While many Canberrans claim the concrete subway doesn’t quite deserve white-elephant status, especially during peak hour and big events by the lake, a surprisingly high number of readers, some lifelong residents, report they were completely unaware of its existence.

Remarkable really, especially considering the first pedestrians passed through it 50 years ago and that it runs under one of our city’s busiest roads.

There are two possible reasons for this low level of awareness. Firstly, as pointed out by David Morris who regularly walks under it as part of his daily commute, somewhat peculiarly “it’s not signposted at all, meaning some people often take their chances by running across the six lanes of busy traffic”.

Secondly, as Michael Richards of Murrumbateman poignantly points out, “Its approaches are poorly lit, so I suspect some people don’t realise it’s there.”

The impetus for the very existence of the underpass continues to be the subject of much conjecture, with several readers dismissing Michael Adler’s claims that it was built in 1968 at the request of “portly Senator Paltridge” to enable him to access the Hyatt Hotel (then the Hotel Canberra) from Old Parliament House, for regular lunches without running the gauntlet of crossing busy Commonwealth Avenue.

For example, Helen Goddard of Turner attests that the underpass was built following an incident involving Paltridge’s colleague, Ken Anderson, a long-term New South Wales senator.

“While Senator Paltridge may have struggled to get across the road, my understanding is that it was built after Senator Ken Anderson was involved in a traffic accident almost killed,” explains Goddard. “He was on foot and walking back to Old Parliament House after a meal at the Hotel Canberra when hit by a car.”

Goddard, whose father Jack Cahill was a senior officer in the Department of Customs and Excise at the time”, says, “Anderson was Minister for Customs from 1964 to 1968 and it was during this time that the underpass was built.”

While several other readers, including Stephen Brown of Forrest, confirm Goddard’s assertions, Mrs H Dulline of Deakin, a lifelong Canberran, believes the underpass was constructed after “requests from community art organisations in order to cater for the growing number of people attending cultural events in the Albert Hall precinct”.

Michael Richards of Murrumbateman agrees with Dulline. “I suspect the rationale was the need to get to the Albert Hall, when it was a major venue for the city and not the somewhat forgotten remnant of an earlier Canberra that it is today. This seems much more likely than special pleading on behalf of a portly senator!”

However, the final word on the origins of the underpass (at least until the folk at the National Capital Authority respond to my official request for information) is from Kevin Mulcahy, a long-term Canberra resident, now of Tura Beach.

Mulcahy, a former staffer at the National Capital Development Commission (the forerunner to the NCA), reports: “The rationale for the tunnel was more about plans for public transport and making the Commonwealth Treasury building parking area [on the eastern side of Commonwealth Avenue] accessible for events at the Albert Hall which, though not as frequent as in the 1960s, had real problems due to its own very limited parking spaces.

“The fact that the Albert Hall is not used as much as in the past and the fact that the new Parliament house is no longer within short walking distance of the Hyatt Hotel renders the tunnel somewhat idle as far as usage goes.

“However it will certainly come into its own when pedestrians want to cross Commonwealth Avenue without being hit by a light rail carriage.

“This is called forward planning, not a white elephant,” muses Mulcahy.

Many readers also felt inclined to reminisce about when they first used the underpass.
Julie Lindner of Farrer, who worked at the Commonwealth Treasury in the 1960s and 70s, points out: “At the time it was constructed there were no traffic lights from the Rex Hotel on Northbourne Ave all the way to Woden. This meant Commonwealth Avenue was extremely hard to cross as there was a constant flow of traffic in both directions so the underpass was very convenient.”

“The subway is simultaneously convenient, creepy, smelly, with a bit of novelty value,” reports Michael Hettinger of O’Connor, who recalls dashing through the subway on “a few Hash House Harrier runs”.

However, most recollections involved the consumption of alcohol by Treasury officials in the 1970s. David Jones of Hackett, another former Treasury officer, reports: “In the early 1970s after finishing work at 16:51 on Fridays, fellow work colleagues and myself would traverse the underpass to the red carpet bar at the Hotel Canberra. Later in the evening some would return via the underpass to the Treasury car park.”

