It's a yarn I've heard told late at night around campfires.
Perched high above Lake Eucumbene in northern Kosciuszko National Park is a flushing toilet that was built specifically for Queen Elizabeth II. It's apparently nicknamed The Queen's Loo and boasts arguably one of the best views of any dunny in our fair land.
However, according to these stories, actual details about the fabled landmark, including when it was built, if it's still standing and most importantly whether QEII really did... ahem... sit on the throne, are sketchy at best.
While a call to my insiders at the National Parks and Wildlife Service confirm the loo with a view was demolished in the 1980s, they aren't exactly certain of its connection to the late monarch. "The story is the Queen spent a penny there, didn't she?" one of the rangers muses.
Even the Kosciuszko Huts Association, that eclectic brains trust of mountain knowledge, is unsure of its origins. "The shelter [and toilet] was possibly built for ... The Queen's visit to Australia to open the Melbourne Olympics in 1956," states their website. Oops, she didn't even visit Australia in 1956. It was the Duke of Edinburgh who opened the Games. Others suggest it was built for QEII's 1954 visit to Australia, but I'm pretty sure the closest she got to Eucumbene on that visit was Canberra, so it would have been a long trek for a comfort stop.
Meanwhile, a Eucumbene tourism website claims with much more certainty the lofty loo was built for a later visit by the Queen. "The lookout, which is perched atop a hill overlooking the Snowy Scheme, was constructed especially for the Queen during her visit to the area in 1963," it reads. Well, at least the Queen did visit the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme from March 8-11, 1963, but was it built especially for Her Majesty?
Keen to get to the bottom of this royal mystery, I recently enlisted the help of unofficial historian of Adaminaby and surrounds, Steve Brayshaw.
"There's nothing like boots on the ground," he says as we huff and puff along the Happy Jacks Rd (closed to vehicles) to the former lookout.
Along the way, Steve explains that the first Eucumbene Lookout Shelter, a basic wooden hut built on a concrete pad by Snowy Hydro around 1954 to allow visiting dignitaries to view the construction of Lake Eucumbene and associated engineering feats in all their grandeur, did boast a toilet.
"Although that first loo was probably just a long drop ... the entire lookout was upgraded a few years later, many believe for the Queen's 1963 visit," he says.
Reaching the former lookout, towering 500 metres above the dam wall, you can see why the Snowy Hydro propaganda machine chose this as a viewpoint. Wow!
While seated on the concrete slab, still littered with pieces of broken porcelain, Steve pulls out his laptop and flicks through a digital photo album jam-packed with historic photos of the former shelter.
While poring over these photos, it's clear the upgrade from the original shelter with outhouse to a much grander stone structure boasting floor-to-ceiling windows and flushing amenities, was sometime in the late 1950s - long before QEII's 1963 visit was even planned.
So did the QEII actually visit here?
It's not until I'm back in Canberra, sifting through a file at the National Archives of Australia, that I find the smoking gun.
Bulging with correspondence between royal minders, Snowy Hydro commissioner Sir William Hudson and Australian government bureaucrats, the documents reveal that in late 1962 there were plans for QEII to visit the lofty lookout on March 9, 1963, with mention of the knock-out loo.
"From Eucumbene Lookout, there is a particularly good view of the Eucumbene Lake, and this building has adequate toilet facilities," states one minute.
However, in a minute on specially embossed 'Royal Visit 1963' paper dated December 19, 1962, Sir Roy Dowling, the Australian Secretary to the Queen, raises concerns about visiting the lookout.
"I am not really happy about the Queen travelling over the very winding and apparently ill-kept Happy Jacks Road from Eucumbene Lookout to Cabramurra ... The alternative is the boat trip from Eucumbene Dam to old Adaminaby and perhaps a slow drive through Adaminaby town before continuing on the sealed road via Kiandra to Cabramurra."
Sir Roy must have had some sway, for in a letter dated January 30, 1963, from JH Scholtens, the ACT Director of the Prime Ministers Department to Hudson, he confirms the change of plans, saying it "will have the advantage of lessening the distance to be travelled over unsealed surfaces".
