARGE BAGS IN THE CINEMAORTHE HOUSE.PLEASE NOTE. Please contact us prior to bringing along any new friends interested in UFOlogy and the mysteries

generally. Anyone with any personal experiences involving UFOs or the unexplained are invited to share them with us all.

Contact Information: Phone: 02 4782 3441, Email: [email protected][or catch our website on rexgilroy.com or mysteriousaustralia.com].

A plate of food to share for afternoon tea is appreciated.

PROGRAM FOR THE 16TH FEBRUARY Latest report of Blue Mountains UFO activity. UFO Documentaries. Documentary on Human Origins mysteries Weather permitting there will be our usual Skywatch out on Narrow Neck Plateau [Dont forget -

warm clothing a necessity!] More surprises, and of course your valuable reports.

d HeUh

R ex an a th er Gi lr oy , A us tr al ia s to p U FOa n d n e x pl a i ne d M ys t e ri e s Re s e ar c h t e a m.

P o t o c op y r ig h t R ex G i l ro y 2 0 04 .

THE GILROY/TAYLOR BURRAGORANGVALLEY INVESTIGATION.by Rex Gilroy.

On the night of the next full moon, Thursday 21 st February, Ann Taylor and I will be out on the far end ofNarrow Neck Plateau observing the goings-on in Burragorang Valley, where lately there appears to be some night-time activity around the underground Australian/American space technology research base.

Ann and I will be walking out there earlier in the day to take photos for the new UFO book I am workingon. Once darkness falls we will watch the base with binoculars and later walk back to the Water Board gate where

Heather will pick us up. The walk back in the full moon will guarantee a clear view of the road, but seeingBurragorang Valley in the light of the full moon is itself quite an experience, from what I saw last June.

Night-time videoing will be carried out on the Base or any other UFO activity overhead. The results ofthis trip will go in the UFO book, as well as the monthly newsletter.

As there have been strange lights over the valley at night lately, there is a good chance of getting somethingon film.

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The far end of narrow Neck Plateau, from where the

Burragorang Base will be observed by Rex Gilroy and AnnTaylor during their night watch on 21stFebruary.

Photo copyright Rex Gilroy 2007.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Blue Mountains UFO Research Club Newsletter February 2008.

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UFONEST AT KANANGRA.By Rex Gilroy.

Recently Ann Taylor and I examined a large, bare grassy circular area in scrub out on Kanangra Boyd Plateau.On Tuesday 29th January I returned to this spot with Heather and measured the site. The circular formation

was 43 ft [13.1m] in diameter.A saucer type UFO was seen from a distance by a group of Boy Scouts one night five years ago while

camped out late at light at Kanangra Walls. The silvery glowing craft appeared from over the range to the east

moving slowly over the treetops, then landed, approximately where the bare circular area is today. It is said to haveremained on the ground for only half an hour, before rising up and moving skywards at great speed. The craft wassaid to have made a whooshing sound when in the air when arriving and flying away.

There have been many UFO reports from the Kanangra Boyd National Park over the years, and our bookBlue Mountains Triangle contains a good number of these.

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The Kanangra Boyd UFO landing site, looking west. Photo copyright Rex Gilroy 2008.

The Kanangra Boyd UFO landing site looking east. Photo copyright Rex Gilroy 2008.


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UFO MYSTERIES OF THE BURRAGORANG VALLEY.

Rex GilroyBlue Mountains UFO Research Club.

Copyright Rex Gilroy 2008[This article is a copy of an article previously printed in a magazine in 2000].

s every member of the Blue Mountains UFO Research Club knows, from regular reports in ourGroups newsletter, for some years there has been an increasing number of strange lights and objectssighted in the southernmost region of the Burragorang Valley, south of Katoomba beyond Mt. Solitary.A

This is the region notorious for the mysterious disappearances of a number of people over manyyears, of strange sounds heard by campers late at night, seemingly emanating from below ground; and thearea where so many strange objects and lights have been seen to appear from out of and disappear into,remote gullies which have long given rise to the theory that an underground UFO Base, or perhaps asecret military weapons testing base of some kind, has long been established there.

