- The above little
message could for many years be seen painted on a side wall of the
old Woronora Weir (Lake Kolora) at the junction of Heathcote Creek
and Woronora River. This was a very popular swimming hole until the
weir (and the message) was blown up by the army in 1986. I’m not
sure why this was done, but there were concerns at the time over car
accidents at the entrance to the very small car park at the Woronora
Bridge on Heathcote Road. And of course it borders on Military
Reserve, and must have given the Army a great opportunity, with all
the high explosives they have at their disposal, to blow something
up.
Before it was destroyed and the car park and swimming hole closed, I
made a point of removing bucket loads of smashed bottles, plastic
etc that had, despite the exhortations of the slogan, accumulated in
the surrounds in great quantity over many years. But of the slogan
itself a little research revealed that it was for a long time
nothing less than the slogan of the Sydney Bush Walkers, that club
of great renown founded by Myles Dunphy and others in 1927.
The slogan is in fact a couplet from a little piece of spontaneous
verse making by Kath McKay, who, with Marie Byles’ family and
friends, rented the historic Bett’s Camp in the Snowy Mountains one
Christmas in the late 1930’s. At the end of a ten day stay, while
Kath and Marie were out roaming around, the others (quite possibly
led the way by Marie’s dad Cyril) undertook repairs to the old
building and a thorough general clean up. So inspired by the
transformation of the hut, Kath, a practised versifier, “with
occasional help or hindrance from the others” according to Marie
Byles, wrote a tribute to the undertaking (presumably in the
visitors book of the hut). It was printed (without title) in the
club’s magazine in January 1941. I have taken the liberty here to
call it… “Hide Your Bottles”.
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