Duntroon destiny

Since its inception 107 years ago, a number of curious features at the Royal Military College of Australia at Duntroon have become entrenched in cadet folklore. A selection have even been labelled the Seven Wonders of Duntroon. These include a bell that never tolls (this bell is a relic of Duntroon prior to it becoming a military college – it was used by the Campbells for waking up servants in the morning), the ‘‘room within a room’’ which featured in last week’s column on Canberra’s underground secrets, and not one, but three sets of steps that lead to nowhere.

The first are in the grounds of Duntroon House and were built for the governor-general, Sir Paul Hasluck, to facilitate entry to the lawns area in 1966, and the second are near the parade ground in front of the library and were retained even though the verge was removed in the late 1960s.

The third, most intriguing set are located near Cork Block and led to accommodation around the parade ground prior to the College’s temporary move to Sydney. According to local legend any cadet who uses the stairs won’t graduate. As a result, cadets always walk around them.

Unfortunately, all three sets of stairs at Duntroon are off-limits to the public. Your best way to walk these stairs is to enrol in Duntroon, and then to graduate. Good luck.

Federal Flight

This column was only made aware of these stand-alone suburban stairs by Martin Leonard who stumbled upon them while recently stepping out along the walking track which runs through Hughes alongside the Federal Golf Course.

“Adjacent to the stairway is what appears to be a paved surface,” reports Leonard. “The pavers are very worn, so I’m guessing they are many decades old.”

Last week my two primary school-aged girls enjoyed searching for the stairs. Park at the end of Downes Place in Hughes and follow the track that fringes the gold course in a northerly direction for about 250 metres. You can’t miss them. Oh, and you’ll also find what appears to be the remains of a presumably unsanctioned BMX track.

If anyone knows the origins of these stairs, Leonard would love to know.

International flights of fancy

Europe seems to be a hot-spot for destination-challenged stairs. Shutterbug Miles Davis captured this image of a set of stairs beside the ‘‘Route Nationale’’ (d910) between the towns of Tours and Chatellerault, in eastern France.

Meanwhile in adjoining Belgium, juxtaposed against the stark Tielt-Winge landscape, is the ‘‘Vlooybergtoren’’ which photographer Sonja Ooms describes as “13 tons of steel challenging gravity and a stairway to nowhere.”

However, a word of warning for anyone planning an upcoming European sojourn, sadly in recent weeks, vandals lit a fire, rendering the Vlooybergtoren temporarily off-limits to visitors.

Are there other ‘stairs to nowhere’ in Canberra or beyond? If so, I’d love to know.

Mailbag

The withdrawal of Canberra’s Michael Matthews from this year’s Tour de France due to injury, hasn’t stopped many of our region’s lycra-set from continuing to keenly follow the annual race on SBS.

In fact, I know of at least one Le Tour wannabee who religiously tunes in each night while burning calories on the clunky exercise bike set up in front of the television in his lounge room.

Unfortunately the daily supply of Gabriel Gaté-inspired pastries whipped-up by Mrs Yowie are negating much of his calorie-burning efforts.

One of this column’s regular readers who won’t have to rely on television coverage of the final stage of Le Tour is Will Jardine of Nimmitabel.

After winning the sculpture competition in last year’s L’Etape (a Tour de France sanctioned race through the Snowy Mountains of NSW), Jardine is preparing to enjoy the much-anticipated final stage of the Le Tour with his family from VIP seats on the Champs Elysees in Paris.

Jardine, who is both an avid cyclist and a handy welder, reveals he considered various designs before “stumbling on the idea of a penny farthing”.

“Will loved the idea of paying homage to the history of cycling and loved the symmetry of the big wheel and knew that would look great on a large scale,” explains fellow-designer Caroline, his wife, adding “the top hat and moustache gave a French twist”.

“Will loves the design process and spent hours drawing and redrawing the design and working out how to put it together,” reports Caroline. “But with an hour here and an hour there it gradually came together and ‘Mulga Will’ [a play on the Banjo Paterson’s Mulga Bill] was born.”

Although 1st prize for last year’s L’Etape sculpture competition was for only for two people to travel to France, the Jardines have taken their children along for what they describe as “the trip of a lifetime”.

More pertinently, with reference to today’s lead story, I wonder if Will’s 2018 entry will be inspired by the apparent proliferation of “stairs to nowhere’’ in the French countryside. I guess we will have to wait until December to find out.

Fact File:

L’Etape 2018: This year’s L’Etape race will start and finish in Jindabyne on December 1. To register for the 170km race or to find out the best spots to watch, visit www.letapeaustralia.com.au

Did You Know? Local communities of the Snowy Mountains have embraced the concept just like a stage of the Tour de France. Last year’s L’Etape won a tourism award as ‘‘best regional event’’ and ‘‘best public event’’ in both NSW and Australia.

Contact Tim: Email: timtheyowieman@bigpond.com or Twitter: @TimYowie or write c/- The Canberra Times, 9 Pirie St, Fyshwick. You can see a selection of past columns online.

Where in the Snowies?

Clue: If you catch the ski tube, you won’t see this landmark hay shed.
Degree of difficulty: Medium - Hard

Last week

Congratulations to Karen Davidson of Beswick in the Northern Territory who was the first reader to correctly identify last week’s photo as the entrance to ‘‘Paddock Perfect’’ at 1013, The Alpine Way, between Jindabyne and Thredbo.

My faraway winner is formerly of Jindabyne and immediately recognised the roadside stall which peddles eggs, raw honey, honeycomb, beeswax candles, garlic, berries and fruit, all produced on this high country chemical free farm.

The sculpture was designed and constructed by owners Larissa and Brett for the L’Etape 2016 cycling event. “It has a flower and tussock theme to promote our farm,” explain the creative duo, adding “oh, and the kids helped paint it”.

How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to timtheyowieman@bigpond.com. The first email sent after 10am, Saturday 21 July, 2018 will win a double pass to Dendy - The Home of Quality Cinema.