Young Brian had waited 18 months for his Christmas present: "a blue Speedwell two-wheeler bike with green handle grips, white mud guards and a back-pedal brake."

Yet while he was having a swim at the Dickson pool, thieves stole his treasured bike. A day earlier The Canberra Times featured a story on Brian's woeful situation, which led to the boy crying himself to sleep.

"He'd taken it on his chin like a man until then... But it must have been working on his subconscious mind," Brian's father, Mr. F.J. McCormick, said in the original December 27 article.

But soon enough Brian's mood changed. Moved by the original story, members of the Canberra Workmens Club pitched in to buy the boy a bike. Meanwhile Peter Roberts of the Ally Nish Sports Store bought out a blue Speedwell for Brian. And it seemed Brian could receive a third set of wheels after police recovered a similar bicycle near the administration building of the Northbourne Flats.

The boy, overwhelmed by the support, said he only wanted one bike, and planned to donate the extra bikes to those more needy. Brian looked forward to cycling again, but not before he bought a new lock.

See more at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/11616460