In my first book, Mysterious Australia [NEXUS 1995] I presented evidence of the UFO Base,which, while it attracted the interest of fellow Ufologists both throughout Australia and overseas, alsoattracted the attention of American and Australian government security agents, who for some reason

seemed to have an interest in the area. My phone was tapped, and I am still unable to have UFO articlespublished in the Blue Mountains press; a sometimes slanderous campaign was launched to discredit mybook, and the chapter dealing with the UFO Base ridiculed in the media by hand-picked journalists [no

wonder Mysterious Australia was so popular with the public who snapped up every copy!]In August 1999,during a visit to Brisbane, I was met by an American which whom Id earlier had

contact over the phone, who appeared extremely interested in these matters, and had invited my wifeHeather and I to spend a couple of days at his home outside the city on the Brisbane River.

This man was quite wealthy and lived with his wife and children in a mansion overlooking theriver. Once inside the grounds, surrounded by a spiked fence, the gates automatically slide shut behind usand we were virtual prisoners. He operated the gates from a gadget in his pocket where he also kept amobile phone.

He was constantly using his mobile phone while we were guests/prisoners in his home and I morethan once overheard our names mentioned to whoever he was phoning. Both he and his wife were highlyeducated university people, and we were informed that he had been involved in White House security,operating his own security service in Australia.

The first evening we were in his home he held a private lengthy discussion with me on my theoriesconcerning ancient civilisation contacts with Australia and pre-Aboriginal stone-age races, but appearedfar more concerned with my work on Australian UFOs. I was quick to realise that he was very careful

with his words and especially so when he directed the discussion to the Burragorang Valley mystery.Realising from experience that I was being bugged [and that our bedroom was also in all probability], andthat he was undoubtedly concerned to find out everything I knew about what was to me merely a theory, I

wisely played dumb and just directed him to the book chapter as being all that I knew.

After this gruelling session he went decidedly cold on me and abruptly stopped the conversation.We were released after two days with artificial smiles as they farewelled us and drove off glad to finallyescape.

The punch-line is that, recently in a casual UFO discussion with friends, talk turned to theundercover activities of ASIO and the CIA, and this mans name was mentioned to me as one AmericanCIA agent in particular who operates from Brisbane, and who also has close ties with ASIO!Something is undoubtedly out there in the southern reaches of the Burragorang Valley wilderness,about which some high-ranking American and Australian government security agents are eager to find out

what I know!What follows are some of the latest goings-on in that valley south of Katoomba.Glowing spherical objects of gold and other colours have been reported to me hereabouts over

the years, seen by campers who have penetrated this vast wilderness.On Thursday 30/12/99 I made a hike to the end of Narrow Necks Peninsula. On the way out, inclear sky conditions about midday, and not far before the fire tower, I spotted through a gap in the treeslooking towards the far end of Burragorang, a silver ball-like object rising high above the valley. I


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observed with my binoculars as this distant object began moving slowly east, then re-tracing its flight pathit stopped, then descended into the valley.

On the afternoon of Wednesday 12/1/2000 while walking my dog out on Narrow Neck Road, Ispotted from a hillock a large object, box kite-like in shape, but with a glowing reddish-orange flamecolours. It appeared from behind Mt Solitary and proceeded to cross the saddle between the mountainand the Ruined Castle rock formation, to vanish behind the Castle.

Then, shortly afterwards an orangey ball of light appeared to rise from behind Ruined Castle andmove off slowly to behind the first arm of Narrow Neck and disappear from view.

I am not alone in these sightings, for tourists have also spotted at night these strange lights, in thesouthern region of Burragorang Valley.

For generations people around Katoomba have, day and night observed strange objects flyingsouthward to descend and disappear in an area south of Warragamba Dams backwaters in thesouthernmost region of Burragorang Valley. Similarly, people in the Bowral district have observed objectsflying northward over the town, eventually to descent into the same area of the valley to their north.

