Regular readers will recall the brouhaha that unfolded in Adaminaby following the unveiling of the 2023 botched paint job on their much-loved Big Trout.
Many vented, claiming it was "cartoonesque", "looked nothing like a real rainbow trout" and was an "embarrassment to the town". Amid reports the local mayor was fuming over the fiasco, the council subsequently rolled out not one, but two public polls for an updated "final" design.
And the winning design was to return the trout as close as possible to its original 1973 design. Gee, who'd have thought?
Keen to beat the onset of the wintery weather, council promptly engaged the services of Ryan Loughnane, a highly regarded Sydney-based mural artist.
And it didn't take Ryan long to realise just how passionate the locals were about their trout's appearance.
"I've painted a two-kilometre-long wall in the Middle East, but this was more pressure as I knew how important it was for the community," reveals Ryan, who before he'd even started to paint, had a barrage of colourful suggestions shouted in his direction from behind the cyclone fence erected around the fish as a safety barrier.
"They were really sticking it to me," he recalls.
"I read a lot of stuff online which I'm glad I'd read afterwards or there'd have been even more pressure," admits Ryan who set about doing the job "to the best of his ability".
After his first day on the tools, as Ryan entered that parochial den of beer swilling trout fishers, known as the Snow Goose Hotel, the publican warned "Oh, you're brave coming in here".
However, the next day as Ryan painted the dots on the trout and it started to look more and more like a rainbow trout, community sentiment changed.
In fact, when Ryan strode into the pub that night, even the publican had changed her tune. "Here comes the trout painter!" she cheerily exclaimed.
Ryan had won them over. And it wasn't by accident.
Each evening, Ryan stayed up until late studying the design and learning as much as he could about Andy Lominici who designed the iconic fish in the early 1970s.
"I tried to repaint it with respect to the original artist and also tried to understand what the locals really wanted whilst keeping it looking like a real rainbow trout," he says.
Although closely following the winning design, Ryan explains he was also expertly guided by local fishing afficionados Mark Fountain and Col Sinclair.
"Both were absolute legends," explains Ryan. "Col even invited me to his home and talked me through the nuances of rainbow trouts."
The most challenging part of the job wasn't the Snowy Mountains chill, nor the fact he and his partner had to temporarily uproot from their Sydney digs with their six-week-old newborn child - no, it was the bright pink colouring on the trout.
"I was a good three days on that pink - it was really bugging me. I usually don't get stuck, but I did this time," reveals Ryan.
"From computer programs to colour charts to what it looks like in the flesh and in a photo, they're all slightly different," he explains, "but in the end I think I've captured it well."
Talk about an understatement.
In fact, the town and social media is abuzz with compliments about the new-look trout.
"What an amazing transformation... absolutely brilliant... congratulations... you nailed it," exclaims Sherree Coysh on Facebook.
Doug Rogan simply states: "Ryan, you are a magician."
Meanwhile, Donna P is just hoping everyone can finally move on from "Trout-gate". "Thank God we don't need to fill in anymore community feedback surveys," she muses.
Although Ryan left Adaminaby without the chance for a celebratory ale at the Snow Goose, I'm sure if he returned there'd be a queue out the door of locals wanting to shout him a brew. Or two.
Fish cakes, anyone?
"Glad to see the new paint job matches my cake!" exclaims Megan Jeremenko, who baked a Big Trout cake for her fishing-mad brother Brent nine years ago.
"The fish and base is all cake," she explains, "covered in fondant and airbrushed to give the colour."
Megan's culinary efforts beg the question, has anyone baked a cake in the shape of any other of Australia's many (there are more than 1800!) big things?
Not just piscatorial prowess
One man especially pleased that Andy Lominici's original design was repainted on the Big Trout is Barry Snelson of Calwell, but who has close family ties to Adaminaby.
"Andy was a great artist and creator," explains Barry. "He also painted scenes of the high country". In fact, Barry is lucky to have a Lominici original of Yan's (sometimes called Yen's) General Store at Kiandra which opened in 1860 during the Gold Rush and served the local community until 1940.
In the mid-1980s, while knocking back a beer at the Snow Goose, Barry asked Andy, who had a studio next door to the pub, if he could paint Yan's Store for him.
