“That’s him, that’s the KGB agent who chased me!” exclaims Alan Reid, pointing at one of two burly Soviet henchmen hauling away Petrov’s wife Evdokia in a photo taken on April 19, 1954, on the tarmac at Sydney Airport.

It’s a photo that has since become synonymous with the Petrov Affair but one which brings back traumatic childhood memories every time Reid sees it.

As a child, Reid lived on Mugga Way in Red Hill, right next door to the official residence of the Soviet Ambassador, Nikolai Generalov.

The days immediately following Petrov’s dramatic defection on April 3, 1954 were a tumultuous time in Australian politics, and while most Canberrans, including Reid’s father, Alan Reid Snr (yes, the doyen of the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery for almost half a century), were in the grips of Cold War paranoia, Reid Jnr and his school mates were focused on matters much closer to their own hearts (and taste buds) ­– the plump cherries growing on a tree in Generalov’s backyard.

With diplomatic relations between Canberra and Moscow well and truly frayed, following Petrov’s defection, the USSR ordered its entire staff of 48 at the Soviet Embassy on Canberra Avenue, including Generalov, to return home.

“Generalov left in a hurry,” remembers Reid, who, along with his mate had been “eyeing off his cherry-laden fruit tree for some weeks”.

“We thought how good is this, with the ambassador gone, we could finally get our hands on the cherries,” recalls Reid, who along with his mate “jumped the fence one day after school”.

However, before the daring duo had plucked a handful from the tree they got the fright of their lives.

“Suddenly this big Russian guy was bearing down on us,” recalls Reid. “He had snuck out from behind a wall and got right on top of us before we knew it.

“He started yelling at us and looked like he was going to thump us ... we were screaming and carrying-on; it was terrifying.”

Reid and his mate fled down a nearby laneway and onto Red Hill, leaving the Russian who had been given the job of packing up Generalov’s goods “absolutely fuming.”

“We didn’t dare go back near cherry tree until a few weeks later, just after we saw that now-famous photo of Evdokia Petrov at the airport on the cover of a magazine,” reveals Reid.

“We recognised the KGB agent dragging Evdokia’s left arm as the very same man who’d chased us out of Generalov’s yard.

“Once we’d seen his photo in the paper, we knew he was gone, so we went back next door and cleaned out all the cherries - they were best cherries I’ve ever had!”

Reid’s thwarted cherry raid wasn’t the only close encounter he had with his notable neighbours.

A few months prior to the Petrov defection, Reid was riding his bicycle down the footpath on Mugga Way towards his driveway.

“I’d only just learned how to balance on my bike and didn’t quite know how to brake,” recalls Reid, “and the footpath had a slope on it, so I missed our driveway.”

The timing couldn’t have been worse for Reid, for just as he careered past his house, Ambassador Generalov emerged from behind a hedge in his shiny Cadillac.

“There was, and still is, a big hedge running along the front of our yards so I didn’t see the car until the last second,” says Reid, who smashed into the passenger side of the Cadillac, “and in the process dented the hub cap”.

“Generalov thought he’d killed me, but I was just stunned,” recalls Reid. “He picked me up and took me inside and gave me a drink and ice cream to make sure I was okay.”

Wow, what childhood memories.

Postscript: When Generalov left Canberra, his Cadillac was sold to a Canberra taxi driver, and then, according to Reid, “somewhat ironically to Robert Menzies, Australian prime minister”.

Reid believes the Caddy is still around and possibly in a museum in Victoria, however, initial investigations by your Akubra-clad columnist have failed to locate it.

“It’d be great to confirm that the dent is still in the hub cap,” muses Reid.

Indeed it would.

Meanwhile, mention of alleged spy Madame Ollier’s connection with Petrov’s car crash on the Monaro Highway near Royalla on Christmas Eve, 1953 (The Curious Case of Petrov’s Car, May 22, brought back a flood of memories for Jan Solway of Queanbeyan.

“I remember Madame Ollier very well,” writes Solway. “In the 1950s she would sometimes come to my mum’s [Bobby Llewellyn] horse riding school at Acton.”

One afternoon Rose Marie Ollier, who at the time was a senior official at the French Embassy in Canberra, invited Solway, just eight years old at the time, and her mum to afternoon tea at her home in Manuka.

“Mum knew of Ollier’s supposed covert connections so was too scared to turn down her offer, so we reluctantly went along,” recalls Solway.

