When Mandy Crampton, of Baranduda in north-eastern Victoria, recently entered an old wares shop in nearby Dederang, little did she know she was about to unwittingly solve a 70-year-old Canberra mystery.
There, propped up against the back of the tin shed amongst a plethora of other knick-knacks and collectables was the Canberra Amateur Swimming Club champions board, inscribed with names of club champions, beginning with the first full season in 1931-32 until 1942-43.
"It immediately resonated with me as it looked so out of place there," recalls Mandy who grew up in Canberra and who also recognised the "Calthorpe [of Calthorpes' House fame in Red Hill] name on the board".
With the image of the out-of-place board firmly etched in her mind, Mandy googled the club.
"I was surprised to discover they still existed, swimming at Gungahlin Pool," Mandy, who promptly contacted club president Karl Willett, reveals.
Karl was unaware of the board's existence, let alone its missing status, admitting "knowledge of it was lost in the mists of time". But Canberra historian Frances McGee most definitely was aware.
In fact, in the lead-up to Manuka Pool's 90th birthday in 2021, Frances penned an article for The Canberra Times ("Manuka Pool's Deepest Mystery", Panorama, May 16, 2020) in which she issued a passionate plea for the return of the mislaid board.
"Deep down, I was convinced it was gone," Frances confesses, adding "I was clinging onto hope that maybe a committee member took it home in the 1950s, and it was still in the lurking in back of a shed somewhere covered in dust."
When then minister for the interior Joseph Collins officially unveiled the board in 1945, he paid tribute to three champions whose names were inscribed on the board and who "paid the ultimate sacrifice", during their service in World War 2.
One of these men, Bill Dullard, who was champion for the 1934-35 season, enlisted in the army on August 20, 1941.
Several years ago, when Frances spoke about Swimmers Who Gave Their Lives; the Honour Roll at Manuka Pool (Friends of Manuka Pool, 2018), a book co-authored with Nick Swain, she displayed a haunting photo of Bill along with fellow soldiers from the 3rd Battalion (Werriwa Regiment) departing for service from Canberra Railway Station.
The image of Bill leaning out of the carriage window, the look of innocence etched into his smiling face, immediately sent chills up my spine.
While the identity of his mates in the photo is unknown, we do know details of Bill's untimely end.
According to Frances, on September 24, 1942, "Bill was hit by Japanese machine gun fire and rolled off the Kokoda Track down into a gully. When one of his men called down to him, Bill replied 'I'm alright'. It was the last they heard of him."
Bill was just 25 and has no known grave.
The board took pride of place in the entrance foyer of the Swimming Pool (as Manuka Pool was then known) for 10 years until it vanished in 1955-56 when the Canberra Amateur Swimming Club moved from Manuka to Civic Pool (and later to Gungahlin in 2014).
So just where was it stashed between 1955 and last year when Mandy discovered it at the Dederang Co-Operative Collectables?
Shop owner John Sauervein says he "bought the board along with several other items in 2021 from the deceased estate of Ian Black, who has a property at Nug Nug, near Myrtleford."
"Before Mandy came in, only one other customer had shown any interest in it," he reveals.
Clare Leeuwin-Clarke, who was Ian's partner for the last 40 years of his life, explains, "Ian collected many things, but I don't know how he got hold of the board."
Prior to moving to Victoria, Ian was a policeman and restauranteur in Canberra, opening upmarket Hill Station Restaurant, but is perhaps best known as an independent member of the ACT Advisory Council from 1970 to 1974.
"As part of that role he was responsible for heritage, so I'd like to think he saved the board from being tossed out," Clare speculates, adding, "but I just don't know as it was before I met him."
After returning to the Dederang store and buying the board on behalf of the club for $150, Mandy generously transported it to the club's Gungahlin HQ where it now hangs, high above a sparkling glass cabinet crammed with many contemporary trophies.
"It belongs to us, it's our property, but at least we now have it back," Karl asserts.
While the well-travelled board is rightly back with the club, given its vintage, I suspect it may look even better back on the wall of its spiritual home.
