The Temple of Nim

Monthly Newsletter
of Blue 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 News. Our meetings are held on the third Saturday of the month, [except March this year] at the Gilroy residence, 12 Kamillaroi Road, South Katoomba, 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 there is safer parking. PLEASE NO SMOKING ON THE PREMISES. ALSO, NO LARGE BAGS IN THE CINEMA OR THE 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: randhgilroy@optusnet.com.au [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.

Rex and Heather Gilroy, Australias top UFO and Unexplained Mysteries Research team. Photo copyright Rex Gilroy 2004.

THE GILROY/TAYLOR BURRAGORANG VALLEY INVESTIGATION. by Rex Gilroy. On the night of the next full moon, Thursday 21st February, Ann Taylor and I will be out on the far end of Narrow Neck Plateau observing the goings-on in Burragorang Valley, where lately there appears to be some nighttime 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 working on. 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 seeing Burragorang 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 of this 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 something on film. -0-

The far end of narrow Neck Plateau, from where the Burragorang Base will be observed by Rex Gilroy and Ann Taylor during their night watch on 21st February. Photo copyright Rex Gilroy 2007.

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UFO NEST 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 have remained on the ground for only half an hour, before rising up and moving skywards at great speed. The craft was said 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 book Blue Mountains Triangle contains a good number of these. -0-

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 Gilroy Blue 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 our Groups newsletter, for some years there has been an increasing number of strange lights and objects sighted in the southernmost region of the Burragorang Valley, south of Katoomba beyond Mt. Solitary. This is the region notorious for the mysterious disappearances of a number of people over many years, of strange sounds heard by campers late at night, seemingly emanating from below ground; and the area 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 a secret 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, also attracted 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 articles published in the Blue Mountains press; a sometimes slanderous campaign was launched to discredit my book, 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 wife Heather 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 the river. Once inside the grounds, surrounded by a spiked fence, the gates automatically slide shut behind us and we were virtual prisoners. He operated the gates from a gadget in his pocket where he also kept a mobile phone. He was constantly using his mobile phone while we were guests/prisoners in his home and I more than once overheard our names mentioned to whoever he was phoning. Both he and his wife were highly educated 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 theories concerning ancient civilisation contacts with Australia and pre-Aboriginal stone-age races, but appeared far 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], and that 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 finally escape. The punch-line is that, recently in a casual UFO discussion with friends, talk turned to the undercover activities of ASIO and the CIA, and this mans name was mentioned to me as one American CIA 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, in clear sky conditions about midday, and not far before the fire tower, I spotted through a gap in the trees looking 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 path it stopped, then descended into the valley. On the afternoon of Wednesday 12/1/2000 while walking my dog out on Narrow Neck Road, I spotted from a hillock a large object, box kite-like in shape, but with a glowing reddish-orange flame colours. It appeared from behind Mt Solitary and proceeded to cross the saddle between the mountain and 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 and move 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 the southern region of Burragorang Valley. For generations people around Katoomba have, day and night observed strange objects flying southward to descend and disappear in an area south of Warragamba Dams backwaters in the southernmost region of Burragorang Valley. Similarly, people in the Bowral district have observed objects flying 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 one hypothetical explanation for this phenomena , which was in fact an up-to-date enlarged version of a 1978 Psychic 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 and made fast, erratic movements above them. It then hovered about 3m above the track ahead of them before shooting off to vanish over the trees and gullies beyond. Was the strange sphere some kind of remote-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 for sleep one night, when they heard a loud throbbing, grinding sound, coming as if from out of the bowels of the earth, as one of them later informed me. The sound grew louder by the minute, and as it increased the ground itself began to vibrate. The boys got to their feet, torches in hand, and began searching the area 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 next day 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 heard them at night while camping. And then there are the lights of the phantom city a phenomenon witnessed by numerous people who have happened to be out on the far end of Kings Tableland behind Wentworth Falls late at night. A mass of strange lights, resembling a town lit up at night, has been observed to appear as if from out of nowhere and vanish again before morning. This phantom city lies in the same region where campers have heard the underground machine-type sounds. It was hereabouts in 1970 that a camper, Rod Parker, found a circular burnt-out patch of timber and 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 or more in thickness. Later Rod contacted the RAAF Base at Richmond, north of Penrith, and reported his eerie discovery. 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 at night in large numbers in the swamps leaving circular depressions in the crushed reeds when they fly off. So obviously Mr Parker, 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 few years ago in this same area. What is going on in the Burragorang Valley? Why the cover-up? And why is ASIO and the CIA so concerned 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 top secret operation of some kind is going on, as it has been for a very long time, deep in the wilderness of the Burragorang Valley south of Katoomba. -0-

The Kedumba and Jamieson Valleys between Leura and Katoomba which has been over the years the scene of a number of sightings Photo and artwork copyright Rex Gilroy 2007.

Katoomba township where sightings of UFOs are a frequent occurrence. Photo copyright Rex Gilroy 2008.

