To date, this region's most standout devotee to Roberts' work is 88-year-old Heather Smyth, of Ardlethan, who has lovingly crafted a number of giant-sized tapestries of Roberts' most celebrated works.

Her son, Les Smyth, of Kambah, reports that, "although she has 65 different tapestries of various subjects, taking pride of place on her lounge room wall are her favourites – Roberts' masterpieces: The Golden Fleece (1894), Bailed Up (1895), and not one, but two of Shearing the Rams (1890)".

"Each one took Mum about three months of weaving after work at night to complete," reports Les, who explains that she "worked off a stencil bought from a travelling sales rep who called into the dry-cleaning shop she and her husband ran in the Riverina town for almost half a century".

Meanwhile, it seems your Akubra-clad columnist wasn't the only Canberran to spend the holiday season prowling around far-flung graveyards (On the Trail of Captain Moonlight, 9 January).

While traipsing around Tasmania on a family adventure, Woo O'Reilly, of Giralang, unexpectedly stumbled upon the grave of Tom Roberts.

"It's nothing flash, just a standard cement-edged grave shaded by a couple of big pines," says O'Reilly who was somewhat surprised about the lack of signage pointing to his modest final resting spot, located in a lonely country graveyard at the Illawarra Church near the historic township of Longford in Tasmania's northern midlands.

According to O'Reilly, "there's no monument to this famous Australian other than the headstone which simply states Tom Roberts, artist, born Dorchester, Eng. 9th March 1856, died Kallista, Victoria 14th Sept. 1931."

For the record, Roberts is buried in the Boyes' family corner of the churchyard with his second wife, Jean Boyes, with whom he had been friends for many years, and married three years before he died.

"I guess it's somewhat fitting that his grave sits alone on a hill overlooking the pastoral scenes he loved so well," mulls O'Reilly, who having returned from her trip to the apple isle, plans to check out the Tom Roberts' exhibition which is on show at the National Gallery of Australia until March 28.

I wasn't kidding!

Michael Sim has answered this column's quest for photographic evidence of the elusive billy goat of Mugga Mugga quarry which was recently spotted by John Berry, of Isaacs. (Gallivanting Goat, January 16).

"It climbed up the cliff and over the hill but I have seen it a couple of times on what seems to be a favourite lookout spot," reports Sim, who is the volunteer co-ordinator for the Isaacs Ridge Mount Mugga ParkCare Group, and who "checks out the area a few times a year while trying to control weeds and look for native plants".

"A couple of people have told me that goats have been there for years," Sim reports. "The goat will have to find somewhere else to live because work to fill in the quarry with excavation rock and soil has started."

Sign of the times

Bouquets to the responsive folk at ACT Heritage, who prompted by this column's musings, have fixed the Canberra Tracks sign in Telopea Park which featured a historic image of Ainslie, instead of the inner south. The incorrectly captioned image of Ainslie, which was brought to the attention of this column by John Hyslop (Where in Canberra, November 21), and which prompted an avalanche of correspondence by readers reminiscing about old Canberra, has been replaced by a blurb on Manuka Oval which was recently added to the ACT Heritage Register.

"The error was pointed out years ago and its recent spotlight in your column goaded us into action," a spokesperson for ACT Heritage confesses.

For the uninitiated, Canberra Tracks is a nifty network of heritage signage that incorporates eight self-drive routes leading to many of Canberra's historic sites. Each sign tells fascinating stories from our past and I can vouch that a weekend drive along one of the routes is a fun way of rediscovering Canberra or showcasing the many layers of our city's past to interstate visitors.

For more information on Canberra Tracks, including a shiny new sign just erected at Blue Range Campground, just beyond the Cotter which features a story about Italian internees housed in huts there during World War II, go to canberratracks.act.gov.au/

The case of the vanishing pumice

A number of sun-kissed readers have returned from their summer sojourns perplexed as to the whereabouts of the proliferation of pumice stone which littered many south coast beaches in previous years.

"During the last two summers, there were large chunks of it all over the beaches, but this year I could hardly find any," reports Phill Sledge, of Kaleen, who wonders "if it's all washed away?"

The answer, according to pumice expert (yes, really!) Dr Scott Bryan, of the School of Earth, Environmental & Biological Sciences at the Queensland University of Technology, who has been studying the pumice, which originates from the 2012 eruption of the Havre Seamount about 1000 kilometres north of Auckland, is that the pumice "has widely dispersed over the last two years".

"Following the 2012 eruption, pumice pieces travelled across to New Zealand, north to Tonga and Fiji, and west to us, coming ashore along the entire length of the eastern Australian coastline, reaching as far north as Torres Strait and as far south as Tasmania," reports Bryan, adding, "it spread out over at least 4 million square kilometres of ocean". Wow!

Bryan explains that "although very few pieces are still washing ashore, you can still see significant deposits of pumice along the south coast, particularly in more north-facing and sheltered bays, including near Eden".

Beachcombers with an artistic bent should especially keep an eye out for the pumice, which according to Bryan, "is now very clean, losing most of its attached biota and now revealing the volcanic textures which are intricate, complex and beautiful".

Meanwhile, still at the beach, with warmer water and clear sunny days February is arguably the best month of the year to visit south coast beaches. However, while many beaches offer beach patrols on weekends, in past years it's been near on impossible to find a patrolled beach on weekdays.

However, that has changed this month with a number of businesses at Tathra banding together to pay for lifeguard services on Tathra Beach to continue until the end of February.

"Historically Bega Valley Council only funded lifeguards to patrol during the January school holidays, yet our best beach conditions are in February, when lots of families with under school age children and retirees visit Tathra," reports Rob White, of Tathra Beach House Apartments, one of several coastal businesses to support the extended lifeguard initiative.

"Coupled with the weekend patrols by Tathra Surf Club volunteers, visitors can now surf and swim safely on Tathra Beach for most of summer between the flags," advises White, who "understands that Tathra is the only beach south of the Illawarra with daily patrols in February".

Note: The Tathra Surf Club weekend volunteer patrols will continue until Easter.

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 at: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/by/Tim-the-Yowie-Man-hvf8o

Cryptic Clue: Feel the "power" of Canberra

Degree of difficulty: Easy - Medium

Last week: Congratulations to Joshua Edwards who was first to correctly identify last week's photo (inset), taken by Jilbra, of Aranda, as the new bridge across the Molonglo near Coppins Crossing. Edwards just beat Peter Harris, of Latham, and Rita Virtanen, of Downer, to the prize. Jilbra noticed the bridge during a recent walk through the new suburb of Denman and after snapping the photo spotted "five beautiful wedge-tail eagles flying over the river".

How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to timtheyowieman@bigpond.com. The first email sent after 10am on Saturday, February 6, with the correct answer wins a double pass to Dendy cinemas.