Tim the Yowie Man: colossal cuttlefish

Not surprisingly several readers questioned the scientific veracity of Sledge's unusual unit of measure. These included Juha Turunen who via twitter asks, "does this mean that the media will add the thong to football fields and Olympic swimming pools as an 'unofficial' unit of measurement?"

Meanwhile budgerigar breeder Rita Corbett, of Spence, reports that she often embarks on journeys much further afield than our south coast to find cuttlebones "which provide a valuable source of calcium for budgie hens".

During extensive trips along Australian coastline in 2008 and 2012 Corbett "found so many cuttlebones" that she "boxed them up in 10 kilogram lots and sent them home."

While in South Australia, Corbett visited Fred Peters, a silversmith who, like Rachel McInnes, of Potato Point, crafts jewellery out of cuttlebone. According to Corbett, Peters is the ultimate recycler. "Je collects the bone from the beach, uses it as a mould for his creations, and then when finished, returns it, and any dust from it, to the beach."

"He told us that the Egyptians made jewellery in this manner over 2000 years ago," explains Corbett who purchased her own momento "a weedy sea dragon necklace" from Peter's workshop.

Geologist Doug Finlayson has answered this column's recent call for local examples of columnar jointing, similar to those which woo tourists at the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland (Cryptic Causeway, November 12).

"The best examples in the Canberra region are at Ginninderra Falls gorge," says Finlayson "The Ginninderra Porphyry is a high level stock that intrudes into the Laidlaw Volcanics, dating back 424-422 million years."

However, budding geologists wanting to visit the site will have to settle for viewing Finlayson's photo, for unfortunately due to public liability insurance reasons the privately-owned 42-metre high falls and surrounds remain off limits to the public.

Meanwhile, the origins of the stony sculpture located outside of 219 London Circuit in Civic, and which resembles Northern Ireland's Giant's Causeway, remains a mystery.

The only intel to-date has come from Kevin Mulcahy, of Tura Beach, who reports: "The sculpture doesn't appear in a 1981 book published by the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC) titled 'Works of Art in Canberra' which covered just about all the works of art in the place at that time."

Mulcahy's lead obviously suggests the sculpture was likely installed post-1981. Someone must know.

While many readers, including Adam Blackshaw, of Lyneham, were inspired by last week's exposé on Main Road 92 (Road Less Travelled) and "plan on travelling the alternative route to the coast this summer", mystery shrouds the name of the Kings Highway, our most popular road to the coast.

Canberra writer Graeme Barrow is researching the highway and is stumped by the fact that he can't uncover the origin of the name "Kings Highway" for the Canberra-Batemans Bay road to the south coast. He also has been unable to determine when the road was given its regal name.

Barrow says: "In 1996 the NSW Geographical Names Board wrote to the Queanbeyan City Council about the 'proper name for Main Road 51', given this designation by road makers." Board inquiries of the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) revealed that the road had never been officially named "Kings Highway", or gazetted as such, although it had carried that name for many years.

Barrow reports: "The Board wanted the road correctly named so that it could be used in the allocation of property addresses along its route. It said the RTA would welcome a 'joint recommendation from all concerned' about the name."

According to Barrow, "The Yarrowlumla, Queanbeyan and Eurobodalla councils all favoured 'Kings Highway' as the name, but the Tallaganda council thought it should be known as the Clyde Highway." However, "Kings Highway" prevailed because in 1998 the Minister for Roads, Carl Scully, announced an upgrading project for the "Kings Highway".

Wikipedia gives support, stating that "Kings Highway" was named as such when the RTA and councils along the route reached an informal agreement to sign the entire route as the Kings Highway. Wikipedia is silent on when this occurred and the name's origin. Adding spice to the debate is that an officer of NSW Roads and Maritime Services thinks it was once known as "Kings Way".

Apparently Eurobodalla Council sought information from the public about the origin of "'Kings Highway" in 1996, but a definitive answer was not possible from several responses received.