In Mysterious Australia I theorised the possibility of an underground UFO Base as onehypothetical explanation for this phenomena , which was in fact an up-to-date enlarged version of a 1978Psychic Australia magazine article, my phone tapping began soon after the publication of that article. It

has continued on and off to the present day.In 1990 a group of high school boys claimed they were buzzed by a silver, spherical ball-like

object from which small spike-like shafts projected. The sphere, they said, was about 40cm in width andmade fast, erratic movements above them. It then hovered about 3m above the track ahead of thembefore shooting off to vanish over the trees and gullies beyond. Was the strange sphere some kind ofremote-controlled observer? In any case the boys abandoned their camping trip then and there.

In the Spring of 1977 during a trip into the Burragorang, three young campers were preparing forsleep one night, when they heard a loud throbbing, grinding sound, coming as if from out of the bowelsof the earth, as one of them later informed me. The sound grew louder by the minute, and as it increasedthe ground itself began to vibrate. The boys got to their feet, torches in hand, and began searching thearea of their camp, but failed to find the cause of the disturbance. Although the vibrations decreased

somewhat, they got little sleep from the incessant throbbing that continued well into the night. The nextday a further search failed to reveal the cause of the mystery sounds, and they were glad to leave the area.

These boys were not the first to hear these sounds, and people in recent times have claimed to have heardthem at night while camping.

And then there are the lights of the phantom city a phenomenon witnessed by numerouspeople who have happened to be out on the far end of Kings Tableland behind Wentworth Falls late atnight. A mass of strange lights, resembling a town lit up at night, has been observed to appear as if fromout of nowhere and vanish again before morning. This phantom city lies in the same region wherecampers have heard the underground machine-type sounds.

It was hereabouts in 1970 that a camper, Rod Parker, found a circular burnt-out patch of timberand the remains of what appeared to some heavy object that had left a circular depression in the earth for

about 10m across. There was also a strange smell about the place which Rod could not identify.Whatever it was, he could see that some unknown, large heavy object had rested there only hours

before - so heavy in fact that it had crushed over large gum trees with trunks between 20 and 30 cm ormore in thickness.

Later Rod contacted the RAAF Base at Richmond, north of Penrith, and reported his eeriediscovery. The voice at the other end of the phone had the perfect solution to the mystery.About this time of year Mr Parker, large flocks of migrating ducks frequent the Warragamba region, congregating to rest atnight in large numbers in the swamps leaving circular depressions in the crushed reeds when they fly off. So obviously MrParker, what you found was nothing more than a depression left by migrating ducks.

Yes; replied Rod, One hundred ton ducks!and hung up.Saucer and spherical glowing objects are commonplace UFO shapes reported across the Blue

Mountains, and the current flap up here is no exception.On Friday 25/2/2000 at 2.34 pm, while visiting friends at Leura, from their front yard I happened

to spot a silent silver disc-shaped object shoot across the sky at great height from the south, to vanish into


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clouds to the north. My friends also spotted it, and recalled another similar sighting they had made a fewyears ago in this same area.

What is going on in the Burragorang Valley? Why the cover-up? And why is ASIO and the CIA soconcerned with people who have been reporting these strange events?

We are faced with mysteries for which there seems no possible explanation, other than that, a topsecret operation of some kind is going on, as it has been for a very long time, deep in the wilderness of theBurragorang Valley south of Katoomba.

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The Kedumba and Jamieson Valleys betweenLeura and Katoomba which has been over the

years the scene of a number of sightingsPhoto and artwork copyright Rex Gilroy

2007.

Katoomba township wheresightings of UFOs are a frequent

occurrence.Photo copyright Rex Gilroy

2008.

SEARCH FOR THE LITTLE SCRUB MOA OF NEW ZEALAND.By Rex Gilroy

Copyright Rex Gilroy 2001.