Heck, is it little wonder our government had trouble balancing the books back then? Maybe King O’Malley had a point in his support of the unpopular alcohol ban during Canberra’s early years after all.

Meanwhile, Ian Burke of Campbell vividly recalls his first walk through the underpass in the late 1960s when, after studying for the afternoon at the National Library of Australia, he arranged to meet a friend at Albert Hall to see a play.

“As I approached Commonwealth Avenue from the library, a policeman told me I couldn’t go across,” reports Burke, who, instead “eventually found the tunnel and went through it.” On arrival at Albert Hall, Burke discovered a police escort for the Duke and Duchess of Kent had driven past while he was walking through the tunnel.

“I imagine that the Duke and Duchess of Kent have not driven over the top of all that many people, especially in Canberra,” reports Burke, musing: “When I find out the exact date, I am going to request that a commemorative plaque be put up in the tunnel.”

According to official records, the Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Kent were in Canberra from August 9-12, 1969, as a part of a 25-day visit to Australia. To further narrow it down, they attended evening events at the Lodge and Government House on August 10 and 11 respectively.

I look forward to seeing Burke’s plaque hanging on the otherwise spotless walls of the underpass which are surely the cleanest of any subway in Australia. Perhaps Canberra’s ubiquitous graffiti taggers don’t know it’s there either! Either that or the NCA’s street cleaners are more efficient than their archivists.

Several readers, including Jason Macqueen, answered my recent call for photos of back-country adventures in The Snowies. In fact, Macqueen’s photograph of a cross-country skier on the Illawong Swinging Bridge near Guthega, taken last week on an overnight trip to Mt Twynam (2196m), also put an end to this column’s two-year search for evidence of a winter crossing of the treacherous galvanised steel cable suspension bridge which spans the upper reaches of the Snowy River (Kings of Swing May 17, 2017).

Meanwhile Erwin Feeken’s photo of his wife, Gerda, about to ski over a half-buried car at Perisher in 1974 shows despite this year’s bumper snow season, that decades ago, falls were much heavier.

It seems that icicles in the 1970s were much longer too, for in the same year, Feeken also photographed 2.5-metre-long icicles “drooping from an overhanging granite boulder on the Ramshead Range near Thredbo”.

“If you look closely, there’s a person at bottom left of photo for scale,” explains Feeken.

Finally, while recently riding the Freedom Chair at Guthega, David Evans of Fadden captured this stunning shot of windblown ice on branches of this dead snowgum. Despite the sunny blue sky, I feel cold just looking at the tree. Enjoy the last official week of winter.

While enjoying a late winter kayak at Snapper Island near Batemans Bay, Phill Sledge of Kaleen noticed that “the opening of this cave when filmed from inside resembled the side profile of a lady with flowing blonde locks”. While I don’t agree with Sledge that “she looks a bit like the late Farrah Fawcett”, if you are having trouble ‘seeing’ the lady, she is looking left and her head and hair occupies the entire opening of the cave.

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.

Cryptic Clue: Not a rocket, but can tread on some boards near here.
Degree of difficulty: Medium - Hard

Congratulations to Roger Shelton of Spence who was the first reader to correctly identify last week’s photo, sent in by Leigh Palmer of Isaacs, as the Tuggeranong railway siding on the decommissioned line to Bombala.

Shelton just beat a host of railway enthusiasts including David and Caroline Nott of Ainslie, Cathy Kay of Wanniassa and Jeremy Wainwright of O'Connor to the coveted prize.

As Erik Jochimsen of Narrabundah explains: “To the left you can see the original site of the Tuggeranong Station platform, now demolished. The lever controls were used to gain access to the siding with the raised two-level loading access to the right intended for loading sheep from the farms in the area.”

For those who use old-school maps, according to Jochimsen, “the photo was taken from the road crossing at the end of Old Tuggeranong Road, UBD Gregory's Map 99 K6.”

Regular contributor Peter Harris of Latham adds that “the siding was also used to offload the timber to build the landmark four-span Allan Truss bridge over the Murrumbidgee River at Tharwa, opened in 1895.”

How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to timtheyowieman@bigpond.com. The first email sent after 10am, Saturday 25 August, 2018 will win a double pass to Dendy - The Home of Quality Cinema.