UNTIL recently little was known about the sculpture monument beside Wilson Drive at the Hill Top end of the bridge over the Big Hill railway cutting.

Its original plaque proclaiming 'Human Endeavour: dedicated to the enterprising spirit of man' went missing long ago. Thanks to researchers finding the monument's story in the Southern Highland News of 19 March 1980, its origins have now been established.

The seven-metre high, 37 tonne concrete sculpture was erected in 1980 as a gift to all and a tribute to the men who in the 1860s toiled to excavate what was for many years Australia's deepest railway cutting. This was a monumental undertaking in those days with only hand tools and dynamite. The sculpture was erected near the scene of their labours.

Balmoral sculptor Joe Enfield cast the huge work of art in two sections, a smaller mass forming the base, and the larger 21 tonne top section balanced upon it, forming a series of interesting triangles. The two sections were cast on site. Two big mobile cranes inched the massive top section into place, joining precisely on four long retaining bolts locking the massive work together.

Mittagong Shire Council, which approved the project, was represented at the erection ceremony by its President Cr Jim Gasson and Hill Top councillors Mrs May and Bert Chalker, all of whom voiced unqualified approval. The Southern Highland News noted that "about 20 local residents were present and were delighted with the final effect, certain to become a landmark, especially if promised landscaping results in the area being used by the passing public".

The sculptor, German-born Joe Enfield, had been a plumbing contractor in Sydney for 25 years. Keen to concentrate more on art, four years previously he had moved to Balmoral with his musician wife Ann. He had developed an interest in sculpture in Germany as a young person and in Sydney in the early 1970s he and several other craftsmen worked on a 3-metre high metal sculpture entitled 'The Twelve Tribes' erected at Neutral Bay Community Centre.

Impressed by the story of the men who carved the Big Hill railway cutting, Enfield conceived his massive sculpture at Wilson Drive as a monument to human endeavour.

"The sculpture in sandblasted precast concrete makes an impressive sight in the silent bushland setting" remarked the Southern Highland News. "It is reminiscent of the stylised figure of Atlas, supporting the world on his shoulders and its composition in a number of triangular forms involves the strongest geometrical figure known. The sculpture lies in an east/west line and throughout the day the passing sun throws an ever changing shadow pattern. It is particularly awe inspiring on a moonlit night in the absolute silence of that area."

Moves are now afoot to erect a new plaque, signage and Council plantings at the site.

This monument could also be considered a reminder of the human endeavour of the early explorers who, led by John Wilson, in 1798 trekked twice from Sydney to the Southern Highlands, being the first Europeans to visit the area. Wilson was an ex-First Fleet convict who had lived with and learnt from Aboriginal people.

In 1953 Mittagong Shire Council asked for suggestions for the naming of the roadway between Colo Vale and Balmoral. The Colo Vale Community suggested the historic name 'Wilson Drive'.

Hill Top suggested 'Floreston Road'. It was decided to adopt Wilson Drive for the road, in recognition of the explorers who had passed that way.

The 1798 venture came about because Governor Hunter wanted to dispel rumours among convicts that a 'shangri-la' existed to the south. On 24 January, Wilson with John Price and a man named Roe took some soldiers and four convicts on a journey southward. After ten days the convicts had no wish to continue so returned to Sydney with the soldiers. Wilson and the other two continued on through the Bargo Brush to the Wingecarribee district. They arrived home, almost starving, on 8 February.

A month later Wilson and Price set out again, with two others and better equipped. This time they took a more westerly route along the rugged, undulating bushland of the mountain ridge above the Nattai and Bargo Rivers, through present-day Tahmoor, Balmoral, Hill Top and Colo Vale to Mt Jellore, on to Mt Gingenbullen at Sutton Forest, and then to Mt Towrang near Goulburn. The journey of 560 kilometres took a month. A plaque at Sutton Forest commemorates their feat.

These explorers and later railway workers opened the way to the Southern Highlands.

This article compiled by PHILIP MORTON is sourced from the archives of Berrima District Historical & Family History Society, Bowral Rd, Mittagong.

Phone 4872 2169.

Email bdhsarchives@gmail.com

Web: berrimadistricthistoricalsociety.org.au