Conservative University-based zoologists in New Zealand argue that the Moas, the mostly giant-sizedEmu-like flightless birds whose reconstructed skeletons are to be seen in every city museum of North andSouth island have been totally extinct for at least the last 400 years.

I have never been able to accept this proposition and on frequent field expeditions to thisbeautiful, mysterious land since 1980, together with my wife and fellow researcher Heather, have visitedremote, often largely inaccessible mountainous forestlands in the hope of turning up evidence of livingMoas in the wild. We have also gathered a growing number of sightings claims and reports of freshly-

made tracks believed made by one, perhaps two distinct species of these birds found in remote regions ofSouth Island.

There have been claims of Moa encounters in North Island also, but these have been dismissed byscientists on the grounds that the creatures have nowhere to hide, owing to the fact that so much of the


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former North Island forests have been developed for settlement. This is a sweeping statement made bypeople who forget that there still remain large tracts of protected forest country, such as the CoromandelRange, Mamaku Plateau, Hauhungoroa Range and Urewera National Park which alone contains fourmountain ranges to name but some.

South Island on the other hand, contains even vaster tracts of largely impenetrable wildernessextending from the Tasman Mountains of the north-west Nelson region southward through the Buller

River country to the eerie Lewis Pass-Grey River wilderness and on to the glaciers region of Mt CookNational Park, Mt Aspiring National Park, and the mighty Fiordland National Park. So surviving Moas

would have nowhere to hide? I dare to disagree.But what were the Moas? The Moas evolved over a period of about 85 million years ago, from an

ancestor that roamed the ancient southern continent of Gondwanaland or which New Zealand was once apart.

The first birds evolved from reptiles around the close of the Jurassic period, 140 million years ago.All these ancestral birds were capable of flight, but there eventually evolved a number of species whichabandoned the ability to fly in favour of a ground-dwelling existence. This example of reversed evolutiondeveloped towards the close of the Cretaceous period 135-65 million years ago, and coincided with the

world-wide extinction of the dinosaurs. Some of these flightless birds were giant voracious predators of

other ground-dwelling animals, while others, developing in a predator-free environment became primarilyherbivorous. Appearing among the later at a relatively early stage was a group known as the Ratites whichtoday consist of both living and extinct species. The living species are the Ostrich [Africa], Emu[Australia], Cassowary [Australia and New Guinea], Rhea [South America] and Kiwi [New Zealand]; theextinct species include the Elephant Bird [Madagascar] and the Moa [New Zealand]. Mystery surroundspersistent native claims emanating from the New Guinea interior, of a 4m or so tall giant Emu-likeflightless bird, which the tribespeople claim inhabits the high mountain jungles.

The common Gondwanaland ancestor of all these species became isolated as this greatsupercontinent gradually broke up and moved apart, as a result of the process of plate tectonics [iecontinental drift] during the Jurassic; Cretaceous and Tertiary periods, covering about 100 million years,thus the flora and fauna separated on the various landmasses which became Africa, South America,

Madagascar, Australia and New Zealand evolved in different directions according to their environments.Eleven species of Moa have been identified from fossil and sub-fossil remains. The smallest of

these was the Little Scrub Moa, [Euryapteryx curtus], which appears to have inhabited both coastal andinland areas of North and South Island, but was most common in the North Island. The male stood abouta metre tall, the female a little taller at around 1.3m. The species weighed around 20kg.

To cover every moa species in detail is beyond the scope of this article, however, another smallspecies of about the same height asE. curtuswasAnamalopteryx didiformis, which weighed around 30kg, and

which together with Dinornis novaezealandiae, which stood about 2m, weighting around 170 kg, shared mostof North Island and part of north-western and southern South Island.

