Henry Lawson's The Loaded Dog, a humorous plot concerning three goldminers and their dog, and the consequences of leaving a bomb cartridge unattended, was brought to real life in an article featuring on the front page of The Canberra Times on this day 36 years ago.
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An unidentified golden retriever and four Department of Territories road workers narrowly escaped serious injury when a homemade "bomb" the dog had retrieved from the creek exploded on the road just seconds after he dropped it.
Ross Schofield, 21, of Wanniassa, had been about to carry a stop-go sign across the bridge when the dog emerged from the bank with a glass bottle in its mouth.
"One of the other guys suggested we get the bottle out of its mouth in case it dropped and left broken glass all over the road, and seeing as how I was already on my way, I decided to do it," Mr Schofield said.
"I was about nine metres from it when the dog dropped the bottle - then boom!
"We were all shattered with glass. It scared the living daylights out of me! We've been working here a couple of days now and the dog has been retrieving stuff out of the creek all the time - we didn't really think anything of it when he came up to us today. We thought he was a friendly little pup."
The dog suffered superficial injuries to his hind legs and was taken to Mugga Way pound for treatment.