QEII ended up sailing across the lake on the motor launch J'Attendrai, meaning the closest she got to the lofty loo was probably spotting it from water level through a pair of binoculars. That's if she even knew it was there.
However, one thing is for sure - the former lookout boasted a view fit for a queen. Or king, for that matter. Although somehow I don't see the abandoned landmark being added to the schedule for King Charles and Queen Camilla's upcoming visit to Canberra. Pity really.
- The site of the former Eucumbene Lookout Shelter is located above the Eucumbene Portal on the Happy Jacks Road, about 17 kilometres from the closed gate just beyond the dam wall.
Superstitions run deep
It's amazing what you can stumble upon while hunkered down at the National Archives of Australia sifting through the flurry of correspondence between government departments planning for the Queen's 1963 visit to the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme.
And she was only hosted by the Scheme for three days - I can only imagine how much paperwork there would have been for her entire five-week tour of Australia.
Apart from the "ill-kept" state of the Happy Jacks Road, another concern resulting in reams of file notes and internal briefings during the final stage of planning was superstition.
Just six weeks prior to the royal visit, Viscount De L'Isle, the governor-general (GG), expressed concerns that "Her Majesty would enter a tunnel and visit its working face".
Apparently, the GGs wife had recently been refused entry to a "working face" and as a result the GG "needed to know whether anyone had taken into account the superstition, particularly amongst Italian workers, that if there should be a rockfall or an accident of some kind within a few days following the Queen's visit, the blame would be attributed to her visit". Heck.
In response to the concerns, and not wanting to forgo an underground photo opportunity, Sir William Hudson, head honcho of the Snowy Scheme, dismissed the superstition "as overrated", referring to the fact that just four years earlier Princess Alexandra had visited both the T2 Underground Power Station and the Tantangara Tunnel during construction, "without incident".
The Queen's visit to the Geehi Tunnel went ahead and it was completed without incident. The next day, no doubt much to Hudson's delight, photos of the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh clad in hard hats and oilskins, strolling inside the tunnel, were splashed over the front pages of newspapers with absolutely no mention of any superstition issues.
WHERE IN CANBERRA?
Rating: Medium - Hard
Clue: A stone's throw from two big British stones
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 5 wins a double pass to Dendy, the Home of Quality Cinema.
Last week: Congratulations to Peter Lambert of Campbell who was first to correctly identify last week's photo as a sign near the Water Police HQ at Yarralumla.
Buried treasure
This column's recent exposé on the water-spoiled time capsule that was recovered on the slopes of Mt Stromlo prompted Craig Collins of Coombs to wonder why humans are so keen to bury time capsules.
"Why not build a chamber above ground so water doesn't seep in?" asks Craig who has "watched so many YouTube clips where there's a gathering of people to witness these auspicious occasions, only to find a goopy mess of rust and decay! I can recall someone buried a car in a concrete bunker to preserve it for future generations, only to find it full of water when it was finally revealed," he explains.
Meanwhile Matt Watts reports that artist Bert Flugelman, who created the six large aluminium tetrahedrons in Commonwealth Park, also created the untitled 'tumbling cubes' (1978) sculpture currently located on the edge of Margaret Timpson Park in Belconnen. "That sculpture had initially been placed in front of the old brutalist Cameron Offices down the road, and when it was relocated Flugelman was apparently unhappy with the aesthetics of the current location in the park," reveals Matt. In fact, according to Peter Pinson in Flugelman (Watermark Press, 2008), Flugelman was furious, arguing it was "put in the worst possible spot" and that he "wanted it destroyed, taken away...". Oh dear, well, at least the public can view this sculpture, unlike the Commonwealth Park tetrahedrons which at Flugelman's request are buried five metres underground.
- CONTACT TIM: Email: tym@iinet.net.au/ or Twitter: @TimYowie or write c/- The Canberra Times, GPO Box 606, Civic, ACT, 2601
