Tim the Yowie Man: Of snakes and speed

"His name was Gordon Kotthoff and he lived in Manuka," says Neil Graham of Narrabundah. And there's a good reason my Narrabundah informant is so certain – for he was often the very cop on point duty.

"His nickname was 'Speed', and he rode an old push bike everywhere," recalls Neil, who retired from the ACT Police in the mid-1960s, after almost a decade of service, much of it on point duty at Canberra's busiest intersections, pre-traffic lights.

"When we were late, Gordon thought he was doing the right thing so he got off his bike and directed traffic," recalls Neil, who adds, "as soon as we'd arrive he'd usually hop back on his bike and take off, but sometimes he must have sat and watched us as he had a good idea of which hand signals to use."

Neil, who patrolled under the moniker of "Snakes" (after a teenage practice of munching on snake lollies) recalls that Speed "was a likeable, knockabout fella who never caused us any trouble and most of the motorists knew him, so no one hurt or abused him".

Reflecting on Speed's antics brought back a flood of memories for Snakes such as the afternoon he headed off on his police motorcycle to point duty to the corner of Northbourne Avenue and London Circuit for peak hour (all 30 minutes of it!).

"I had to take several diversions to get there so thought there must be something wrong," explains Snakes, who adds, "when I finally arrived at the intersection everyone was blowing horns and all the traffic was held up."

The cause of the early 1960s civic traffic jam? A five-car pile-up? No, not quite "someone had just bought a brand new 'automatic' EH Holden and had stalled it, but the driver didn't know he had to take it out of drive to start it," chuckles Snakes.

Then there's the day the eagle-eyed traffic cop noticed a car near the busy corner of Lennox Crossing and Commonwealth Avenue (near Albert Hall). "It was during the construction period of the lake and I thought it was a worker sitting in his car, that was, until he was still sitting in exactly the same position in the front seat a couple of days later," recalls Snakes, who after taking a closer look discovered that the driver had "died of a heart attack some days earlier and slumped over the wheel".

Although he has solved one mystery, Snakes has discovered another. "Prior to the lake's construction there was a deep hole in the Molonglo River near Commonwealth Avenue which was home to a gigantic trout that no one could catch," reports Neil who adds, "when the bulldozers came into level the area for the lake that apparently slowly filled in the hole, waiting for the giant fish to surface, but I don't know if it ever did".

Does anyone know? Perhaps it turned into Michael Salmon's infamous "monster that ate Canberra"?

Confused turtle

Still on water – dwelling critters, prompted by this column's recent query about the apparent absence of tortoises in Lake Burley Griffin, Bruno Yvanovich of Waramanga reports that a couple of summers ago, he "came across a large one crossing the bike path between the Tuggeranong Parkway and Scrivener Dam".

According to Bruno, although the tortoise was "healthy and fully the size of a dinner plate, it must have been confused by the heat (it was a hot day) or else suffering from a touch of turtle dementia as it was going uphill AWAY from the Molonglo River".

Concerned about its plight, Bruno "picked it up and carried it back some way towards the river, whence it duly disappeared water-wards," and that despite frequently cycling that route he has "not seen one since".

Meanwhile, during a recent walk along the laneways of north Belconnen, Sandra King of Flynn was forced to "take two" when she spotted this tree stump resembling a tortoise guarding a Melba resident's front garden. While it might be a long crawl from the nearest permanent water source, "it looks like it does alright on a diet of camellias," says Sandra.

A balancing act

Jim Holmes of Jerrabomberra is baffled about this precariously placed log which caught his eye during a recent trip to one of the dams high in the Snowy Mountains.

Jim reckons "the chance of such a log becoming perfectly balanced atop another tree must be a one-in-a-million event, and the dam [which he prefers not to name] would need to be over 100 percent full for this to occur naturally".

"It's a real mystery," ponders Jim, who dismisses the theory that "some outgoing dam worker, 50-odd years ago placed the 3.5-metre-long log in such a position" after two visits to the dam in recent weeks convinced him that "men in a boat wouldn't be able to conduct such an operation without capsizing themselves".

