Rock engraving throws spotlight on Australia’s top-secret World War II mustard gas program

In 1943, a young man carved his name, the date, and his place of birth, into a rock outside the old Glenbrook Railway Tunnel, at the eastern side of the Blue Mountains.

Almost 80 years later, that small act has highlighted his remarkable involvement in the top-secret Australian storage of deadly mustard gas during World War II — despite a ban on its use after World War I.

The path to the discovery started last year after the Glenbrook District Historical Society sent a photo of the engraving to the Manning Wallamba Family History Society on the NSW Mid-North Coast.

It sparked the…