"It is intriguing that 'Kings Highway' was used elsewhere in the district as the name of a route linking Sydney and Melbourne," says Barrow. "The Canberra Times of November 25,1926, reported that this route followed the main southern road to Goulburn, then went on to Queanbeyan, Cooma and Bombala to reach Cann River and continue on to Melbourne. The paper was reporting that the NRMA had announced that the route, known as the King's Highway, was 'now fully trafficable'."

Meanwhile, the mystery of the brick tower hidden in bush to the south-west of Lake George (Mystery Marker, November 12) has finally been solved.

A posse of anonymous surveyors from the office of the Surveyor-General of the ACT fired-off a missive to your Akubra-clad columnist advising that the grandiose structure is actually a "fancy way of marking a trig station which is normally a simple cairn containing a pole".

According to the secretive surveyors, the super trig station which measures in a 2.15 metres wide and a whopping 4.8 metres in height is officially named Smalley's Tower, after George R Smalley, a NSW Government Astronomer from the mid-1800s.

Alex Sherrard was "shocked" when he discovered a snake curled up in his Duffy letterbox.

"I left the keys out for the tiler but for some reason he didn't want to retrieve them," recalls Sherrard. "Oh, and I had just gotten the mail out too before I noticed!"

On realising he had a red-bellied black snake in this letterbox, a shaky Sherrard called Canberra Connect and a "snake catcher' was promptly despatched.

"There was a roll of junk mail in the front that must have formed a nice hole for the snake to enter," explains Sherrard who will no doubt will be requesting electronic wishes as opposed to traditional cards from his friends this Christmas.

Oh, and there's no word on whether the tiler ever returned.

This column's more adventurous readers will want to add Robert Green's self-published Exploring the Jagungal Wilderness: A bushwalkers guide to the Kosciuszko National Park to their Christmas wish list. Greene's meticulously researched guide book precisely details many longer walks throughout this remote tract of our high country, including the trek to the picturesque Bluff Tarn, one of the prettiest spots in the Jagungal wilderness, especially if there's still some snow around.

The book also many highlights historical locations, which, prior to the 2003 fires, were very difficult to find due to thick undergrowth. These include hut ruins, old dray tracks and bridle trails and the grave of an old miner at the remote Collins Creek gold diggings. "The miner who was buried there was responsible to look after the water supply so as to ensure that each day water was sent down the creek to the mine workings," writes Green. "One day the water did not reach the diggings and on investigation the miner was found to have died.

"The 2003 fires cleared the groundcover and the quartz stones outlining the grave are [again] plain to see."

Ebook versions of Exploring the Jagungal Wilderness are available via Amazon and Apple while spiral-bound copies (RRP: $29.95) are available direct from Green via: rvhgreen@outlook.com

Clue: It's summer, a time when many Canberrans flock to the Murrumbidgee River to cool off. This pleasant, yet little-known river crossing is only about 27km via road from the city centre.

Degree of difficulty: Medium - Hard

Last week: Congratulations to Ian McKenzie, of Weston, who was first to correctly identify last week's photo, as "three intertwined fish scratched into a supporting concrete column of Old Parliament House (OPH)." According to McKenzie, "Rumour has it that the designer of OPH, John Smith Murdoch, incorporated some Masonic symbolism into the building and the fish, being a Christian symbol for the Trinity, was a silent form of protest by some of the workers." The mystery fish were discovered during renovations in 1999 and are located above the ceiling on the lower level of OPH where a perspex ceiling panel has been installed.

McKenzie who celebrates his second win in a month just beat a number of other readers, including Stephen Leahy, of Macquarie, Gail Boate, of Gowrie, and Brian O'Keefe, of Ainslie, who works in "an office just near the mystery fish", to the coveted prize.

How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to timtheyowieman@bigpond.com. The first email sent after 10am, Saturday December 10, 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.