"It reminds me of one of the Stonehenge capping stones," muses Jim, who would love to hear of any other possible explanations.

Aficionados of our local bushranging lore are in for a treat over the next few months.

First up, today, Jugiong is hosting the biennial Sergeant Parry Memorial Day, which is named after a NSW police officer killed during a shoot-out with the infamous Ben Hall Gang in 1864.

Senior Constable Wes Leseberg, playing Sergeant Parry in an historical re-enactment of the bloody event says, "Parry was attacked by the Hall Gang while riding as an armed escort to a Royal Mail Coach between Jugiong and Gundagai and despite being shot twice, continued to fight bravely until he was fatally wounded."

Constable Leseberg hopes the family-friendly day "raises awareness of the bravery of fallen police officers whose contributions are often overlooked in favour of glamorous outlaw heroes".

The Sergeant Parry Memorial Day which includes the realistic re-enactment, market stalls, street parade and children's activities is on today [Saturday November 15] at the Jugiong Recreation Grounds, about a 40-minute drive from Yass. Admission is $5 for adults and $2.50 for children.

Meanwhile, a bit closer to Canberra, on Sunday January 25 next year Collector will be hosting the Collector Wild Colonial Day, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the death of its brave Constable Samuel Nelson, who was shot dead by the notorious Hall Gang outside the Bushranger Hotel (formerly the Kimberley Inn). There will be free admission to the village's big bushranger bash which will feature re-enactments, traditional music and bush poetry. Keep the date free, more details in this column closer to the event.

Gilly's House

Following the appearance on these pages of the Orroral Valley Geodetic Observatory (Namadgi's historical sites, October 3) several readers including John Jones of Wanniassa report that there "was also once was an observatory on Mt Pleasant that was used for teaching the Duntroon Military College cadets".

John is spot on. Built in the 1930s, the Duntroon observatory was primarily the domain of Professor Gilchrist (or 'Gilly' to his students), the college's Professor of Mathematics. According to the encyclopaedic Royal Military College of Australia 1911-2011: Celebrating 100 Years at Duntroon by Jason Hedges (Royal Military College Duntroon 2012) "the exterior of the observatory resembled an outdoor toilet and appeared to be in a state of total disrepair".

Apparently "the junior cadets were often asked to check that the light in 'Gilly's Shouse' [as it was cheekily nicknamed] was out ... and to sign a book in the building to prove that they had been there".

The joke was that the light was never actually out as "the only light was a red blinking navigational light on the roof to warn approaching aircraft".

The observatory was near the current lookout atop Mount Pleasant and demolished in 1954. The road to the lookout is open from dawn to dusk and offers great views of Lake Burley Griffin and beyond.

Contact Tim: Email: timtheyowieman@bigpond.com or Twitter: @TimYowie or write to me c/o The Canberra Times 9 Pirie St, Fyshwick. A selection of past columns is available at: canberratimes.com.au/act-news/by/tim-the-yowie-man

Clue: Part of a heritage-listed 133-acre property, best viewed on open days.

Degree of difficulty: Medium Hard.

Last week: Congratulations to Glenn Schwinghamer of Kambah who was the first to correctly identify last week's photo, taken by Chris Blunt as the Pilgrim Poles at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture in Barton. The poles show symbols drawn from Aboriginal and Christian spirituality and portray life as a journey, fuelled by faith, hope and love. Glenn beat a number of eager readers to the prize including Elizabeth Chan of Macgregor who reports, "the grounds of the centre are well worth a visit as they also contain a labyrinth, a biblical garden, an outdoor chapel and an extensive area of natural grassland, where, if you are lucky, you can see the resident hares".

Special mention to 12-year-old Ben Hobson of Campbell, who unlike his parents, recognised the location right away. "He apparently sees it out of the window of the car when we drive over to Kingston," reports his dad, Andrew, who confesses, "my wife and I thought it was out of town!"

How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to timtheyowieman@bigpond.com. The first email sent after 10am, Saturday, November 15, with the correct answer wins a double pass to Dendy cinemas.