It's not as if I can't see where I'm going. Despite being about 8pm, there's a bright moon which lights up the ephemeral lake in an eerie silver glow.

Despite the shore's quagmire status after recent rains, the lake, which hasn't been completely full for almost 30 years, would be unrecognisable to Joseph Wild, who on August 19, 1820 became the first non-indigenous person to set eyes on the lake, comparing it to a giant inland sea "with a heavy rolling surf like the ocean". It must have been windy that day.

So taken with the 'discovery' of the ''grand and magnificent sheet of water'', just two months later Governor Lachlan Macquarie asked Wild to take him on a return expedition to the lake so he could see the natural wonder with his own eyes. In fact, it was not far from where Shane and I are squelching through mud that on October 28, 1820, Macquarie and his party ''raised a bumper'' and named the lake ''in honour of His present Majesty [George IV]''.

In the latest published account of Macquarie, (Macquarie: Lover, fighter, egalitarian, autocrat, Harper Collins, 2019) author Grantlee Kieza speculates Macquarie may have also been thinking of George Jarvis, his humble Indian man-servant, whom he treated as a son, when he named the lake.

No matter its origins, 'George' certainly wasn't the first name given to this enigmatic occasional body of water. "We call it Weereewaa, which means place of many migratory birds", reveals Shane, a proud Ngambri man whose "country includes Weereewaa".

"Prior to European settlement there were so many birds it was said if you disturbed them you blocked the sun", explains Shane. "The lake was a giant food resource for my people".

A flick through the letters and diaries of Wild, Macquarie and other early 19th-century European visitors to the lake reveals they were also taken by this wealth of birdlife. On first seeing the lake, Wild wrote of "swans, geese and ducks of different kinds in abundance" and two months later Macquarie delighted that the lake "was covered with innumerable flocks of black swans, ducks and sea gulls".

"Sadly almost two centuries of hunting and grazing has changed the lake, the birds have all but gone," laments Shane who, between plucking me out of even more mud, and avoiding those barbed wire fences which criss-cross the lake bed, is leading me to a ring tree at a place named after Shane's great-great-great-grandfather, Ondyong.

"Ondyong was here when Macquarie visited in 1820 and he also helped general surveyor Thomas Mitchell when he mapped the area," reveals Shane. "Ondyong Point is the only marked point on Mitchell's 1828 map of the lake."

According to Shane, the tree we are searching for was especially grown for observation of the moon. "When the full moon is in centre of the specially trained branch you can be guaranteed it's on the meridian and from there get your bearing to the stars," he explains.

Sadly, we don't find the ring tree (that's a story for another day) but we both relish walking in the footsteps of his ancestors. Walking Weereewaa is a bit like walking a labyrinth, it's such a reflective place that gets under your skin. It also allows you to imagine the journeys others have taken before you. Truly a night to remember, muddy boots 'n all.

At a dinner (sorry, it's sold out) to celebrate the lake's extraordinary indigenous and European history, this Saturday Lake George Winery is launching its first ever 'Weereewaa Red'.

Earlier this week, I scored a sneak peek at the label. It reads: Lake George or Weereewaa as it is known to the original inhabitants, has long had a reputation for mystery. This cabernet franc, merlot and shiraz blend was grown on the shores of the lake and fermented in French oak. Goes well with open fires and good yarns.

I'll drink to that.

Shane Mortimer and your akubra-clad columnist aren't the only Canberrans enamoured by Weereewaa under a blanket of stars. With the recent explosion in astrophotography, several Canberra shutterbugs are often seen on the lake's shores attempting to capture that must-have nightscape shot above the ancient lake.

Peter Reichstein of 50eight Photography reports he often spends "two to three hours a night shooting the Milky Way, star trails or time in our region, including at Weereewaa".

"It's a great spot to soak it all in and get away from a busy life," reports Peter. "It is very therapeutic, especially if you can get away from the traffic noise of the highway."

"Having an understanding of your camera in manual mode and knowledge of how to take long exposures are critical to capturing an astrophoto," recommends Peter, who runs regular astrophotography workshops on the lake.

Following this column's feature earlier this year (April 4) on Julia Laybutt, the Goulburn lady, who in her teens (in 1961) swam across the lake, several readers have sent in accounts of other watery pursuits on Weereewaa. From paddling (beware of the changing wind) to sailing (a number of sailing clubs were based at the lake until the construction of Lake Burley Griffin in the early 1960s) and water skiing. Glenda McDewitt even dug up a series of photos of her husband and friends water skiing on the lake in the 1960s. "It seems like a lifetime ago," she remarks.

Looks like fun, except I'd want to know exactly where those partially submerged barbed wire fences were before strapping on any skis. Ouch!

This column's search for ghost signs (May 16) in the Canberra region has unearthed many faded advertisements, with most sprouting one product only - tea. Just what was the obsession with tea last century? While most of the signs brought to the attention of this column feature Bushells Tea, Adrian Fryatt discovered a much rarer example.

On a recent ride to Jerrawa, located on the Main Southern Railway between Yass and Goulburn, Adrian noticed a painting on the wall of an old building publicising that it's just '185 Miles [298km] to Griffiths Brothers Teas'.

"Apparently in the early 1900s, the Sydney outlet of the Melbourne-based company relied heavily on thirsty train travellers stepping out of carriages at Sydney's Central Station looking for a hot cuppa," reports Adrian. "As a result a series of signs were situated at varying intervals along the train line from Melbourne, designed for passengers to count down the miles until they could get a cup of the popular tea."

Heck, almost 300km is a long way to travel for a cup of tea - it'd want to be a good one.

According to Adrian, ironically, Mr Griffiths was killed at a railway crossing in 1925 (hopefully, the driver wasn't distracted by one of their signs) at which point the company was sold to Robur Teas which continued to peddle its hot drinks (including coffee and hot chocolate) until 1974.

Do you remember the tea fad of the mid 1900s? It seems to have been replaced by our addiction to coffee.

Thanks to everyone who responded to this column's call for photos of bower birds in the suburbs (July 11).

Sue Wallensky even submitted a video of a bower bird and its bower located next to her garden shed in Broulee. "Because they are so sensitive to on-lookers, I left my camera open at the window, put it on movie mode and went back to the house," reveals Sue, whose video shows the male bird tending fastidiously to the many blue objects in his bower.

I'll publish my favourite reader's photo in next week's column.

Clue: The deep south

Degree of difficulty: Medium

Last week: Congratulations to Veronica O'Brien of Gowrie who was first to correctly identify the location of last week's photo as a stone cottage ruin on Mugga Lane in Symonston just north of the Resource Management Centre.

"I used to drive past it every day on my way to work before working from home became the norm," reports Veronica who just beat David Evans and Robert Parker to the prize. Many readers, including Mike Sim who took the photo "from Isaacs Ridge to get a bit of elevation and show some interior walls", are eager to find out more about the history of the ruins, which, located on private property, aren't accessible to the public. Wayne Barry who owned and lived on the Mugga property for 18 years from 1989 reports that "a student from the ANU researched the history of the building several years ago". Wayne is trying to locate the thesis. Stay tuned.

How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and suburb to timtheyowieman@bigpond.com. The first email sent after 10am, Saturday August 15, 2020, wins a double pass to Dendy, the Home of Quality Cinema.

Chris Mobbs of Hackett loves to document stories about trees and while reviewing a recent photo he took of "a dead eucalypt with a very gnarled base at the north-east corner of the Hackett Oval", he couldn't believe his eyes. "Part of the trunk looks very similar to the face of a stonefish," he exclaims. Indeed it does. Talk about a fish out of water.