"That's my dad's property!" screamed the email from Sam Watson, of Hawker, in response to the peculiar photo of a farm gate decorated with dozens of shoes which featured in the photo quiz on June 24.

Although Watson's animated missive arrived too late to claim the competition prize, he was, however, able to solve the mystery as the origins of the gate, an eye-catching sight on the Bobeyan Road near the ACT/NSW border.

"That photo is what my father [Mark] used to call the 'bottom gate', but which we now call the 'boot gate' on his property Coolaroo, in Shannons Flat," reports Watson"The concept started accidentally one day after an expensive work boot had fallen off somebody's car or ute and dad picked it up off the side of the road.

"Dad then placed it on top of the gate so that the owner may see it when he next drove past, allowing them to collect their property. Next thing we know, everyone with an extra boot, shoe, glove, or prosthetic leg, has added to the gate!

"It's always a highlight on family trips to the property to check out the new additions to the gate!"

Meanwhile, the proliferation of shoes on Watson's gate reminded Janis Norman, of Spence, of her recent holiday to Central Australia.

While bunking down at Glen Helen Homestead Lodge to the west of Alice Springs, Norman noticed a bush piano on the veranda half-buried under "pairs of battered boots, no doubt casualties of the nearby 223km-long Larapinta walking trail."

Thankfully the unusually-placed shoe stack wasn't the only highlight from Norman's outback odyssey. She was also "privileged to witness the flowing of the Todd River in Alice Springs, including blocks of ice surging down the river following an intense hail storm."

Now that would be a spectacle worth seeing.

Jim Smith's striking photograph of a sole sheep seemingly stranded on the conspicuous art work beside the Monaro Highway near Cooma ("Winter Wonders" August 6) prompted a number of other readers, including Marlene Reid, of The Angle via Williamsdale, to email images of sheep perched in similarly precarious positions on the same sculpture.

"We always speculated that the lower [about 3 metre high] steel beam of the sculpture was a contraption to lift sheep from one side of the hill to the other," laughs Reid, who "after travelling along the Monaro Highway many times over 40 years was so excited to finally witness a sheep perched on the beam" that she stopped captured the surreal scene on camera.

However, when Cliff Peady, of Bywong, and his son encountered a similar scene on a drive past the sculpture last summer, their response was somewhat different.

"Being concerned citizens, we called into the Cooma Police Station to alert the constabulary to the plight of the unfortunate sheep," recalls Peady, who noticed "at least half a dozen sheep trapped on the sculpture".

So did the courageous Cooma cops spring into action with sirens sounding and lights flashing?

Not quite. According to Peady, "the officer on duty reported that over the years many other motorists had also reported the 'trapped' sheep," adding, "previous investigations uncovered that the beam was sufficiently wide enough for the sheep to turn around and walk off."

Phew! This revelation will ease the minds of several readers including Teresa Smith, of Kambah, who, following publication of Smith's photo had visions of the poor bleater "freezing to death or toppling off in the middle of the night."

As to why the sheep walk the beam in the first place, "well that's anyone's guess," says Peady, who speculates "it may be to either to enjoy the lofty view, or to cool off in the breeze."

It seems that Virginia Taylor of Acton ("Winter Wonders", August 6) isn't the only reader to eyeball a live crab in suburban Canberra.

Michael Calkovics, of Lyons reports, "back in the 1970's there was a crab colony living in wetlands directly across the road from Canberra Grammar School on Monaro Crescent in Red Hill."

"They lived in small holes in the shape of mini aircraft hangers," recalls Calkovics, adding "the adults only grew to about 5 cm in size."

A young lad at the time, my Lyons' correspondent was so taken by the out-of- place crustaceans that he even "caught a few and put into terrarium", adding, "sadly they didn't survive for long."

Calkovics who "also made pocket money from the wetlands by cutting bulrushes and selling them to a Manuka florist" reveals he was "very sad when swamp got filled in and planted out with willows".

While Calkovics recollections indicates that crabs in Canberra might be more widespread than first though, the mystery does remain as to their species.

McAulay reports "my grandparents took this photo in 1989, when I walked my kids to the bus stop en route to Batemans Bay Primary School." Joining McAulay in the photo are her children (from l to r) Robert, Nathan and Rebecca, and, of course, Hanging Rock in all its glory.

While most rock simulacra to have featured on these pages have been much more 3-dimensional, this cartoon-style 2-dimensional shark is the result of natural weathering at a rocky outcrop known as 'The Fortress', near Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.

Clue: One of suburban Canberra's oldest dunnies?

Degree of difficulty: Hard.

Last week: Congratulations to Gary Chipperfield, of Yass, who was first to correctly identify last week's photo as part of Canberra's main sewerage treatment plant, the Lower Molonglo Water Quality Control Centre. The victorious Chipperfield beat a number of other readers including Dave Hobson, of Spence, and Peter Harris, of Latham, who reckons the dam wall "resembles a modern-day Mayan Temple façade," to the prize.

Greg Royle, of Red Hill ,explains, "the 'dam' is used as temporary storage, its spillway is an emergency measure to prevent infrastructure damage in the event of sewerage overflow."

Royal also reveals "the Molonglo facility is Australia's largest inland sewerage treatment plant," adding "it must achieve a very high level of water quality after the sewage is processed in order to meet the environmental requirements of the Molonglo River."

The photo was submitted by Margaret Kalms of Page who stumbled upon the dam during a mid-winter stroll from Shepherd's lookout to the confluence of the Molonglo and Murrumbidgee Rivers.

How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to timtheyowieman@bigpond.com. The first email sent after 10am, Saturday August 27, 2016, with the correct answer wins a double pass to Dendy cinemas.

CONTACT TIM: Email: timtheyowieman@bigpond.com or Twitter: @TimYowie or write c/- The Canberra Times, 9 Pirie Street, Fyshwick. You can see a selection of past columns here.