PERILOUS DESCENT

Taranaki Daily News, 19 September 1931, Page 4

PERILOUS DESCENT

FORBIDDING CLIFF. TWO EXHAUSTED MEN. A constable and a fisherman made a perilous descent of the cliffs at South Head, Sydney, to discover the body of an unknown man, lying on the rocks about 300 ft. below. A man walking along .the cliffs noticed the body lying on ths rocks between the lighthouse and the signal station at South Head. At this spot the cliffs drop a sheer 300 ft. It is near the place where a woman wag dashed to death a week previously. The man rushed home and procured a pair of field glasses. He returned, made sure thfit a man’s body was on the rocks, and notified the police. With ropes tied around their- bodies, Constable Hamilton and Air; Parker Taylor, of Petersham, who often fishes from the rocks, commenced the descent. Mr. Taylor acted as guide, and. it was decided to follow a track which is sometimes used by fishermen, and which is extremely dangerous to negotiate. In places they had to swing their bodies out over ledges, looking down a sheerdrop of a couple of hundred feet In other places they descended on rickety wooden ladders placed there by fishermen.

•On reaching the bottom, the two men were still some distance from the body, and they had to walk along the rocks, running the 'danger of being washed off by the big seas which occasionally broke over. In one place they had to wait until the waves receded, and then they made a dash for safety on the other side. When they reached the man they found that he was quite dead. The body was lying just out of reaca oi tle fi ea. It was frightfully broken and cut apparently by the fall from the top o the cliff. It was covered with the flym o spray. The body was placed in a canvas baa attached to a rope from above, and hauled up the cliff by two policemen, assisted byriocal residents. After seeing that the man’s body had been taken safely to the top of the cliff, Constable Hamilton and Mr. Taylor prepared to make the ascent. While returning to the foot of the track fiom which they were to start, they were menaced by breaking waves. In one place they had to watt about ten minutes before they could dash across a low rock, and then they barely got across before the next wave came over the roek. They reached the top safely, but wet with spray and very tired. Their work had taken juct over an hour. The body was taken to the city morgue. A fisherman who frequents the Reality states that he has some recollection of having seen the man fishing from the rocks.