The wind in my face
It hits me so cold
And I've just been told that my rent is due
But I've got a solution now, bit by bit
Degree by degree, I'm gonna float me a tepee
Float Me a Tepee, Sarre, Higgisson, Weaver 2021
If William Woodbridge wasn't a folk hero already, he must be one now.
These days aged 31, married and a landscaper in Canberra, William a decade ago was a student at the University of Canberra who seared himself into the public consciousness for his daring and imaginative episode of civil disobedience.
Upset by the cost of student accommodation way back in 2012, the then 21-year-old bachelor of industrial design student protested by living on a floating tepee in Lake Ginninderra, confounding ACT bureaucrats who couldn't find a way to remove him, in a battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court.
After three months of living on the lake, William reluctantly accepted an offer of public housing from the ACT government, conflicted because he believed it didn't solve the bigger problem of affordable student housing. He then disappeared from public view, another character in Canberra's history.
But, on Friday, William Woodbridge was back. He returned to UC at the invitation of academics who had written a song about him, Float Me a Tepee, and to see a portrait of him, painted at the time by George S. Fergusson returned to its rightful place - in the tearoom of the Faculty of Science and Technology.
The artwork had been donated to UC but had gone missing in a refurbishment. A campaign by students and staff saw it tracked down and returned, in the meantime inspiring biologists Professor Stephen Sarre, Llara Weaver and Dr Will Higgison, who also form the contemporary folk band Stella's Way, to write an uplifting tune about the great Lake Ginninderra stand-off.
Professor Sarre said years after the event they wanted to write a song about William's tepee protest to recognise his contribution to the life of the uni.
William was there on Friday to hear the song debut and was chuffed.
"It's such a wonderful song. It really captured the spirit of what I did back then," he said.
William also regaled staff and students assembled in the tea room with his tepee adventure, saying he still felt a bond with the lake 10 years later, "angry ducks" and all.
"Sometimes I just love going to Emu Bank and looking out to the lake and reminiscing because it was genuinely beautiful out there," he said.
Out on the lake at night, the water would be still, like glass, and William would look back at the glittering lights of Belconnen from his home-made tepee.
On Friday, William said he launched his protest on Lake Ginninderra in February, 2012, because Belconnen was where he lived, rather than the more high-profile Lake Burley Griffin where he also happened to know "the water police were far better equipped".
It rained a lot and by the end of the campaign, he was "exhausted".
William at the time found a strong supporter in Ngambri elder Shane Mortimer who said the student was welcome to stay on Indigenous land, further obfuscating attempts by the government to remove him from the lake. William said Mr Mortimer at the time told the bureaucrats: "He's allowed on our lands, it's not our fault you put a lake there."
The tepee was anchored in the lake, with William using a rowboat to move back and forth.
William laughed as he recalled rowing up to the lake's edge at Emu Bank "to do my homework using Hungry Jack's free WiFi" and not missing weekly nights out to the uni hangout The Lighthouse.
"What's not to love about using a row boat to get to a nightclub called The Lighthouse?" he said.
These days he has a landscaping and gardening business called Green Escape and is a home owner - buying a house in Holt.
All these years later, does William think the protest was worth it?
"Yes, I do," he said.
"Sometimes it's difficult to see if you are making a difference while you're doing something. Regardless if it was effective, it still brought light to the issue."
Meanwhile, the song Float Me a Tepee is on Stella Way's second album, Mercy and the Sea, which will be launched at the Polish Club in Turner on June 25 at 7pm.
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