Current Research (as at 30th June 2003)

Research to date has been limited to surface visuals by private researchers with a refusal of academia to participate on political grounds. Officially, the sites do not exist. Current controversy relative to Aboriginal land claims has the Government somewhat paranoid about a possible land claim by outsiders, relative to the overwhelming evidence being uncovered of such colonies in the BC era. Academia is strictly limited in its research to Aboriginal cultures.

First brought to public awareness in 2000 by local researchers, the sites and evidence triggered off media hysteria with the facts distorted into fictions. Other sites, of course, relate and Sarina is not the epicentre but only part of the huge complex now being uncovered. The researchers fight guerilla warfare against established dogmas and political censorship with no funding and laws that prohibit private excavation, removal of artifacts and investigation of wrecks, etc.

Sarina has a population of some 10,000, is a coastal village in a rainforest climate with a recent geology of a highly complex hydrothermal metamorphosis. The coastal range bisects deserts from rich, yet narrow, strips with a vulnerable flat coast bisected by headlands and a continental shelf extending some 160 kilometres to the Great Barrier Reef. The rich sediments overlie some of the world's most ancient igneous rocks and 200 years ago, the coastal strip was solid jungle, cleared and burnt by farming practices, sugar cane and cattle raising industries prevail. Environmental mismanagement has created irreversible problems to an exquisite biota relative to the fossil hydrothermals now exposed above water.

These incredibly rich hydrothermal crusts were the attraction for colonists and sea traders beginning around 2200 BC out of the Mediterranean. The zenith of coastal mining appeared to relate to the Solomon era of 950 BC when Phoenician vessels came to the fabled land of Ophir out of the Red Sea port at Ezion-Geber on three-year voyages across oceans returning exotics to the exploding Mediterranean cultures.

Harbours

The Freshwater Point site is one of many around Australia's coastlines and it is almost an exact copy of Tyre of Phoenician legend. The east harbour jetty is a typical Phoenician loading platform of granite stone set in furnace-slag cement, some 400 metres in length by 30 metres width by 5 metres high, running back to a freshwater spring and reservoir -- one of two on the isthmus relative to adjacent to open cut mines accessing gold, copper, metacinnabar, epidote, arfedsonite, etc with associated slag heaps and artifacts with the usual Bel altars on the skyline.

In conjunction with this east harbour Sarina inlet contains walls, a cemetery, a Tanit shrine, a boatyard with launching ramp, a giant ten-acre fish traps and the usual petroglyphs.

Sarina township is built on one of the many raised tel platforms and shows clear evidence of surface and underground mining of chromite ore, copper, etc with furnace slag heaps and mining chips, ancient roads, artifacts now overbuilt by modern real estate and canefields.

Sarina's harbours dictate a Phoenician engineering and are associated with other harbours in the giant Broadsound archipelago where the engineers gave top priority to their precious ships prior to establishing operations. Aerial photographs clearly show eroded harbours and walls, reservoirs, etc relative to nearby surface and alluvial mining with quarry chip roads a very pertinent feature.

Slag Heaps

Monsoon floods often expose giant flattened slag heaps, usually about one-metre below today's silts, varying in analysis but always relating to adjacent minerals which were refined into ingots and in the usual fashion packed in bilges as ballast for the cargo vessels return to home port. Many slag heaps and mine chips relate to underground strata and today ancient mine entrances are flooded and silted up.

Furnace bricks are numbered and are composed of local dolomite and slag in typical Canaanite patterns of the half-cubit brick. The slag is now fossilised, yet analyses give proof positive of ancient mining and smelting divorced from any modern colonial operations which only span one century in an easily accessible recorded history. The slag has eroded over millennia and many deposits are found on now eroded beaches, usually adjacent freshwater springs and ancient dogleg sluices are still in situ adjacent large dam reservoirs. The latter are usually lined with clay.

Tels and Fields

These are raised platforms in a 50-inch per annum rainfall, consisting of rammed earth and mine chip and vary in size but are usually found adjacent mine sites and presumably hosted the tents of the miners even as such sites exist today with tents and wattle and mud constructions and as the rainforest climate once hosted softwoods and hardwoods in abundance, presumably, timber constructions as well.

