Strange stone cairns hidden in the Toombullup State Forest have been a well-kept secret of the Wangaratta region for decades.
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Seeing the site in person, and theorising who put them there and why, has drawn the curious – with the right instructions – on many rough treks through bush.
Former Wangaratta Mayor Geoff Dinning first did so in 2002.
“Back in the early 1920s the locals saw them, and they don’t show everybody where they are,” he said.
“Ernie and Vic Hancock – 85 and 87 – they haven’t got any idea what it is – they think it was put here when Hume and Hovell came past.”
John Brown, of the famous wine-making family, joined Mr Dinning on his next visit, but they were unsuccessful.
“About three years ago Geoff and I went to go find them – we stumbled around in the bush for about half a day,” Mr Brown said.
“Then about three weeks ago we had some luck.”
Word has since spread about the mysterious stones and on Saturday the pair co-ordinated a tour, guided by compass, a rough pin on a GPS, and memory alone.
It was barely a kilometre or so to the site off a 4WD track – but up a hill, through untouched dense bush.
Breaking through to a clearing, the highest of the cairns could be seen from 100 metres away.
The largest of the six moss-covered stacks is made of eight stones, the heaviest weighing 500 kilograms at least.
Among the group seeing the cairns for the first time was Loretta Emer, who put forward a key theory about the cairns to Mr Brown when he showed her photos – prayer stones.
“I saw them in Switzerland at the base of the Matterhorn, and I’ve just come back from a walk in Spain where there was a hillside covered in them,” she said.
“I have taken photos of them, I find them so interesting – I couldn’t imagine how they put these stones together, it must have taken a group of people.”
Ms Emer believes they were made by the Buddhist Chinese community who mined for gold across the region during the 1800s.
“Often they are for prayers for your family’s well-being, but they could have also been used for funerals – given they were such an isolated community here,” she said.
“They are always found at a high altitude.”
The link is plausible, considering the former mining sites within the forest the group visited following the trip to the cairns.
And as Mr Brown commented following a particularly challenging section of the climb, “You would have to have religion behind you – I wouldn’t think of any other reason you’d do it”.
But we may never know the real story – and that’s the best part.