According to Barry, Andy's reply was "I will go and start now, just bring me a drink every so often as I paint better while relaxed."
When Barry explained he didn't have a historic photo for Andy to work off, Andy replied: "I don't need one, I go by memory."
"What a memory, this is his end result," says Barry. Wow.
Note: Yan's General Store became derelict in the 1960s and the standing ruins demolished by national park authorities in the late 1970s.
Chair auction raises $250,000 for charity
At last count, last weekend's much-anticipated auction of the original chairs from the Mt Perisher Double Chair raised well over $250,000 for charity. According to a spokesperson for Perisher Resort: "All profits raised from the sale of the chairs will go to organisations who make a difference in our local community, for the environment, and for youth."
While bidding for most of the chairs reached several thousand dollars before the hammer fell, the #1 chair fetched a whopping $7000 which David Turner of Cooma says "is a lot for bragging rights". You can say that again.
And David should know, for he's dabbled in the nostalgic market of second-hand chairs before, having purchased chair #107 from Thredbo's decommissioned Ramshead Chairlift in 2012 for $1000.
He restored the chair, made a garden swing out of it and as someone who manufactures domestic snow making machines (yes, there's a market for them, albeit a very small one), despite living well away from regular snowfalls, was often able to spray some man-made snow around it. He sold the chair in 2018.
If you are still desperate to bag your own piece of Snowies nostalgia, a silent auction on the remaining chairs closes at 6pm on Sunday June 16.
But it seems not everyone wants to look out their back window and see a reminder of travelling on the Mt Perisher Double
"I fell off one of these back in the early-mid 1980s," recalls Netty Atkins of Tathra. "I was a total rookie and the small group thought it would be great to take me up the 'advanced' slopes.
"No way would I want a reminder of that day!" she exclaims.
WHERE IN THE SNOWIES?
Rating: Hard
Clue: It's not the first of this name on this site
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 June 15 wins a double pass to Dendy, the Home of Quality Cinema.
Last week: Congratulations to Simon Brain of Spence who was the first reader to correctly identify the location of the blue painted tree on Drake Brockman Drive, near Pegasus Riding Centre in Holt. Simon just beat several other readers, including June McKenzie of Fisher, Derek Taylor of Hawker, and Louise Russell of Holt, to the coveted prize. The clue related to the nearby old Weetangera Cemetery which originally stood in the grounds of a Methodist church (1873-1955) - traditionally a graveyard is attached to a church whereas a cemetery is standalone.
The tree is one of at least five painted blue in the ACT to raise awareness of men's mental health. Have you spotted the others? The most recent addition to this list is also perhaps the smallest, an apricot tree in Craig Collins' front yard in Coombs.
"For reasons unknown to me it just turned up its toes (roots?) and died last spring," reports Craig, "so rather than remove it, I decided to repurpose it in support of men's mental health. I'm sure we all know of men who have struggled in the past, or are still going through a rough time." Indeed.
"I was really disappointed the tree died," adds Craig, "it had finally reached fruit-bearing age and I love home-grown apricots." Don't we all.
More: www.bluetreeproject.com.au
SPOTTED
In answer to this column's call for evidence of emus roaming across the roof of Australia, Jonathan Mandl of the Illawarra Alpine Club, who are caretakers of Teddy's Hut, about a 9km hike from the Cascades car park below Dead Horse Gap, reports: "We often see emus around Teddy's (1726m) during our summer work parties maintaining and restoring the hut, however from hundreds of trips across Bob's Ridge and down at Cascades Hut (and further at Tin Mine Huts) I can't say that I've seen an emu."
"No doubt their excellent camouflage means they see us many times but remain invisible in the forests," reports Jonathan.
I've issued Jonathan and his mates a challenge this winter: to photograph an emu in the snow in front of one of the huts his club maintains. Will he deliver? First, we need a few more decent snowfalls.
In the meantime, can you spot the camouflaged emu passing near Teddy's Hut in 2016?
- CONTACT TIM: Email: tym@iinet.net.au or Twitter: @TimYowie or write c/- The Canberra Times, GPO Box 606, Civic, ACT, 2601