Invariably, we find cultivated fields with sieved soils, enriched with fertilizers adjacent the tels, and the enigmatic Phoenician potato, Tacca Petaloides, a native of central Africa, now growing wild along with other plants, not native to Queensland and Emmer wheat, barley and millet crops have been found all over Australia growing wild. Some fields show evidence of irrigation.

Altars and Shrines

The Canaanite Bel or Baal altar of the 'High Places' of the Canaanite cultures is very evident along with the consort of Baal, Tanit, represented in small shrines. Petroglyphs in the usually 'B' and 'Star' symbols occur along with accompanying artifacts.

Petroglyphs

These occur in cosmopolitan fashion in Ogam, Phoenician as they well as all over the Australian continent and the Pacific. The scripts have been dated to the era around 1000 BC.

Minerals and Exotics

Queensland, especially, is host to complex exotic minerals, timbers and gemstones -- with the world's largest gemfields in central Queensland, but the hydrothermal geology of the coast and the Reef complex of islands, is as yet unknown to the general public, even though it has been carefully explored with blanket leases existing, established in a clandestine fashion by multinational mining corporations.

While experts in antiquity have systematically mined the surface crusts and alluvials, the underground deposits remain in situ and are incredibly rich. Other exotics such as sandalwood and oils and perfumes known to be present in the old concoctions are prolific across the state. It must be understood that Australia as a continent has a mere two hundred year's history and much of the continent remains unexplored.

Please Note: While the general public may be passionately curious about current research, the researchers themselves are severely handicapped by lack of funds, the political incorrectness, the bigotry of academic dogma and past censorship of discoveries that do not allow any nation of previous visitation or colonisation prior to the initial British colony at Port Jackson in 1788. Ironically, the initial British colonisation of the Pacific was a resurrection of the ancient sea trading designed to import exotic goods and minerals back to the motherland.

For Further Information:
Sarina Shire Council
65 Broad St SARINA QLD 4737
Ph: (07) 4964 8100
Note: 2 Reports and 2 Videos available)

When visiting Sarina, contact the Researchers:
(name withheld) - (07) 4943 1963
Wayne Freemantle - (07) 4943 0337
Gilbert Deem - (07) 4943 0616 (Monthly Newsletter Editor)

Daily Star: Warren Singh-Bartlett explores a claim that the ancient seafarers navigated their way Down Under and across the Atlantic

A lot of crazy claims have been made about the Phoenicians. Not content with them having created possibly the world's first alphabet, established an unprecedented trading empire and given the world the color purple, some amateur historians claim that the ancient seafarers also beat Columbus to the New World by a good 3,000 years.

Now, (name withheld), an amateur archeologist from Australia, says the Phoenicians discovered Down Under and established a trading center near Brisbane on the Queensland coast. A conspiracy theorist, he claims the Australian government has known about this for 40 years but has kept the discoveries quiet for fears of further upsetting Aboriginal sentiments. Osborne claims that the site contains a cemetery, a temple, the remains of port walls and stone sculptures -- several of which, he says, have already ended up in private collections. Gripping stuff. But so far, no one has seen any proof.

Here in Lebanon, the Phoenician motherland, Osborne's claims are met with a skepticism that borders on derision. "So far there is no evidence of the Phoenicians crossing the Atlantic, let alone going all the way to Australia," said Helen Sader, an expert in Phoenician history at the American University of Beirut. "The claims are unsubstantiated. Until we have some scientific evidence, from what we know, it's impossible."

But lack of hard evidence hasn't discouraged the faithful. The announcement, published by The Associated Press in July, led to a rash of postings on alternative history Web sites, where believers have been making similar claims for years.

A search on the World Weird Web -- a Web site dedicated to the more unusual theories out there -- reveals that the Phoenicians, like the Egyptians, were descended from the survivors of Atlantis. It is a mythical continent believed to have been located in the middle of the Atlantic, which according to legend sank beneath the waves.

Another theory has it that they were the offspring of aliens and that Baalbek is actually a spaceport. Apart from Australia, Phoenicians are claimed to have discovered Brazil, India and North America, to have brought cocaine and tobacco from South America to Egypt and, most curiously, to have inter-married with native New World inhabitants, producing blond, blue-eyed Amazon Indians.