SEARCH FOR THE LITTLE SCRUB MOA OF NEW ZEALAND. By Rex Gilroy Conservative University-based zoologists in New Zealand argue that the Moas, the mostly giant-sized Emu-like flightless birds whose reconstructed skeletons are to be seen in every city museum of North and South 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 this beautiful, mysterious land since 1980, together with my wife and fellow researcher Heather, have visited remote, often largely inaccessible mountainous forestlands in the hope of turning up evidence of living Moas in the wild. We have also gathered a growing number of sightings claims and reports of freshlymade tracks believed made by one, perhaps two distinct species of these birds found in remote regions of South Island. There have been claims of Moa encounters in North Island also, but these have been dismissed by scientists on the grounds that the creatures have nowhere to hide, owing to the fact that so much of the
Copyright Rex Gilroy 2001.

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former North Island forests have been developed for settlement. This is a sweeping statement made by people who forget that there still remain large tracts of protected forest country, such as the Coromandel Range, Mamaku Plateau, Hauhungoroa Range and Urewera National Park which alone contains four mountain ranges to name but some. South Island on the other hand, contains even vaster tracts of largely impenetrable wilderness extending 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 Cook National 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 a part. 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 which abandoned the ability to fly in favour of a ground-dwelling existence. This example of reversed evolution developed 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 primarily herbivorous. Appearing among the later at a relatively early stage was a group known as the Ratites which today 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]; the extinct species include the Elephant Bird [Madagascar] and the Moa [New Zealand]. Mystery surrounds persistent native claims emanating from the New Guinea interior, of a 4m or so tall giant Emu-like flightless bird, which the tribespeople claim inhabits the high mountain jungles. The common Gondwanaland ancestor of all these species became isolated as this great supercontinent gradually broke up and moved apart, as a result of the process of plate tectonics [ie continental 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 and inland areas of North and South Island, but was most common in the North Island. The male stood about a 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 small species of about the same height as E. curtus was Anamalopteryx didiformis, which weighed around 30kg, and which together with Dinornis novaezealandiae, which stood about 2m, weighting around 170 kg, shared most of 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 and around 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 there are vast regions of the south where they hardly, if ever, ventured, and the more inaccessible habitats of some moa species should have guaranteed their survival. There is now in fact, plenty of evidence to show that New Zealand has an old Stone-Age past involving giant stone tool-making hominids and archaic Homo erectus, who evolved into modern humans here about the same he was doing so in Australia, ie around 350,000 years ago, having entered New Zealand from southeast Asia across a land shelf, which in Ice-Age [Pleistocene]times formed a continuous bridge between New Zealand [a single landmass until around 10,000 years ago] and New Guinea/Australia, which in turn was joined by a great land shelf to mainland 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] to suggest 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 that the flesh looked like bull beef and that a leg bone of the bird still had flesh and sinews upon it. The bone, he said, was so tall that it reached 4 inches above his hip and was a thick as his knee. Meurant was probably describing a leg rather than a bone. He also observed the birds feathers were of a black or dark colour, with a purple edge, having quills like those of the Albatross in size, but much coarser. H observed Maoris with these 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 along the west coast of South Island, and during 1863 many reports flowed in to authorities of Moas seen by gold prospectors while exploring the then still largely unknown backblocks of Otago and Southland. That same 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 his dog. The man afterwards described it as very much higher than an emu in Australia and standing very much more erect on its legs. The bird ran from the pursuing dog until it reached the brow of a hill, before turning on the dog, which quickly retreated back to its master. The man stood for about ten minutes bending its long neck 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 from Australia 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 some of the many reports gathered by Heather and I in the course of our frequent field investigations in New Zealand since 1980 Moa Creek, in the Haast Pass, was the scene in 1931 of a sighting in flood rains by a farmer, Mr Donald Peasley of a large Moa about 3m in height, seen by him as it stood observing him across the flooded Macorora River. The man was however, more concerned with extricating a cow from mud. He did 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 he spotted a large, dumpy bird moving among trees. He informed me later that he did not attempt to shoot the creature because they were supposed to be extinct and if there were others thereabouts [as this birds presence suggested], 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 large track, 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 he had 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 way out 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 legs or mistaken the birds height, it would appear he had encountered a supposed 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 mountains capped in deep snow in winter, moas may still wander unseen, if sightings claims made by people during the 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 of bushwalkers, of a pair of 2m tall, mottle-coloured Moas. The forest giants had been scavenging among bushes when they were alerted by the approaching humans and quickly escaped into the bush. Either the groups had sighted a pair of D. giganteus or 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 first New Zealand visit we were given a few gizzard stones, small pebbles swallowed to help the birds digest their 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 any real 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 [North Island] district. On Wednesday 7th March we were investigating the Puketi State Forest, which lies inland from the Bay, the time was 6.45pm [Daylight Saving Time] and Heather had returned to our vehicle while I was about to cease exploring a mudflat near the forest edge for possible tracks, when I heard three loud Emu-like humph, humph, humph sounds coming from a short distance away. I attempted to follow the sounds into the forest despite failing light, knowing that the sounds were typical of Emus and other Moarelated 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 in size, 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 flat where I had heard the mystery sounds on the Wednesday evening The mudflat faces east amid a gentlysloping densely-forested gully. There were no unusual bird tracks to be found, but suddenly, coming from a 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 something larger 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 an instant. I did not see it again. Was it a Little Scrub Moa? Despite an inspection of the ground where the creature had just been, I found the vegetation too soft and bracken covered for the impression of any tracks to remain. After a fruitless search of an area of the Waipua forest north of Dargaville we headed south to Karangahake Gorge, which lies at the southern end of the Coromandel Range near Waihi. Here I made a random search for fossils on Sunday 13th March. Among the base gravels of a 7.6m tall bank on the edge of the Karangahake River [which flows through the Gorge] I picked up a curiously shaped orange silica stone, to find I was holding the slightly crushed mineralised skull of a Moa. The skull, measuring 18cm from beak to rear or braincase, by 10cm from cranium to skull base by 50cm thick, came from volcanic sediments 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 day that we began our search of the Urewera National Park inland from Hawkes Bay. Finding an old disused track we followed this up a forest-covered mountainside. Below us, down a steep forest-covered slope was a gully. The track at this point was about 2m wide with a 1.5m tall bank above, beyond which lay more dense 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 forest beyond. 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 tracks the photos and slides failed to reveal any details. One track measured 17cm in length from tip of middle toe 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 the site we found further scratch marks crossing the bush track and up the bank. Upon climbing up into the forest 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 to heel, by 8.5cm wide across the two outer toes, It resembled the second largest track, which measured 14cm 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 taking distortion into account, it appeared certain to us that we had found the feeding ground of a colony of the Little 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, the other a small area of crushed foliage within 2m of the bush track where a Moa had apparently slept the night before. As time was running out and we had to get off that mountain before dark, we had to leave, thus I was unable to attempt a climb down the thickly forested slope to the gully floor where, with luck I might have obtained photographic proof of a living Scrub Moa [This I hope to attempt when I return again to New Zealand in the future]. Naturally for the Little Scrub Moa to have survived for centuries hereabouts, there would have to be a reasonable size breeding population. Based upon the numbers of foot impressions found on our latest 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 ever taking any television crews or journalists to the site. The last thing we want to see are hordes of curiosityseekers, would-be reward-hungry Moa-trappers and others descending upon the site to disrupt these rare creatures. This colony give us a last chance to help save at lease one Moa species from the jaws of extinction. Better that they be allowed to remain where they are, hidden free of unwanted human interference and allowed to breed unmolested. We receive regular sightings reports of a wide variety of unknown or extinct land and sea dwelling creatures from throughout Australia and our near island neighbours, but there can be nothing more exciting or rewarding that going in search of, and turning up evidence [often after many years of hard 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 New Zealand wilderness has indeed been both exciting and rewarding for us. -0-