All pale into insignificance however, before the huge, Dinornis giganteus, which at 4m tall andaround 250 kg in body weight was the largest moa that ever lived. D. giganteus inhabited much of the east

coastal and inland region of South Island.The extinction of the Moas has long been blamed on the arrival of Polynesian man around 1000

AD, yet the Maoris primarily settled North Island and the northern region of the South Island, and thereare vast regions of the south where they hardly, if ever, ventured, and the more inaccessible habitats ofsome moa species should have guaranteed their survival. There is now in fact, plenty of evidence to showthat New Zealand has an old Stone-Age past involving giant stone tool-making hominids and archaicHomo erectus, who evolved into modern humans here about the same he was doing so in Australia, iearound 350,000 years ago, having entered New Zealand from southeast Asia across a land shelf, which inIce-Age [Pleistocene]times formed a continuous bridge between New Zealand [a single landmass untilaround 10,000 years ago] and New Guinea/Australia, which in turn was joined by a great land shelf tomainland Asia, of which only the south-east Asian chain now remains, following the rising of the worlds

oceans at the close of the last Ice-Age by around 10,000 years ago.Therefore I propose that, if all the Moa species had been exterminated, it was a gradual process

covering a vast period of time, involving more than one pre-Polynesian Stone-Age race.


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There is however, a considerable amount of circumstantial evidence mostly sightings claims] tosuggest that, at least two, perhaps three [and Im leaving my options open!] Moa species still survive,hidden from modern man in remote corners of the more inaccessible reaches of the New Zealand

wilderness.One of the earliest reports suggesting Moas of one species or another still survived into later times

is that of Edward Meurant, a sealer, who while on the Otago coast [south Island] late in 1823, observed

Maoris at the mouth of the Clutha River, feeding upon the flesh of one of these birds. He stated later thatthe flesh looked like bull beef and that a leg bone of the bird still had flesh and sinews upon it. Thebone, he said, was so tall that it reached 4 inches above his hip and was a thick as his knee. Meurant wasprobably describing a leg rather than a bone. He also observed the birds feathers were of a black or darkcolour, with a purple edge, having quills like those of the Albatross in size, but much coarser. H observed Maoris withthese same feathers in their hair and was informed by them that the bird was still to be found inland.

During the 1840s there were claims by other sealers of apparent Moas in various locations alongthe west coast of South Island, and during 1863 many reports flowed in to authorities of Moas seen bygold prospectors while exploring the then still largely unknown backblocks of Otago and Southland. Thatsame year one prospector, Patrick Caples, claimed to have shot an Emu that came close to his Lake

TeAnau camp one night.

During 1873 on R.W. Aitkins Clifden station situated on the west side of the Waiau district,western Southland, a large bird was startled from a patch of scrub by the approach of a shepherd and hisdog. The man afterwards described it as very much higher than an emu in Australia and standing very much moreerect on its legs. The bird ran from the pursuing dog until it reached the brow of a hill, before turning onthe dog, which quickly retreated back to its master. The man stood for about ten minutes bending its longneck up and down in the same manner as the black swan does when disturbed. The bird [in all probability a Moa]

was described as being of a silvery grey colour with greenish streaks. As the shepherd had come fromAustralia he certainly knew the difference between an Emu and this much taller creature.

Claims of similar moa encounters have continued on into modern times. The following are someof the many reports gathered by Heather and I in the course of our frequent field investigations in NewZealand since 1980

Moa Creek, in the Haast Pass, was the scene in 1931 of a sighting in flood rains by a farmer, MrDonald Peasley of a large Moa about 3m in height, seen by him as it stood observing him across theflooded Macorora River. The man was however, more concerned with extricating a cow from mud. Hedid have time to observe that the bird had greyish feathers, thick powerful looking legs and a large body,before it disappeared into forest cover.

In 1960, deer hunger Jack Mathews, was stalking deer in the Arthurs Pass, when above a gully hespotted a large, dumpy birdmoving among trees. He informed me later that he did not attempt to shootthe creature because they were supposed to be extinct and if there were others thereabouts [as this birds presencesuggested], it was better to leave them alone to breed up!