If Osborne's claims turn out to be true, it wouldn't be the first time accepted historical wisdom has been turned on its head. The discovery in 1962 of a Viking camp at L'Anse aux-Meadows in Newfoundland confirmed old Norse stories that the Vikings had made it across the Atlantic. Subsequent excavations revealed that the camp was permanent; a cemetery and traces of agricultural activity were later discovered. Built in 1000 AD, the camp predates Columbus by almost 500 years.

But Viking navigational technology was slightly more sophisticated than Phoenician. Where the Phoenicians navigated by the stars, the Vikings also used a crude magnetic compass. Viking boats were also better adapted to open-sea journeys.

Established Phoenician activity was largely confined to the Mediterranean, where land, and thus fresh-water supplies, was never far away. The furthest Phoenicians regularly sailed to, was Cornwall, to trade for tin, and to a trading colony at Mogador on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. Even then, ships sailed close to the coast, stopping at Phoenician ports along the way for guidance and supplies.

In comparison, a voyage across the Atlantic or to Australia would require carrying sufficient provisions to last the voyage. "Even if the crews ate fish, what would they do for water?" asked Hassan Sarkiss, Professor of Archaeology at the Lebanese University. "With ultra-sophisticated equipment and knowing exactly where they're going, ships still have problems today." The belief that ships built by early civilizations were incapable of lengthy open-sea voyages was a fundament of historical theories. Then in 1947, Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl proved that open-sea voyages were not beyond the capacity of ancient peoples when he sailed on a traditional pre-historic reed boat from Peru to Polynesia, completing the 6,900-kilometer journey in 101 days.

In 1970, Heyerdahl built an Egyptian papyrus boat and sailed 6,100 kilometers across the widest part of the Atlantic from Safi in Morocco, not far from the ancient trading colony at Mogador, to Barbados. This, his second attempt at the crossing, was completed in 57 days. It proved that in theory, transatlantic travel was within the reach of the Phoenicians.

Interestingly, Heyerdahl believes that Phoenicians are contenders to the crown for the discovery of North America. "They had sea-going ability and they were sailing with women and plants for settlement as early as 1200 BC," he said in a 1999 interview in the Japan Times.

But for Sarkiss, there is one further complication in the Australian story. While the Vikings knew from exploration of the seas around their colonies in Iceland and Greenland that unexplored land lay on the other side of the Atlantic, there is no proof the Phoenicians had similar knowledge. "At the time, people believed the world was flat. They didn't know there was land across the Atlantic or that Asia existed," he said.

IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION Brett J. Green rebuttal of some of the erroneous claims made in his name on this page -- published verbatim.

