Each year, on Exhibition Wednesday, Club members and visitors are welcome to join the climb of Mount Barney and the Mass in the saddle between East and West Peaks. Mount Barney is located within the Scenic Rim Region in South-East Queensland, approximately 130 kilometres south-west of Brisbane. It forms part of the McPherson Range, is a popular destination for bushwalkers and is often regarded as one of the most impressive parts of the Scenic Rim. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount Barney

The climb and Mass have been an annual pilgrimage for the Brisbane Catholic Bushwalking Club Inc since 1960. For bushwalking pilgrims, mountain tops can be places where the seen and unseen worlds are closely connected and inhabitants of one world can momentarily touch those of the other. A pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred space where one can connect with a deeper faith and where one can encounter the goodness of God. (https://www.franciscanmedia.org/an-irish-journey-into-celtic-spirituality)

The first climb was on 17th August, 1960. Fifty-eight members and visitors participated. The celebrant was Father Willie Hayes, co-founder of the Club. Byron Moss reported on the event in the Third Annual Report of the Club in March 1961:

Setting out from a campsite a short distance from the Bushwalker’s Ridge (now known as Peasant’s Ridge), on a bright sunny morning, the main party of 40 reached the saddle between East and West Peaks at 11.30 am, selected a site and set up a satisfactory altar of flat rocks a short distance up East Peak. There the necessary equipment, vestments etc. (which for carrying purposes had been divided among the various members of the party in order that everyone might participate more fully in the event) were made ready.

The location was one of beauty and inspiration to the participants in the Mass which commenced at noon following the arrival of the second party numbering 18, which had ascended by way of North Ridge. Peter Lillis and John Power served at the Mass. During Mass Father Hayes spoke briefly of the important events through the ages which had taken place on mountains and of the significance of the present Mass.

Afterwards a cairn of stones was built to mark the spot on which Mass had been celebrated and permission has been obtained from the relevant authorities for a plaque commemorating the occasion to be affixed to this cairn.

At the time of the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the first climb, Raoul Mellish, the other co-founder of the Club, recorded, in the Mass Booklet, the events relating to the laying of the plaque.

On the Saturday afternoon of May 13, 1961, a brass plaque commemorating the Mass said by Fr Hayes on Mt Barney on Exhibition Wednesday of the previous year, was set in the rock used as an altar. This rock has now come to be known as the Mass Rock.

The inscription on the plaque reads as follows: Holy Mass was said here on 17-8-60 by Rev. Fr. W. Hayes first president chaplain of the Brisbane Catholic Bushwalking Club”.

As Mt Barney is a National Park, special permission for this was obtained from the Minister for Forestry and Agriculture. The work of setting the plaque took most of the afternoon, as the rock had to be cut back to a level recess and drilled to take the holding screws, and it was not until the last ray of day was shafting golden on high battlements of the mountain, that the job was completed. Also set in the rock just below the plaque was a metal Club badge left at the site last Easter by Father Hayes who was paying his last visit there before going to Ireland. A logbook in a muntz metal container was left at the site and its opening entry reads: A record for all those who pass by this place on the magnificent mountain. Commenced Saturday May 13th, 1961.

The party spent the Saturday night in the old University Hut with a roaring log fire to take the chill out of the early winter air. At dawn on the Sunday morning, on leaving the hut, John Power and I were struck with the sight of the Morning Star shining large and bright in the grey sky just above the crest of East Peak somewhat towards the North Peak. It was a strange coincidence for us to see the Star in this position from behind the East and North Peaks, the reverse of the way we had visualized it for the Club badge.

As we started to climb the dark slope of the East Peak to gain the summit for sunrise, the West Peak was just beginning to turn golden under the first light of the day, while overhead two great eagles were planeing in the updraft of the fresh cold air blowing up the slopes of the mountain. This was the inspiration of the poem which John Power wrote in Ireland, just before commencing his studies for the priesthood at the Abbey at Loughrea, County Clare.

• DUCE MARIA 

  See! She softly sheds her light,
• Hung in the filmy veil of night;
• And smiles with sweet serenity,
• To guide us into the portals of eternity.
• She, the evening star, our Queen,
• Before all ages, promised she had been;
• And ever, more shalt never cease to be,
• Through her, may yet we know, the Infinite Majesty. 
• By Fr. John Power.