This sign at the entrance of the forest advises visitors to "please be careful".
Belanglo State Forest is a planted forest, of mainly pine but some native forestry around the edges, open to the public, in the Australian state of New South Wales; its total area is about 3,800 hectares.[2] The Belanglo State Forest is located south of Berrima in the Southern Highlands, three kilometres west of the Hume Highway between Sydney and Canberra. The forest is owned by the New South Wales Government and contains some of the earliest pine plantings in the state. The first radiata pines were planted in this area in 1919.[3]
Reputation
Despite being an area of outstanding natural beauty, Belanglo Forest has a sinister reputation, and place in Australian folklore, due to the forest's connection to multiple murders.
Ivan Milat murders
In 1992 and 1993, seven skeletons were found in the forest, in what was described by media as the backpacker murders and was considered to be the work of a serial killer.[4][5] Eventually, Ivan Milat was convicted of the murders in 1996 and sentenced to life imprisonment.[6]
Other murders
On 22 November 2010, three teenagers (including one related to Milat)[7] were arrested on suspicion of connection with the discovery of a murdered male in the forest, following a tip-off.[8] David Auchterlonie was celebrating his 17th birthday on 20 November; Mathew Milat, 17, and Cohen Klein, 18 had planned for over a week to lure Auchterlonie to his death. A third person, Chase Day, 18, whose charges were later withdrawn by the DPP,[9] went to police on 21 November to report the murder.[10]
Deaths
On 29 August 2010, trail bike riders discovered a human skeleton in the forest. Media reports at first linked the killing to Milat, but later forensic work disproved this theory as the remains were left there after he was sent to prison.[11] On 21 October 2015, the bones were identified as the body of Karlie Pearce-Stevenson, aged 22, from Alice Springs, Northern Territory. The body of Pearce-Stevenson's daughter, Khandalyce Pearce, aged 2, was found in a suitcase near Wynarka, South Australia, on 14 July 2015.[12]
Visitors to the park are warned by a sign to 'please be careful', as they enter the territory. Detectives who worked on the Milat murders have said there is 'pure evil' in Belanglo State Forest.[13]
Park usage
According to the Forestry Corporation of NSW, the state-owned enterprise which manages the forest, Belanglo State Forest is a popular tourist recreation destination despite its sinister reputation.[14]