And it turns out that Llewellyn’s reservations were well-founded, for she soon discovered Ollier had ulterior motives.

“Ollier wanted to find out what time certain other diplomats were riding at her school, for undisclosed reasons,” reveals Solway.

So determined was the French operative to extract the information from Llewellyn that, according to Solway, “Ollier slipped a drug in mum’s drink”.

It didn’t take long for the unknown drug to take effect. “I’ll never forget my poor mum, she was very odd for a few hours,” reports Solway. “As I was just a child at the time, I can’t be sure what information mum ended up telling her”.

Solway recalls the rendezvous with Ollier, “as clear as day”, adding, “dad used to tease mum about it for years”.

Heck, life in 1950s Canberra sounds like the plot from a James Bond movie.

Rock Face

While recently bushwalking to the historic Geodesic Dome in Namadgi National Park, Margitta Acker of Curtin stumbled upon this intriguing rock formation.

“The part of the rock protruding on the right looks like a face to me, maybe human, maybe monkey, what do you think?” asks Acker, who reports “the trek up to the dome from the Orroral Valley is steep, but most enjoyable”.

Fox hole

If you keep chooks in Canberra, you are probably more aware than most about the increasing presence of European red foxes (Vulpes Vulpes) lurking in our suburbs. I’m sure I’m not the only one to have lost backyard hens to urban foxes.

Foxes are also on the on the prowl in the Parliamentary Triangle, where on Bowen Drive, just a short distance from Kings Avenue Bridge, there’s fox den conspicuous to passing traffic

Rob Parnell of Narrabundah, who has been monitoring the den for “at least 18 months,” has snapped photos of a range of carrion at the entrance to the hole, including native birds (both gang gang and a sulphur crested cockatoo), and a hare.

“If I’m on my bike I will often stop, cross the road and inspect the hole and its surrounds,” reports Parnell who has also photographed brazen foxes prowling during daylight hours in the old Mt Mugga Quarry and on Strzelecki Crescent in Narrabundah.

Oliver Orgill, a senior vertebrate pest officer with ACT Parks and Conservation Service, says, “Unfortunately, foxes are just part of life in both our urban and rural environments in many parts of Australia, including Canberra.”

The ACT Parks and Conservation Service does not collect formal data on fox sightings, and due to risk to domestic dogs and other pets which are also sensitive to poison control, baiting for foxes is restricted to rural areas.

“They can often be higher in numbers in urban areas than rural areas due to the availability of food,” says Orgill. “They aren’t only predators, but they are also scavengers, meaning they’ll eat carcasses, raid rubbish bins, and even eat fruits and berries.”

Orgill explains that the Kings Avenue den is unlikely to be the only one near Lake Burley Griffin, revealing, “a colleague recently spotted seven foxes in a two-kilometre stretch of the lake’s foreshore.”

Foxes in Australia: European (also called red) foxes were first introduced to Australia around 1871 when a small number were shipped from England for the purposes of sport hunting.

How many dens? Foxes don’t only dig dens. According to Orgill, “they also make homes in backyard garden sheds, hollows logs, and among rocks in the bush.” Most foxes will have multiple dens in their home range, including natal dens where they raise their cubs.

Watch out for: Increased activity of foxes in Canberra suburbs in coming months for, according to Orgill, “we are moving into their prime breeding time so many foxes are looking for potential mates”.

Did You Know? Legendary journalist Alan Reid (1914–1987) who is mentioned in today’s lead story on Petrov, was nicknamed ‘‘the Red Fox’’ because of the colour of his hair and for his cunning as a pressman.

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.

Clue: Close to the highway

Degree of difficulty: Medium

Last week: Congratulations to Jonathan Miller of Curtin who was the first reader to correctly identify last week’s photo, below, as a ‘double-seater’ toilet at Coolamine Homestead, a historic pastoral outstation located in the northern part of Kosciuszko National Park which also features two hand-built slab and weatherboard homes, yards and log cheesehouse.

Miller, who visited the homestead as a detour via Blue Waterholes when he “walked the Australian Alps Walking Track in 2015”, just beat James Clark of Florey to the prize.

Like your curious columnist, Miller is mystified as to the loo’s distinctive design and wonders if there are any similar outhouses in our region where you can attend to nature’s call with a friend.

How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to timtheyowieman@bigpond.com. The first email sent after 10am, Saturday June 30, 2018 will win a double pass to Dendy.