Tim the Yowie Man: Where did the blue boat on the Monaro Highway go and why?

It's endured blizzards, a tornado, searing heat and nearby bushfires, but not once has this out-of-place 36-foot blue steel boat flinched. Not once during this time has it ventured from its trusty roadside mooring.

"The owners must think we are in for an epic flood, they are probably hoarding two of every species out the back," penned one bemused motorist to this column during the millennium drought.

During these two decades, it has served countless travellers as a faithful landmark to indicate how far they have left on their road trip.

"That boat was a signifier that the end of my long trip was almost over," reports Sarah Stevens who, for many years, as a kid, endured weekly road trips from Merimbula to Canberra.

However, in March this year the much-loved vessel vanished.

Following its disappearance this column received a trickle of messages from readers miffed about the missing boat, but as we've got deeper and deeper into winter and as more and more snow bunnies have headed south for their annual pilgrimage to the mountains and passed Colinton, the correspondence has reached a torrent.

So, just what did happen to the big blue boat?

"One thing is for sure, despite three years of La Nina, a biblical flood never arrived in Colinton," laughs Justin Elliot of Bruce.

To get to the bottom of this mystery, earlier this week I tracked down Ken Pitt whose Colinton property the boat was anchored on for 20-odd years.

Incredibly, despite taking such a prominent position in his front yard, it turns out it wasn't even Ken's boat.

"Over 30 years ago, a work colleague purchased the boat in Cairns," explains Ken. "It had previously been a fishing vessel in Eden but had sailed to Cairns to be stripped out."

Keen to hit the high seas, Ken's colleague then had the boat shipped to Canberra where after forking out more than $100,000 to remove all the rust from the hull, it sat in Ken's crane yard in Hume for about 10 years.

"When I moved to Colinton, he moved the boat here," says Ken. "The plan was to help him to get it all decked out again. However, he got too old to fulfill his dream, and about 10 years ago he eventually tried to sell it instead."

Ken says he did consider buying the boat himself.

"It would have made a great party boat moored down on the Murrumbidgee River, but I'm not good on the water, I'd rather keep my feet on the land," explains Ken, now a ploughing and haymaking contractor.

One prospective buyer almost purchased the vessel to use as a houseboat for a dam, and another was going a feature it in a kids' playground, but both sales fell through at the last minute.

"Then out of the blue, one day in March this year, a crane and a couple of trucks arrived and it was shipped off to Access Metal Recycling in Fyshwick," reveals Ken. "Sadly after all those years, it was sold as scrap."

Sure enough, a spin in the Yowie-mobile out to the Fyshwick scrap yard reveals the fabled 7.5-tonne blue boat perched on a stack of wooden pallets amongst a sea of car wrecks.

Just like the blue boat caught the eye of many travellers on the Monaro, even here in the back blocks of industrial Fyshwick, it still turns heads.

"There's been a lot of sentimental interest in the boat," explains the Fyshwick business's branch coordinator Sam Welsh. "Many customers comment how much they miss seeing it at its spiritual home on the Monaro Highway."

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One of those is Jim Johnson of South Canberra who visits the scrap yard regularly for work and hopes someone "saves" the boat before it's too late.

"I'm just like thousands of other Canberrans who have driven past the boat many times on the way to the snow or coast - it'd be sad if it was reduced to scrap and melted down."

Even Sam admits, "I just can't bring myself to cut it into pieces ... if it was any other boat, it would have been sliced up long ago by our two high-powered oxy cutters into one-metre-square pieces and recycled."

Born and bred in Canberra, Sam has a soft spot for the boat which he describes as a "real icon".

"Although we are reluctant to cut it up, we did have to pay for it, so it can't sit forever or it will burn a hole in our pocket."

Sam says he has even considered transporting it to the company's bigger yard at Temora and using it as barbecue entertainment area for staff functions.

While the blue boat sits forlornly in the scrap yard awaiting its fate, back in Colinton, Ken pines for the former landmark. "Sure, I don't miss all the tyre kickers that used to stop and ask about it, but I genuinely miss it being there," he confesses.

"For over two decades, I'd tell anyone who asked for directions to my place to just look out for the big blue boat. I can't say that anymore, now all I can say is to look out for the small green tractor instead."

"It's not quite the same," he says.

No, it's not.

Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council mayor Kenrick Winchester has delivered on his pledge to fix the historic 1930s water trough in Captains Flat.

After been alerted to the dysfunctional trough by this column earlier this year, it is now fully operational with updated plumbing and new float valve which means it is now always filled with fresh water for thirsty horses, dogs and other animals that pass through the village.

Of the more than 700 'Annis and George Bills' branded cast-concrete water troughs that were installed around south-east Australia in the 1930s-40s following a bequest by the animal-loving couple, less than half remain in public locations. Many have been broken, lost or stolen and most of the remaining ones stand empty, forlorn on street corners or like the trough at Crookwell, transformed into a flowerpot.

The upgrade of the Captains Flat trough makes it just one of only a handful of working Annis and George Bills water troughs in Australia - a claim to fame for Captains Flat.

Jo Brissenden, who regularly rides her horses through the village, is ecstatic that the trough is fixed and "hopes it remains in working order for a long time to come".

"We are very lucky to have this trough in our village, it's part of our history which we need to keep alive," she says.

Meanwhile, I'm not the only tourist to be surprised by the site of an 'The Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association' in suburban England.

On a recent visit to Bunhill in London, Lindsay Kranz was so surprised to glimpse one of the seemingly now incongruously placed troughs that the wide-eyed tourist captured a photo of it through the window of a passing taxi.

"Clearly there's not much call for the service in central London anymore given the weedy growth," says Lindsay, adding "imagine the meetings of this association".

Rating: Medium

Clue: Near a vice-regal waiting room

How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to tym@iinet.net.au. The first correct email sent after 10am, Saturday August 19 wins a double pass to Dendy, the Home of Quality Cinema.

Last week: Congratulations to Sally Bond of Curtin who was the first reader to correctly identify last week's photo as a warning sign on Woodcock Drive in Gordon. According to local resident Diane McLennan "the swans that raise young in the nearby Gordon Pond had recently taken to spending time on the grass near the road, prompting the erection of the sign", adding "the swans and their cygnets are enjoyed by Gordon residents every year."

At the entrance to the former Prime Minister's suite at Old Parliament House is this photo of Pandora Livanes' staff card. Pandora worked as a secretary in the office of prime minister Bob Hawke from January 1987 to August 1989. If you look closely the corners are well-worn - apparently the result of scraping ice of her car windscreen. Despite this winter punching way above average daytime temperatures, it's still been chilly at night. Does anyone have an ice scraper that can better Pandora's battered card?

On a recent bushwalk with his brother and mum, Gus Lilley (11) of Kambah was stopped in his tracks near the top of the ridges in Urambi Hills Nature Reserve by the sight of what he describes as "a fierce Tuggeranong pterosaur". What a ripper.

CONTACT TIM: Email: tym@iinet.net.au or Twitter: @TimYowie or write c/- The Canberra Times, GPO Box 606, Civic, ACT, 2601

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