Sirs (or to whomsoever it may concern), I recently read with interest your website featuring "Phoenicians in Australia" compiled and written by a Salim George Khalaf (no qualifications given). From what appears to be a skeptic's point of view, it was well done. My compliments. However, I noticed that he appears to have given a false impression to your readers of my collective work "The Gympie Pyramid Story"  (updated version available shortly) of which I would like to be corrected immediately. "Pyramid Story" was compiled as a "who dunnit mystery" and left the readers to ascertain who were the culprits. I would also like to point out that I have at no time formed any opinion or given support to claims of "Phoenician visitations" made by Messrs (name withheld), a Jonathan Gray, a Ross Wiseman, Rex Gilroy or a Gilbert Deem in your article except as a general reading informative overview of the many unsubstantiated claims being made. In fact, I have my own opinions and these gentlemen are far off track. The selected passage that needs correction in your interest reads (in bold type): "(name withheld) is the latest researcher to claim that in Sarina, Mackay in Queensland, a Phoenician harbour "cothon", a temple and some votive symbols were found. Another researcher Jonathan Gray in the "Ark of the Covenant" claims that a wreck of a Phoenician ship lies around the entrance of King Sound in the Buccaneer Archipelago near Derby in Western Australia. This wreck happened to be in the area of the silver, lead and zinc Galena Mine. Ross Wiseman wrote a book called "Pre-Tasman Explorers" which states that the Phoenicians left clues to their presence in stone around Lake Taupo in the North Island of New Zealand. Brett J.Gren has devoted his book" The Gympie Pyramid Story" to the ruins and artefacts found in the Gympie and Cooloola regions of southeast Queensland that point to visitations and settlements of Phoenicians. However, the foremost researcher in this topic is called Rex Gilroy whose museum in Tamworth, NSW is rich in stones inscribed in Phoenician. May I suggest this more corrected statement: "Brett J. Green has devoted his book "The Gympie Pyramid Story" to the long standing regional stories of ancient stone ruins, old photographs, pioneering family interviews, artefacts found, pioneer sketch drawings and hand copies of pictographs witnessed on the sandstone blocks found in the Gympie and Cooloola regions of southeast Queensland. Green has endeavoured to present a generalised overview of the facts, fictions and fantasies concerning claims of ancient visitations and settlements by Phoenicians [...etc] and whoever else was supposed to have ventured into Australian waters in ancient times." I would also like to distance myself from the statements (Bold type) in the following excerpt: "The Gympie region in Queensland sustains a pyramid with Phoenician scripts on it and a Toth-figurine clutching on the Tau [the cross of life].. The region revealed other mystery megalithic structures and remains of pre-European gold, copper and tin mining operations. An ancient harbour, long dried up, extended inland from Tin Can Bay to the Gympie district, and ancient Aboriginal traditions spoke of fair-skinned 'culture-heroes' having sailed into Gympie in big canoes shaped like birds [Phoenician triremes with sails and bird-headed prows?]. They built a "sacred mountain" [the Gympie stepped-pyramid] from which they worshipped the Sun and stars. They "dug holes in the hills, then sailed away with the rocks they had dug up, promising to return". Please note: 1. At no time did I ever claim the pictographs mentioned above were "Phoenician". These were claims made by the gentlemen named earlier. 2. At no time did I ever make reference to the ships mentioned above as being "Phoenician" with "bird-headed prows" - again claims by the said gentlemen. You may not be aware that Mr (name withheld)'s archaeologically unverified "Phoenician" settlement at Sarina in central Queensland is being prepared to be promoted as a major tourism venture in association with the local council. I have been led to believe that Messrs Gilroy and Deem are co-partners with Osborne in the proposals. I trust you will accede to my requests. An acknowledgment would be appreciated by return email - and any comments. Thank you, Brett J. Green KIOM., CSO., MM., JP De Grene Publishing Gympie 4570 Qld Australia Website: www.spiderweb.com.au/~degrene Website (Dhamurian Society)

Professor Mark McMenamin, a geologist from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, disagrees. He believes that a series of gold coins minted in Carthage between 350 and 320 BC provide proof that the Phoenicians knew exactly what lay on the other side of the Atlantic and that they knew of India as well.

Working with computer-enhanced images of the coins, McMenamin was struck by the similarity between seemingly random patterns at the bottom of the coins and Greek geographer Ptolemy's maps of the known world. The difference was that these maps showed a distinct landmass where the Americas should be and a large triangular shape to the southeast of the Mediterranean.

McMenamin's discovery, coming as it does from a highly credited scientist who recently discovered the world's oldest known fossil in Mexico, has resulted in a great deal of discussion. Some scientists are now prepared to concede that Diodorus of Sicily might not have been exaggerating when he wrote in 100 BC that "in the deep off Africa is an island of considerable size that the Phoenicians discovered by accident after having planted many colonies throughout Africa."

That the Phoenicians were familiar with Africa now seems to be accepted fact. According to Greek historian Herodotus, in 600 BC, Pharaoh Necho hired a Phoenician fleet to circumnavigate Africa, from the Red Sea around the Cape of Good Hope and up the West African coast to the Mediterranean. The mission took three years. The travelers stopped each autumn to plant crops, which would be harvested before the fleet again set sail. "The new trend is to believe that the African story is true, although there is no direct evidence except in Herodotus," said Sader. "But after discussing the points, all of the information makes sense." This includes a geographically accurate reference to the voyagers watching the southern sunrise on their right as they sailed west around the tip of Africa, a sight Northern Hemisphere sailors never saw.

Given the proximity of the West African and South American coasts and the prevailing ocean currents, which flow in a westerly direction, Diodorus' claim is not impossible.

But archeologists believe that regular, planned journeys across such huge distances simply wouldn't have been worth the effort. The Phoenicians were traders, not explorers and colonizers. There would have to be a compelling reason to undertake such a hazardous voyage.

"If the journey around Africa took three years, how long would one to Australia take?" asked Sader. "I don't know if it was worth it and remember, the idea of sailing out to unknown lands is a relatively recent one." So did they or didn't they?

