Following the arrival of Commonwealth surveyors in 1909, Acton was developed as both the administrative and social centre of the city. The area of the lake now roughly bounded by Black Mountain Peninsula in the west and Commonwealth Avenue to the east included farmland, two golf clubs (yes, two!), a racecourse, 15 workers' cottages, a riding school, swimming holes, a riverside tourist park, sports fields and playgrounds, a plant nursery, and most importantly, a close-knit and vibrant community. When the Molonglo River was dammed in 1963, much of old Acton which hadn't been bulldozed during the construction of the lake, was lost from view.

However, a whiz-bang website to be launched to coincide with the lake's fiftieth will ensure that while much of the physical traces of our first suburb are lost forever, that stories about it will live on, at least in cyberspace. 'Sunken Stories of Old Acton' is a journey back into the submerged landscapes of Acton's past, featuring fascinating anecdotes from Canberra residents who either lived in Acton, or have memories of the area. The audio-visual extravaganza, developed with the assistance of an ACT Heritage grant, is the brainchild of Kirsty Guster of Acton Walkways – a local community program established in 2009 to raise awareness of the Acton region for its natural beauty, history, culture, intellectual and artistic highlights.

Apart from showcasing three hours of video footage of former residents' memories of old Acton (conveniently broken up into themes so you can pick and choose what you want to watch), the website is also a priceless treasure chest of historic photos and maps of old Acton, some of which with the click of your mouse, you can digitally superimpose onto the current map of Canberra.

To get into the spirit of 'Sunken Stories of Old Acton', during the week, armed with my laptop and deckchair I perched myself on that grassy knoll at the end of Acton Peninsula and enjoyed a sneak peek at the website. About two hours later (my laptop battery was drained before I got to download the last hour of video) and with a better appreciation of what life was like in old Acton, I folded away my deck chair. With the 'City to the Lake' plans for West Basin, I also left my lakeside vantage point wondering what the same vista will look like in another 50 years.

'Sunken Stories of Old Acton' features many insights into life in Canberra pre-lake; some of which will make you laugh, others may make you cry but all are a valuable record of a lost part of our city. Here are my favourite five.

Dr David Nott remembers "a very deep hole where the river turned near the hospital," and that, "the nurses used to nip down when no one was looking and jump in and have a swim." Further, it appears as if some of the nurses weren't always in full uniform. Judy Taber who trained and lived at the hospital explains, "we would don our two piece swimmers and take a towel and go down and sunbake on the banks of the river…and then some boys found out that some of the nurses went down there and removed their tops!"

Regular correspondent to this column, Kevin Mulcahy recalls another swimming hole with a similar reputation. "When we were kids we used to ride our bikes down that road [that lead to the Springbank Cottages] and spy on the nurses and others who used to frequent the pebble beach there," confesses Kevin, who adds, "the grass was long enough to hide us." Kevin especially remembers one day "we disturbed a couple engaged in some weird practice that none of us three kids had seen before. The guy heard us and yelled out and his girlfriend stood up. Neither had any clothes on so we calmly left on our bikes knowing we would not be chased."

The Acton flats (now the submerged area of the lake between Acton Peninsula and NewActon) were the scene of many games of cricket, tennis, hockey and rugby right up until around 1960 but the proximity of the fields to the river often proved problematic, especially after rain. Brett Odgers who was born in the original Canberra Community Hospital (the building still stands at the intersection of Mills Road leading to the John Curtin School of Medical Research) recalls one rugby game where "we had to fetch the ball out of the water to resume the game, I think we completed the game but the waters were spreading across the flats as we were playing."

Although many didn't mind playing in repeatedly wet conditions, the Queanbeyan bus drivers apparently weren't fans of the muddy fields. Margaret Sullivan recalls "it was a quagmire and you'd get on the bus to go back to Queanbeyan and you'd be covered with mud and we'd have to stand up all the way home."

Not all the 'sport' in old Acton was organised, or for that matter legal. The river was a hot spot for Huckleberry Finn wannabes who crafted rudimentary canoes out of whatever material they could get their hands on. "They'd take a sheet of galvanised iron and fold it lengthwise and fix two pieces of timber in fore and aft, and then pitch it up with bitumen so it wouldn't leak," recalls Rodney Hurley, who adds, "and of course instead of carrying it home, they'd sink it down in the river and hide it under some bracken and whatever."