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

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Heather Gilroy with a display of reconstructed moas in Auckland War Memorial Museum. Eleven species have been identified from sub-fossil remains in both North and South Islands. Photo by Rex Gilroy.

Set of moa leg bones from the smallest to largest species displayed in Auckland War Memorial Museum. The largest 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 Milford Sound, in New Zealands South Island. In the background flows the Eglinton River at the base of the forest-covered imposing Earl Mountains. 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 claims and 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 Earl Mountains 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 an embankment on the side of an old disused forest tack. Soon after this picture was taken, a single female Little Bush Moa foot impression was discovered to the left of where she stands. A search of the forest near the embankment scratch marks resulted in the discovery of a number of Little Bush Moa footprints. Photo copyright Rex Gilroy 2006.

Detail shot of the female foot impression of a Little Bush Moa discovered on the dirt track to the left of the embankment scratch marks. Photo copyright Rex Gilroy 2006.

The embankment scratch marks in detail. The birds 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 the roadside 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 female impressions. The largest is that of the female, being 24cm in length by 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 about 1.3m, whereas the male was about 90cm in height. Photo copyright Rex Gilroy 2006.

Artists impression of the Little Bush Moa. Officially extinct at least 600 years, the Gilroys have found evidence of a colony of these birds deep in the Urewera National Park, North Island in New Zealand. Sketch Auckland War Memorial Museum, New Zealand.

On Saturday 11th March 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 skull displaying both beaks. The fossil is at least 2 million years old. The specimen came from dawn Pleistocene deposits in the bank of the Ohinemuri River which flows through the gorge. Photo copyright Rex Gilroy 2006.

Blue Mountains UFO Research Club Newsletter February 2008.

14

This photo, taken by Ann Taylors daughter Laurie of her son Lachlan in her Katoomba home on Sunday night 20th January, 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 which resulted 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 as dust 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. There should 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!

Rex and Heather