Narrabundah couple June and Jeff Dreese were doing landscaping near the front patio of their home in Strzelecki Crescent recently when workers uncovered pieces of Canberra's history.
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The landscapers discovered encased in concrete three pillar signposts for streets in the early days of Canberra's development.
And two of them were a long way from their starting point. One sign was for the corner of Kennedy and Giles streets in Kingston. But the second was from Civic - for Northbourne Avenue/Alinga Street. There was a third marker, believed to be also for Northbourne Avenue, but thieves stole it from the nature strip overnight after the discovery last week, despite probably weighing 100 to 200 kilograms, according to Mr Dreese, because it was still covered in concrete.
"When Roads ACT came to collect them, they needed three men and a hoist to move them,'' Mrs Dreese said.
Mr Dreese, 73, said the original owner of the home was a builder and probably picked up the then discarded signs at some point and used them as fill in the yard.
"I've been in Canberra my whole life and I'd seen them as kids so I knew what they were,'' Mr Dreese said.
"My first thought when I saw them was, 'How the hell am I going to get them out of there?'.''
Mrs Dreese said she hoped the third pillar would be brought to the authorities.
"I did put a note on the others saying, 'Not for taking. Please return','' she said.
Linda Roberts, the community engagement and festival coordinator from the ACT Heritage Unit, said the markers were about 90 years old.
"They were installed in the 1930s at a time when Canberra was a lot more pedestrian-friendly as opposed to being so car-focused,'' Mrs Roberts said.
"The street pillars were lower down [for the ease of pedestrians] so would not be so crash-hot today for motorists wanting to see them.''
Mrs Dreese alerted the Heritage Unit to the signs. The government has previously given heritage grants to restore other street pillars. The Kingston and Barton Residents Group was critical in restoring some of the signs in the inner-south in 2016.
Mrs Roberts said it was still to be determined what would happen with the latest recovered street pillars, but they might be used in an artwork.
"I think we can be creative and acknowledge our heritage,'' she said.
"They were obviously [in the past] seen as junk and used as fill. Now we look at them and cherish them and go, 'Wow'.''
Kingston and Barton Residents Group committee member Ian Morison in 2016 led survey work to determine those pillars in need of help first.
Mr Morison told The Canberra Times back then that by 1935 the concrete pillars were consigned to history, as motorists wanted taller concrete posts with cross-arms because they were easier to read.
He said in a way the signposts were a failure, or, more generously, a quirk of history, but one which still helped tell the story of Canberra.
"They are a relic of a time when there was a unifying element in the way houses and streets were arranged," he said, at the time.
