Ball's Pyramid
Ball's Pyramid is a barren
volcanic stack 20
km (13
miles) southeast of
Lord Howe Island. It is 562 m high, while measuring only 200 m across. Ball's Pyramid is located at . It is part of the
Lord Howe Island Marine Park.
Ball's Pyramid has a few satellite islets. Observatory Rock and Wheatsheaf Islet lie about 800 m WNW and 800 m WSW, respectively, of the western extremity of Ball's Pyramid. Southeast Rock is a pinnacle located about 3.5 km southeast of Ball's Pyramid.
The pyramid was named after
Lieutenant Henry Ball who discovered it in
1788 at the same time he discovered
Lord Howe Island (see the
history section of that article). The first person to go ashore is believed to have been Henry Wilkinson in
1882, who was a
geologist at the
New South Wales Department of Mines.
The first successful climb to the summit was made on
14 February 1965 by a team of climbers from the Sydney Rock Climbing Club, consisting of Bryden Allen, John Davis, Jack Pettigrew and David Witham.
[Jack Pettigrew's climbing page, including reproduced Sydney Morning Herald front page]There had been an earlier attempt in
1964 by another Sydney team that included adventurer
Dick Smith (then just 20 years old) and other members of the
Scouting movement. They were forced to turn back on their fifth day running short of food and water. In
1979 Smith returned to the pyramid, together with climbers John Worrall and Hugh Ward, and they successfully reached the summit. At the top they unfurled a flag of
New South Wales provided to them by
Premier Neville Wran and declared the island Australian territory (a formality which it seems had not previously been done).
Climbing was banned in
1982 under amendments to the Lord Howe Island Act, and in
1986 all access to the island was banned by the Lord Howe Island Board. In
1990 the policy changed to allow some climbing under strict conditions, which in recent years has required an application to the relevant state Minister (e.g.
[Mr Fraser (Coffs Harbour) in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, 1 May 1996]).
In
2000/
2001 the
Lord Howe Island stick insect (
Dryococelus australis) insect was found living on the pyramid.
[Giant stick insect rediscovered, science news 14 February 2001 at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation] (On the unsuccessful
1964 climb, Dave Roots had brought back a photograph of the insect, which the
Australian Museum told him they thought was extinct.)
* Ian Hutton,
The Australian Geographic Book of Lord Howe Island,
Australian Geographic, 1998, ISBN 1-876276-27-4.
Rock of Ages, transcript of
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Australian Story TV episode
*
Lord Howe Island Marine Park*
Lord Howe Island and Ball's Pyramid Nautical Chart issued by the
Australian Hydrographic Service*
World Mountain Encyclopedia - Ball's Pyramid*
Volcano World - Balls Pyramid
