In a little hollow on one side of the Rock are five plaques honouring dead climbers. The one nearest me reads:
IN MEMORY OF BRIAN STREIFF WHO LOST HIS LIFE IN A FALL WHILE CLIMBING AYERS ROCK ON 26TH MAY 1962. BRIAN CAME FROM MALVERN, VICTORIA, AND WAS VISITING THE ROCK WITH A PARTY OF SCHOOLBOYS FROM CAREY BAPTIST GRAMMAR SCHOOL.
Poor kid. It's a sad, chilling thing to see. Especially because that's the very same school that David and I went to. No kidding. (Although neither of us are Baptists.) We'd always thought the story was a school legend - like the one about the ex-student who went on to become successful at anything.
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