Meanwhile, Brett Odgers remembers the antics of the 'Westlake kids' who collected lost balls from where the 13th fairway crossed the river and then sold them back to golfers at the end of their round.

"The kids would essentially be lined up along the pontoon [which replaced a suspension bridge after it was washed away in a flood] or hidden in the bull-rushes on the bank … and as soon as the balls were hit in the drink they were retrieved and thrown in a bucket and carted away," explains Brett.

Elizabeth Martin whose father was a doctor at the Canberra Hospital [the one imploded in 1997 to make way for the National Museum of Australia] recalls that Lennox Crossing [a main road which crossed the river from near Acton Peninsula to near Albert Hall] was a popular place for a picnic because "the trees were just beautiful – and playing in the leaves oh it was just wonderful."

The steep slope of the approaches to the crossing was spoken about by many interviewees, some with a degree of trepidation as it was also the location for the 'dreaded handbrake test' for drivers when applying for their license. The intersection of Lennox Crossing and Commonwealth Avenue (near Albert Hall) was regarded as one of the busiest in Canberra and according to Alan Castle, a former member of the Water Police, "was one of the few areas that used to get traffic congestion". In fact it got so busy that according to Alan "they used to assign a motorcycle policeman to direct traffic on the intersection".

According to Alan if the traffic cop was late, a well-known character nicknamed 'Smokey' would "get out in the middle of the intersection and direct traffic himself, and then when the police officer turned up he would give him a serve for having been late."

Do you remember Smokey? He apparently rode his pushbike everywhere around Canberra and wore a distinctive little hat.

Lynne Bentley, who often rode horses at old Acton, recalls spending a lot of time on the river flats" not actually riding because there were so many interesting places for 7 and 8 year-old kids to play". In particular, Lynne remembers little caves and rabbit holes in which were kangaroo bones, wombat skulls and rabbit skulls. "We would often not do much riding at all but spend the entire time scrambling around the rocks and hiding, and digging up these fossils and pretend we were digging up human skulls and all that sort of thing."

Brian Agius recalls the water in the Molonglo was so "beautifully clear that you could see the trout in there." But it wasn't just about landing a prized trout for Brian, who would also catch turtles and take them straight "to the pet shop in Kingston for twenty cents each – or two shillings each in those days."

Mary Stuart who ran a dairy farm in Fyshwick with her husband, Dugald, recalls that is wasn't only the fish and turtles which could be found in the river in such large numbers. "We saw lots of beautiful platypuses, river rats and snakes," recalls Mary.

Although the water rats (native) are still prevalent (I saw some near the Carillon during the week) and there's a fair share of snakes still about (especially at the moment waking from their winter slumber) there have been very few reports of platypus or turtles in the lake in recent years.

Sunken Stories of Old Acton: sunkenstories.com will be launched on Friday, October 17, the date 50 years ago that the lake was inaugurated by then prime minister Robert Menzies. After the launch I plan to return to Acton Peninsula to watch the last hour of video footage that I missed out on seeing during my sneak peek. I'll take a spare battery for my laptop this time, oh and a bottle of wine, for if I wait long enough I might catch a glimpse of one of those elusive platypus, a turtle, or heaven forbid a topless nurse reliving her youth.

Contact Tim: Email: timtheyowieman@bigpond.com or Twitter: @TimYowie or write to me c/o The Canberra Times, 9 Pirie St, Fyshwick. A selection of past columns is available at: canberratimes.com.au/act-news/by/tim-the-yowie-man

Clue: I wonder if the 'Major' ever drove this car?
Degree of difficulty: Hard
Last week: Congratulations to Marie-Anne Robinson of Monash who was the first to correctly identify last week's photo (inset) as a tank and stand at Tuggeranong Homestead in Calwell. The clue relating to 'Mr Bean' referred to war historian Dr Charles Bean and his staff who occupied the historic homestead from 1919 to 1925 where, as a number of readers including Kate Devitt of Kambah commented, "they commenced the task of writing the twelve-volume Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918."

How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to timtheyowieman@bigpond.com. The first email sent after 10am Saturday, October 11, with the correct answer wins a double pass to Dendy cinemas.