Sarkiss isn't convinced. "If the Phoenicians made it to Australia, why haven't we found evidence of them in India or Indonesia?" If Osborne is to be believed, the answer to that question might just lie outside Brisbane. But at the moment there is little physical evidence to suggest that the Phoenicians ever made it much further than Morocco or Cornwall.

Sader prefers to err on the side of caution. "There are no documented material finds (in Brazil or Australia) and the Phoenician inscriptions that were 'found' in Brazil were 'lost' before they could be studied," she said. "As for Australia, well, let's say right now that's very, very far-fetched, isn't it?"

Phoenoceania

Note: This article is published as is, quoted from sources that want to remain anonymous. It is not the author's work nor does he take responsibility for its authenticity or credibility.

This article is a mere compilation of names of researchers who have found Phoenician remains in Oceania. These researchers confirm that there is enough material evidence to warrant a comprehensible study into Phoenician expeditions into Australia and a possible reappraisal of its history. This page aims to establish the steppingstone for a very plausible hypotheses beyond the reach of academic bias. I thank these researchers on behalf of modern Phoenicians. I will include further updates on the subject as they come to hand.

Jealously guarding all sea-routes, captains would often sink their ships and abort their expedition if a rival ship was to discover the keys of those routes. The government would compensate them for the loss of these sunken ships. The Phoenicians had sophisticated navigation techniques and ships to carry heavy cargo across continents, but their secrecy had obscured their distant destinations and colonies. In this light, it would not be inconceivable to assume that the ships of Tarshish on their three-year voyages to Ofir ended up in Java, Sumatra and the Torres Strait.

(name withheld) is the latest researcher to claim that in Sarina, Mackay in Queensland, a Phoenician harbour "cothon", a temple and some votive symbols were found. Another researcher Jonathan Gray in the "Ark of the Covenant" claims that a wreck of a Phoenician ship lies around the entrance of King Sound in the Buccaneer Archipelago near Derby in Western Australia. This wreck happened to be in the area of the silver, lead and zinc Galena Mine. Ross Wiseman wrote a book called "Pre-Tasman Explorers" which states that the Phoenicians left clues to their presence in stone around Lake Taupo in the North Island of New Zealand. Brett J.Green has devoted his book" The Gympie Pyramid Story" to the ruins and artefacts found in the Gympie and Cooloola regions of southeast Queensland that point to visitations and settlements of Phoenicians. However, the foremost researcher in this topic is called Rex Gilroy whose museum in Tamworth, NSW is rich in stones inscribed in Phoenician.

The following is extracted from an article by Glenville Pyke taken from a book by Gilbert Deem titled "Ancient and Mysterious Discoveries in Australia":

'near Toowoomba, a group of seventeen granite stones were found with Phoenician inscriptions. One has been translated to read "Guard the shrine of Yahweh's message"and "God of Gods". Another inscription reads "Assemble here to worship the sun". Mr. Gilroy has an ironstone slab found by a man from Cooktown in Far North Queensland years ago, which bears a Phoenician inscription, "The Eye of Ra the sun rules Sinim". Sinim was a mysterious southern continent, mentioned in the Old Testament. The Phoenician name for it was Ofir, a "great south land of gold", where gold was obtained to build Solomon's temple. The Egyptians called it "the land of Punt". A large ironstone slab in Mr. Gilroy's museum at Tamworth, was unearthed by a Rockhampton area farmer some years ago, and bears another Phoenician inscription that reads:"Ships sail from this land under the protection of Yahweh [Yahweh was not known as a god by the Hebrews only but was a Phoenician god as well]..." Mr. Gilroy says that it "may very well be that minerals and precious stones came from Australia...". He points out that "black opals found in archaeological digs in Egypt, could only have come from Australia".'

The Gympie region in Queensland sustains a pyramid with Phoenician scripts on it and a Toth-figurine clutching on the Tau [the cross of life].. The region revealed other mystery megalithic structures and remains of pre-European gold, copper and tin mining operations. An ancient harbour, long dried up, extended inland from Tin Can Bay to the Gympie district, and ancient Aboriginal traditions spoke of fair-skinned 'culture-heroes' having sailed into Gympie in big canoes shaped like birds [Phoenician triremes with sails and bird-headed prows?]. They built a "sacred mountain" [the Gympie stepped-pyramid] from which they worshipped the Sun and stars. They "dug holes in the hills, then sailed away with the rocks they had dug up, promising to return".