During 1990 at least several people claimed individual sightings, and also two finds of very largetrack, of one or more large Moas in the course of camping in the Arthurs Pass area. One man, Jim

Straton, who said he had spent 20 years roaming the area, and never seen any trace of Moa activity, said hehad changed his view, following his remarkable encounter.I was on the Waimakariri River across from Bealey following an old hiking track during May 1991, when at a

point where the track was on a straight run through the forest, this enormous, dark-coloured bird emerged, crashing its wayout of the foliage onto the track stopped to look at me with a sideways glance, then continued on across the tack to disappear,crashing its way through the trees.

Unless Jim is pulling our legsor mistaken the birds height, it would appear he had encountered asupposed long extinct Dinornis giganteus, which is what Mr Peasley may have seen in 1931.

In the Beech Forest in the Craigieburn State Forest Park [Arthurs Pass] amid tall mountainscapped in deep snow in winter, moas may still wander unseen, if sightings claims made by people duringthe 1980s are any guide. The Crow River, which runs down a long valley from the Crow Glacier to the

Waimakariri, a rocky river, separated by rapids, was the scene in 1989, of the sighting by a group ofbushwalkers, of a pair of 2m tall, mottle-coloured Moas. The forest giants had been scavenging amongbushes when they were alerted by the approaching humans and quickly escaped into the bush. Either thegroups had sighted a pair ofD. giganteusor perhaps the second taller Moa, D. novaezealandiae.


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Over the years Heather and I have gradually built up a collection of Moa relics. During our firstNew Zealand visit we were given a few gizzard stones, small pebbles swallowed to help the birds digesttheir food, and during our 1983 investigation, a search in caverns of a limestone formation at Atonga,North Island, resulted in my discovery of a small sub-fossil moa leg bone, possibly that of an

Anamalopteryx didiformis. Yet despite repeated searches in New Zealand we had so far failed to obtain anyreal evidence of our own to suggest that even one Moa species might still survive. Then our luck finally

began to change. During our March 2000 expedition we spent some time in the Bay of Islands [NorthIsland] district. On Wednesday 7th March we were investigating the Puketi State Forest, which lies inlandfrom the Bay, the time was 6.45pm [Daylight Saving Time] and Heather had returned to our vehicle whileI was about to cease exploring a mudflat near the forest edge for possible tracks, when I heard three loudEmu-like humph, humph, humph sounds coming from a short distance away. I attempted to follow thesounds into the forest despite failing light, knowing that the sounds were typical of Emus and other Moa-related ratite species, but the fading light soon forced me to abandon the attempt.

We returned here on the Friday morning. This forest covers and area at least 20,000 hectares insize, certainly enough room for a surviving little scrub Moa colony, I thought.

Leaving Heather in the car, at about 12.30pm I first made another inspection of the mud flatwhere I had heard the mystery sounds on the Wednesday evening The mudflat faces east amid a gently-

sloping densely-forested gully. There were no unusual bird tracks to be found, but suddenly, coming froma patch of low scrub on the south side of the gully, perhaps 15m away, I heard the same loud humph,humph, humph sounds of Wednesday evening, only much louder than before. The time was 12.50pm.

These sounds, three at a time, were now accompanied by the sounds of crashing foliage as somethinglarger than any scavenging kiwi moved about in the forest cover.

Then I spotted something obscured among bushes, greyish-coloured, only to see it vanish in aninstant. I did not see it again. Was it a Little Scrub Moa? Despite an inspection of the ground where thecreature had just been, I found the vegetation too soft and bracken covered for the impression of anytracks to remain.

After a fruitless search of an area of the Waipua forest north of Dargaville we headed south toKarangahake Gorge, which lies at the southern end of the Coromandel Range near Waihi. Here I made a

random search for fossils on Sunday 13

th

March. Among the base gravels of a 7.6m tall bank on the edgeof the Karangahake River [which flows through the Gorge] I picked up a curiously shaped orange silicastone, to find I was holding the slightly crushed mineralised skull of a Moa. The skull, measuring 18cmfrom beak to rear or braincase, by 10cm from cranium to skull base by 50cm thick, came from volcanicsediments laid down at the time volcanic eruptions formed the Gorge between 2 to 4 million years ago.My find, I soon learnt, is the oldest fossil Moa skull uncovered in New Zealand to date!

