"If dad came back now, he'd be gobsmacked that his boat was so famous," exclaims Jocelyn Brown (nee Creager), while admiring the PS Enterprise on its mooring at the National Museum of Australia jetty on Lake Burley Griffin.
On a recent visit to Canberra, Jocelyn, who now lives in the Upper Murray town of Corryong, enamoured a small group of museum volunteers with her memories of growing up on the historic paddlesteamer when it was her family's houseboat near Renmark in South Australia in the 1930s and '40s.
It was a perfect spring morning by the lake's shores. The birds were chirping, the water was like glass, and the sun was shining. But it was Jocelyn who stole the show, regaling her audience with stories of her carefree childhood.
"We had several gangplanks, and they were all much longer than this short one here now," says 91-year-old Jocelyn who recalls walking along the longest plank as a toddler, carrying vegetables and trying not to fall off.
"It was wobbly and bobbed up and down, but I think I only fell in once," she laughs.
Ken, Jocelyn's brother, fell in several times, resulting in her mum calmly "jumping in the dingy and looking for a trail of bubbles and for him to surface". Heck!
Children weren't the only precious cargo to occasionally fall overboard. When some of the washing drying on the deck fell into the river, Jocelyn's mother had an innovative way to find where it had drifted.
"She'd simply drop another shirt in the water and watch where it floated to, and there she'd find the lost clothing," recalls Jocelyn.
After her family left the paddlesteamer following her father's stroke in 1945, the PS Enterprise had several different owners who changed the layout of the deck before it was acquired by the museum in 1984, however Jocelyn clearly remembers where her bedroom was.
"It was one of the cabins at the front of the vessel, just near where the kitchen is now," she recalls.
While her memories haven't faded with time, like all of us looking at childhood memories with adult eyes, Jocelyn's idea of space may have.
"It looks so different now to when I used to live on it," she remarks. "The rooms today seem much more cramped than I remember."
Too often, treasured museum objects are long forgotten, squirrelled away in warehouses and rarely see the light of day. That's not the case with the PS Enterprise, which, launched in 1878 at Echuca, is regarded as one of the oldest steam-powered vessels afloat in the world today.
- The museum is hosting several upcoming public inspections of the PS Enterprise at the National Museum of Australia jetty, 11am-2pm on October 26 and November 3, 9 and 17. Subject to weather and crew availability. Check with the museum in advance.
Springbank memories
Still on the water, this column's recent feature on Springbank Island prompted many readers to share their own memories of Lake Burley Griffin's emerald isle.
Some, including Steven Hanley, fondly recall family picnics on the island. "We'd paddle out using a Canadian canoe my dad built," recalls Steven who as a teenager "also sailed to the island many times". But wait, there's more.
Measuring in at barely 1.5 hectares, it's the lake's biggest island but hardly big enough for a fun run. That didn't stop Steven from running five kilometres around the island. After completing several laps, Steven "got a little sick of going around the outside and began to criss-cross the island, even running around the jetty several times". As proof, he even sent me his completed route on the Strava app that maps exercise routines.
About the only transport options Steven hasn't taken to the island is a hot-air balloon or helicopter. But others have. "In my first ever hot-air balloon flight in approximately 1992, the pilot landed the balloon on Springbank Island - just because he could," reports Suzy Butz. "Then we flew off again and landed on the western foreshore of the lake."
Meanwhile Warwick Bradly and Peta Brill arrived at their 2008 wedding on the island in a helicopter. "Let's just say there was a lot of bureaucratic hoops to jump through, including an evacuation plan," reports Warwick. I bet. Along with the risks of a chopper crash, in his risk management plan, Warwick also snuck in "bride has second thoughts, and drunken uncle dances the funky chicken".
Meanwhile, Allen Mawer, who played the Cheshire Cat, answered the call for photos from the ANU production of Alice in Wonderland performed on the island in 1971. "We'd move around the island to different locations, and the crowd would move with us," recalls Allen, adding, "It was a fantastic experience."
Rowan Simpkin of Hoskinstown will no doubt remember Allen's fetching costume for she reports "the librarian at my school (Girls Grammar Primary School) was involved with the costumes and at times she'd bring the costumes to school, and we would wear them to check for fit".
Last word goes to Katy Grimes, a former resident of the former Sylvia Curley House on Acton Peninsula, who remembers during a picnic to the island in the early 1990s one of her colleagues "catching a giant carp and plonking it into a bathtub in one of the share bathrooms". Eeck!
Stranded on Springbank!
Some of the strangest stories about Springbank were from those stranded on the island either accidentally or by choice.
In 1965, as a young apprentice at Parks and Garden, Barry Snelson of Calwell was dropped on the newly created island by his boss for a day of tree planting and grass mowing.
"I had a large self-drive mower, but it was still hard work as the ground was very stoney," recalls Barry, adding "my boss said he would come back to pick me up about 2pm".
I think you can see where this is headed.
Come 2pm, there was no sign of his boss.
"I waited until 3pm and still no one," recalls Barry. "I finished work ... just before 4pm [and] decided to swim back to the West Acton Wharf.
"It was clear I had been forgotten and there was no way I was going to spend the night on the island."
Barry had barely taken a few strokes when suddenly his boss arrived in a boat.
"His timing was telling," recalls Barry who is convinced "he must have done it on purpose".
Then there's the case of two ANU students, who last year wanted "to pay tribute to a local campus legend of a student who couldn't pay for accommodation and apparently lived on the island".
As camping on the island is illegal, let's just call our two adventurers Tommy and Aidan.
"We kayaked up Sullivans Creek to class each day and [snuck] into a shower on campus a couple of times," recalls Tommy, adding "Aidan even filed his last assignment from the island".
"It was such an awesome way to farewell ANU," says Tommy
Oh, and for the record, I'm pretty sure the student they were paying tribute to was William Woodbridge who lived in a teepee on Lake Ginninderra, not Springbank Island, for several months in 2012.
WHERE IN CANBERRA?
Rating: Easy
Cryptic Clue: ... blast the rock and send the fire to blazes.
How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to tym@iinet.net.au. The first correct email received after 10am, Saturday October 26 wins a double pass to Dendy, the Home of Quality Cinema.
Last week: Congratulations to Sandra Ross of Latham who was first to identify last week's photo as the waffle slab ceiling of Westfield Shopping Centre car park in Belconnen, looking across Cohen Street, towards the Belconnen Churches Centre. Sandra just beat Mick Gallway of Flynn and Bill Mecham of Melba who reports his late brother-in-law was a steel fixer and helped build it. Several readers report the fibreglass square tub moulds used to create the waffle ceiling were later upcycled for many purposes, including in the case of Kathryn Spier of Belconnen "as a fish pond".
The clue of "were you reading" related to last week's exposé on Ginninderra Falls where the moulds were widely used at the former tourist attraction, including on their side as weather-proof repositories for brochures and upturned as the roof of picnic shelters.
If you've recycled them for any other purposes, I'd love to know!
PARTY TIME
The 1971 production of Alice in Wonderland wasn't the only performance on Springbank Island. Back in 1966, just two years after the lake was filled, Adele Rosalky (nee Hoffman) attended a party on the island and sang for the audience. "I was a folksinger in my youth and sang at many venues around Canberra so was asked to perform," recalls Adele. "I was a student at Telopea Park High School and watched the lake slowly fill during 1963-64."
- CONTACT TIM: Email: tym@iinet.net.au/ or Twitter: @TimYowie or write c/- The Canberra Times, GPO Box 606, Civic, ACT, 2601