Recently, Mr. Gilroy has released a book titled "Pyramids in the Pacific" containing a history of ancient mining operations throughout Australasia. Described in full are a number of what he believes are the remains of Middle-Eastern mining colonies, established across Australia, where copper and tin [needed to manufacture bronze] was mined, as well other precious metals and gemstones. Some of these colonies were established deep inland on the shores of coastal rivers, such as one Queensland site on the Bremer river [which flows into the Brisbane River] east of Toowoomba. Here he unearthed along with his wife more than 50 stone slabs bearing Bronze Age Phoenician...inscriptions. A similar number, recovered at a site outside Moree, in northern NSW were found near the remains of a megalithic ruin. Here upon an altar stone he found the Phoenician inscription "Temple of Tanit". Tanit was the Phoenician earth-mother Goddess.

Rex Gilroy argues that ancient Middle-Eastern explorer-colonists, having found the mouth of the Murray River in southeastern South Australia, explored deep into the NSW interior via the adjoining Darling River as far as Dubbo and Basthurst, explaining Phoenician rock scripts found in these areas; and sailed into the Namoi-Peel River system as far as the Tamworth-Nundle district, leaving the mass of inscribed stones and pre-European open-cut mining sites found hereabouts. These mining colonies were large enough to warrant the establishment of local ruling classes, as shown by the many Phoenician and other rock inscriptions referring to various local monarchs. This theory would explain why central, far western and northern NSW is literally 'riddled' with rock scripts in a host of ancient Middle, Near-Eastern and other tongues.

Near the mouth of the Hawkesbury River over a dozen of human figures reminiscent of ancient Middle-Eastern seafarers were found carved into rock shelves. Near Wisemans Ferry is a carving of a ship with tall mast, sail and bird-headed row. Further downriver at Richmond a farmer had uncovered two large sandstone lumps of human heads resembling Mithras and Demeter [Baal Hammon and Tanit!]. Near Gosford, Mr.Gilroy unearthed two stones inscribed in Iberian Phoenician inscriptions. These state:

"In this harbour* ships lie at anchor, gathered for Baal".

[*Brisbane Waters, at the mouth of the Hawkesbury River]

"The priest Ra-wa performs rituals at the shrine of the western [setting] sun."

It appears the inhabitants explored deep inland up the Hawkesbury-Nepean Rivers, venturing across the Blue Mountains as far as Katoomba, where several Phoenician inscriptions were found near the Megalong Valley.

Phoenicians must have penetrated the Georges River, south of Sydney, to leave the three inscribed stones recovered recently at a Lansvale riverbank site; and at Campbelltown further south, in 1970 Mr. Gilroy recovered a sandstone slab bearing the image of a seated, animal-headed figure [which appears to depict Baal, the Phoenician Sun-God] on one side, and on the other the Iberio-Phoenician inscriptions:

"The Sun, the divine King.
Baal the Sun rules.
He the waters of this land rules."

Further south, outside Bowral, near a megalithic ruin, the possible remains of an ancient temple, a large stone bearing the following inscription was discovered:

"To Phoenician Baal this shrine is dedicated by Hu.
We are sailors from Ham who worship the sun."

Nearby the Gilroys found another inscription; written in Phoenician:

"Bel, God of the Sun, on the prepared
land assemble
at his shrine before his stone.
On Beltain*, on Ludd's altar stone
sacrifice to him.
The pleasing son of Mabo sails the Sunship".

[*feast of Beltain - May Day

Various axes, swords, jars, scarabs, rock art along with Aboriginal dreamtime from the Kimberley support the hypotheses that the Phoenicians had reached Australia. Further more they had established long-term colonies and mining operations and intermarried with the Aborigines producing "spirit-children" as the Wandjina tales sustains. If all these accounts can be confirmed then history will be rewritten, if not, then we would have exercised our imagination with a beautiful story.

Additional references, sources and bibliography (Please don't write and ask me for references. You can find them at the end of article or in Bibliography)
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Phoenicia, A Bequest Unearthed -- Phoenician Encyclopedia