Friday 17th March was to be the real turning point in our search for living moas, for it was the daythat we began our search of the Urewera National Park inland from Hawkes Bay. Finding an old disusedtrack we followed this up a forest-covered mountainside. Below us, down a steep forest-covered slope wasa gully. The track at this point was about 2m wide with a 1.5m tall bank above, beyond which lay moredense forest covering an extensive terrace It was here that we found the indistinct impression of large bird

track, which appeared to emerge from the gully, cross the track and scramble up the bank into the forestbeyond.Climbing the bank I soon found further indistinct large, three-toed bird tracks in the forest floor.

We sketched, measured and photographed the best examples but due to the indistinct nature of the tracksthe photos and slides failed to reveal any details. One track measured 17cm in length from tip of middletoe to heel, by 10cm wide across the two outer toes.

I was confident that we had stumbled upon a regular feeding ground of a small colony of Moas.However, as our time had run out we had to return to Australia shortly after this find. In September 2001

we returned, this time armed with a bucket, casting plaster and water. My hunch paid off as reaching thesite we found further scratch marks crossing the bush track and up the bank. Upon climbing up into theforest I found many more Moa foot impressions. While many were indistinct due to bracken and

leafmould, I found three that were clear enough for casting.These foot impressions were of different sizes. The smallest being 12cm long from middle toe toheel, by 8.5cm wide across the two outer toes, It resembled the second largest track, which measured14cm long by 13.5cm wide. The largest specimen was 24cm long by 17.5cm wide and appeared to have


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longer, more slender toes than the other two specimens whose toes appeared broader. Even takingdistortion into account, it appeared certain to us that we had found the feeding ground of a colony of theLittle Scrub Moa, whose female was taller then the male with larger feet.

Nearby the bush track I found two nesting spots, one inside a huge fallen Kauri tree trunk, theother a small area of crushed foliage within 2m of the bush track where a Moa had apparently slept thenight before.

As time was running out and we had to get off that mountain before dark, we had to leave, thus Iwas unable to attempt a climb down the thickly forested slope to the gully floor where, with luck I mighthave obtained photographic proof of a living Scrub Moa [This I hope to attempt when I return again toNew Zealand in the future].

Naturally for the Little Scrub Moa to have survived for centuries hereabouts, there would have tobe a reasonable size breeding population. Based upon the numbers of foot impressions found on ourlatest investigation at this site, the proposed colony inhabiting that deep gully could be as large as 30,perhaps up to 50 individuals.

Where exactly in the Ureweras this colony is located is our secret, we have no intentions of evertaking any television crews or journalists to the site. The last thing we want to see are hordes of curiosity-seekers, would-be reward-hungry Moa-trappers and others descending upon the site to disrupt these rarecreatures. This colony give us a last chance to help save at lease one Moa species from the jaws ofextinction. Better that they be allowed to remain where they are, hidden free of unwanted humaninterference and allowed to breed unmolested.

We receive regular sightings reports of a wide variety of unknown or extinct land and seadwelling creatures from throughout Australia and our near island neighbours, but there can be nothingmore exciting or rewarding that going in search of, and turning up evidence [often after many years ofhard effort] proving to ones own satisfaction, the existence of some long-thought extinct species.

Finding the extinct Little Scrub Moa colony, after 21 years of endless bush-bashing in the NewZealand wilderness has indeed been both exciting and rewarding for us.

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The Urewera forests, in the vicinity of the discovery of Little Bush Moa tracks near a suspected colony location, found byRex and Heather Gilroy. Photo copyright Rex Gilroy 2006.


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Heather Gilroy with a display of reconstructed moasin Auckland War Memorial Museum. Eleven

species have been identified from sub-fossil remains inboth North and South Islands.

Photo by Rex Gilroy.

