The living rock: the origins of climbing in Australia

This site is an archive of documents, images, interviews and other information relevant to the origins of climbing in Australia. Comments are welcome (meadowsmh@gmail.com). Text copyright 2024 M.Meadows. Copyright to photographs is held by named photographers. Please request permission to reproduce.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

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East Barney solo Robert Staszewski (pictured) made the first and only known solo ascent of the east face of Mt Barney in March 1979. ...

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Climbing solo Rick White made the first solo ascent of Ball’s Pyramid in 1979 in one hour 45 minutes while on a trip there with members of...

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Climbing by numbers In Australia by the mid 70s, another generation of young climbers was filling in the gaps at Frog Buttress and var...
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White punks on chalk Over the Christmas-New Year period in 1974-75, Rick White and Robert Staszewski made a bold attempt to climb a new rou...

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Bootlaces and Beerwah Ian Thomas (pictured) and Robert Staszewski teamed up in 1973 and almost immediately took on the hardest classics i...

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First Australian ascents in Yosemite Rick White at Frog Buttress in 1973 shortly after returning from becoming the first Australian to clim...

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Into the maw of The Minotaur One of the strongest memories of the Porter’s Pass climbing meet for Ted Cais was his second ascent with Rick...

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Porter's Pass climbing meet With the interstate climbing ‘war’ at its peak, a large contingent of Queensland and Victorian climbers joi...

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Beyond the Buttress The first recorded climb on the Girraween granite near Stanthorpe— Late Afternoon Flake (pictured)—by Dave Gillieson a...

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Coomera Gorge: 1st descent In December 1972 in the heat of another Queensland summer, Donn Groom, Ted Cais and I decided to try something en...

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Queensland takes the lead...again From the early 1970s, Rick White continued to push the boundaries of hard aid and free climbing in A...
Tuesday, October 04, 2005

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'Dirty Don' in the deep north Greg Sheard moved to Townsville in 1970 and soon tracked down some locals who were interested in clim...

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Big wall battles Big wall climbing was news in various Australian magazines (pictured) at this time with the antics of John Ewbank and othe...

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Deep Purple on Rock By 1970, many of the easy, obvious lines had been climbed at Frog Buttress and it would be a hard core who would eke ou...

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Ethical adventures Ted Cais with an array of pitons and ‘crackers’—a central element of clean climbing ethics applied in Queensland from the...

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Victoria versus the rest From the mid-1960s, the Sydney-based climbing magazine, Thrutch , had become the main conduit for Australian climbe...

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Back to the 'Bungle s Easter 1969 saw another small, strong contingent of Queensland climbers heading for the volcanic spires of the W...

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The 1st Frog Buttress guidebook Around the middle of 1969, Rick White produced his own guidebook to Frog Buttress and it was quickly out...

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The revolution continues Although still very much a male-dominated world, talented 16 year old Marilyn Dall (pictured left) joined with ‘v...

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Hi-ho, hi-ho, de-bolting we will go In August 1968, the Brisbane Rockclimbing Club became the first in Australia—after the Sydney Rockclim...

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Ted Cais ' jamBs' over the bulge on the 2nd ascent of Infinity at Frog Buttress. He recalls his relationship with Rick White and ...

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'Paradise found' It was a Saturday afternoon—9 November 1968—when Rick White and Chris Meadows on the spur of the moment decided to ...

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The Brisbane Rockclimbing Club, Warrumbungles, 1968 From left (standing) John Shera, Ted Cais, Kirsty Jensen, Cec Murray, Sandra Tillack, ...

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The fall factor Not to be overshadowed by the exploits of his peers, Greg Sheard (pictured) decided to give up smoking (an elusive goal he ...

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Leaps of faith Rick White had quickly established himself as one of the most active and innovative climbers amongst the new cohort in Queen...

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And the women? Although climbing in Queensland (and the rest of Australia) in the late 1960s was largely a boys’ club, several women had be...

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Maintaining a long tradition of climbing a prominent cross-river structure in Brisbane (from left) Chris Meadows, Greg Sheard, Michael Meado...

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In high places Rick White, climbing with Dave Reeve, found the first route up the big east face on Mt Maroon in February 1968. They called i...

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New waves in the deep north Rockclimbing had become firmly established in the eastern states in Australia by 1968. In Queensland, more new c...

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Tilting at tradition By the close of 1967, John Ewbank had convinced his climbing compatriots in New South Wales to adopt a new open-e...
Monday, October 03, 2005

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The east face of Mt Barney In May 1966, John Tillack solved one of the great climbing challenges in southeast Queensland, making the first a...

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Loaded Ted Cais’s introduction to climbing came at an early age with Bert Salmon introducing him to previously unknown scrambles on the cra...
Wednesday, September 28, 2005

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East Crookneck free ...almost Perhaps the piece de la resistance for Les Wood (pictured) during his 1966 sojourn in Queensland was making t...

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Seeking Clemency On his return to Queensland after the Brisbane Rockclimbing Club's Warrumbungles climbing trip in 1966, Les Wood team...

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Out and beyond In March 1966, Les Wood began his assault on Queensland putting up the climb, Trojan , weaving its way through the summit ove...

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A new climbing ethic In Queensland in 1966, more than 30 new routes went up on crags in southeast Queensland, many of them destined to b...

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John Ewbank leads out on the 17th pitch of his girdle of the Wirindi cliffline, The Masterpiece . Although in this photograph, taken during...

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The times they were a-changin’ New South Wales climber John Ewbank picked up on a popular Rolling Stones’ hit of the time and penned an a...
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