Perhaps the club and the folk at Manuka could consider a long-term loan arrangement where the board is displayed in foyer of the heritage-listed Manuka Pool but returned to Gungahlin when requested such as for special club occasions.
"No matter where it ends up, at least it's back in Canberra and on public display once again," Frances says.
Mandy says, "I've always thought that Dederang store is the sort of place where I might just wander in and find some treasure.
"And it turns out that's exactly what happened ... only it wasn't treasure for me, but it was for the Canberra Amateur Swimming Club."
"It's so lovely to know it's home now," she declares.
You can say that again.
Cycling medals
Following this column's recent series on unusual finds in backyards, that included a blood-splattered collector's knife thrown over the fence in a Barton garden and an antique golden goblet uncovered in a Braidwood veggie patch, I've received many more suburban mysteries to solve.
One of the more intriguing dates to the mid-1960s, when, as a child, Michael (Axel) Axelsen, now of Turner, found a cycling medal in the backyard of his family's O'Connor home.
"One side of the medal features a man on a bike while the reverse side is engraved with G. Janssen 21-8-49," reveals Axel, whose parents moved into the O'Connor house on March 7, 1952, and who believes "it was likely lost when the house was being built in the early '50s."
Axel vividly recalls finding the medal "caked in mud beneath the almond tree in the back corner of the yard" as he and his brothers were engaging in one of their "regular almond-feasting sessions".
Over the years Axel, who keeps the medal squirreled away in a shoe box with other keep safes, has attempted to find the owner, but without any success.
Someone one out there must have a lead. Perhaps G. Janssen was working on construction of the house and brought the medal in to show his co-workers?
"I recently heard of a George and Gerry Janssen, painters by trade who emigrated from Holland to Canberra in the early 1950s, so perhaps one of them was working on the house, stopped for smoko and dropped it," Axel speculates, adding, "after moving in dad would have put down topsoil so it may have been buried and slowly worked its way to the surface."
Axel further reports his father Allan just marked his 72nd anniversary of living in the O'Connor house.
Heck, 72 years in the same abode. Can anyone else in Canberra beat that?
WHERE IN CANBERRA
Rating: Easy
Clue: Goggles. Bonus points if you can identify any buildings in the foreground.
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, March 23 wins a double pass to Dendy, the Home of Quality Cinema.
Last week: Congratulations to first-time winner Maurice Hermann, of Kambah, who correctly identified last week's photo as artwork on the walking path from Kambah (top of Mannheim Street) to the summit of Mt Taylor. The 856-metre peak (yes, that's 13 metres higher than Mt Ainslie) is popular with many energetic Canberrans. In fact, Maurice, who has lived for 48 years in the same house near the track head, notices "hundreds of peoples doing the walk up the mountain every day".
"When we first moved into our house, we could still see from our kitchen window the shearing shed of the Aroma property (next to Tuggeranong Homestead), which was owned by the Edlington family, who were family friends," Maurice reports.
Heck, 48 years is a decent stay in the one abode, especially for Kambah, as it was only "settled" in 1974. But it's still 24 years less than Allan Axelsen's (see cycling medal story adjacent) remarkable 72 years.
Oh, and last week's clue "Canberra's best-known bushranger was captured nearby" referred to John Tennant, who in 1828 was captured "7 miles from the Limestone Plains", which some historians believe may have been in the vicinity of, or just south of, Mt Taylor.
Fishy business
BJ Martin, of McKellar, was one of dozens of readers to comment on the botched paint job of Adaminaby's Big Trout, which the Snowy Monaro Regional Council reported was partly due to windy weather conditions "that meant that there was not sufficient time to work on blending of the stripes prior to the opening".
"Travesty driven by contract deadlines and harsh mountains wind," exclaims BJ, adding, "who'd have thought it gets windy up there?" Indeed.
Nonetheless, the council has listened to the tirade of complaints and is seeking community feedback on several new improved designs it will have on display at the Adaminaby Easter Fair on Saturday, March 30. See you there!