Set of moa leg bones from the smallest to largest speciesdisplayed in Auckland War Memorial Museum. Thelargest bone in the foreground belonged to a full-grown

Giant Moa, Dinornis giganteus. Photo by Rex Gilroy.

In this imaginary scene, two browsing Giant Moas [Dinornis giganteus] stand in the Eglinton Valley grassland east of MilfordSound, in New Zealands South Island. In the background flows the Eglinton River at the base of the forest-covered imposing EarlMountains. Dinornis giganteus, which reached over 12ft [3.66m] in height, is claimed by New Zealand palaeontologists to have

become extinct together with other moa species long before the advent of European colonisation; despite generations of sightings claimsand close encounter reports from widely-scattered, remote mountainous forestland localities. One of these localities is the Eglinton

Valley. Hereabouts, in the Knobs Flat and Cascade Creek areas, and on the western side of the Eglinton River in the EarlMountains forests, there have been sightings of both the Little Bush Moa and also the Giant Moa, as well as fresh tracks of these birds

on numerous occasions since the 20th century, and such incidents continue today.Photo reconstruction by Heather Gilroy 2006.


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Heather points to scratch marks on anembankment on the side of an olddisused forest tack. Soon after this

picture was taken, a single femaleLittle Bush Moa foot impression was

discovered to the left of where shestands. A search of the forest near theembankment scratch marks resultedin the discovery of a number of Little

Bush Moa footprints.Photo copyright Rex Gilroy 2006.

Detail shot of the female foot impressionof a Little Bush Moa discovered on thedirt track to the left of the embankment

scratch marks.Photo copyright Rex Gilroy 2006.

The embankment scratch marks in detail. Thebirds regularly use this same spot to visit the forest

in search of food.Photo copyright Rex Gilroy 2006.

Wild forest country west of Rotorua where night time encounters by motorists with Little Bush Moas on theroadside have been claimed on and off for many years. Photo copyright Rex Gilroy 2006.


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Two of the cast Little Bush Moa tracks are of male and femaleimpressions. The largest is that of the female, being 24cm in lengthby 17.5cm in width, the smaller male track is 14cm in length by

13.5cm in width.Photo copyright Rex Gilroy 2006.

Rex Gilroy holding the male and female footprint casts.Working from skeletal remains, scientists have estimated

that the female Little Bush Moa reached a height of about1.3m, whereas the male was about 90cm in height. Photo

copyright Rex Gilroy 2006.

Artists impression of the Little Bush Moa. Officially extinct at least600 years, the Gilroys have found evidence of a colony of these birdsdeep in the Urewera National Park, North Island in New Zealand.

Sketch Auckland War Memorial Museum, New Zealand.

On Saturday 11thMarch 2000, during a search in Karangahake Gorge,inland from the Bay of Plenty east costal North Island, Rex Gilroy made

the chance discovery of a distorted, mineralised [silica] Moa skulldisplaying both beaks. The fossil is at least 2 million years old. The

specimen came from dawn Pleistocene deposits in the bank of theOhinemuri River which flows through the gorge.

Photo copyright Rex Gilroy 2006.


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This photo, taken by Ann Taylors daughter Laurie of her son Lachlan in her Katoombahome on Sunday night 20thJanuary, 2008 shows a light ball [?spirit orb] hovering

beside a photograph [on the wall] of her son Lachlan.

One week later Lachlan experienced a potentially life threatening mishap whichresulted in him being hospitalised for a couple of days.

The orb was not visible to the naked eye nor was there any other conditions such asdust or moisture to explain its presence in the resulting photo. Was it a sign of someone

from the other side protecting Lachlan?Photo copyright Ann Taylor 2008

Our previous meeting was a huge success and we look forward to seeing you at our next one. Thereshould be some good Skywatches ahead of us up here at Katoomba, weather permitting.

Meanwhile, there a lot happening up there at present so,Until our next meeting -

Watch the Skies!

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The Temple of Nim Newsletter - February 2008

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