Lumen Autumn 2025 - Flipbook - Page 24
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By John Lowke
The most recent issue of Lumen described a
student “prank” when an FJ Holden car was
suspended from the University footbridge
over the Torrens in November 1971.
I describe here an earlier prank that
occurred in November 1952, now just over
70 years ago. Details of this prank’s
initiators, and the execution of the prank,
have not previously been made public.
The incident was later described by a
senior professor at ANU as “a student
prank worthy of a university”. A letter to
door of the home of the Vice-Chancellor of
the University, Professor A. P. Rowe. At that
time the Vice-Chancellor’s house was in the
centre of the University.
The footprints proceeded to Elder Hall,
went up the vertical wall, along the roof up to
the spire at its peak. To this spire was lashed a
plaster cast of a female that was previously in
the student office of the University. Known
among students as “Fanny”, it had featured
in other student exploits since 1949. The
steps then continued down the side wall of
Elder Hall to a female toilet. There were no
exit steps from the toilet.
Officials rushed to catch the pranksters
raising the flag, who they believed must still
be in Bonython Hall. However, access to the
flagpole was via a stairway which led to a
trapdoor. The trapdoor was sealed shut!
It was only later in the day, when the door
was forcefully opened, that a flag raising
mechanism was found — a pulley activated
by an alarm clock that had raised the flag.
But no students.
Authorities were not able to get Fanny
down. Even the longest ladder of the fire
brigade was of no help. Finally, a steeplejack
was hired. He marvelled at how Fanny could
have been installed, his only suggestion
being that the metal rod for lightning
protection might have been used.
Police examined the hands of senior
students in the physics department for
traces of yellow paint of the type used to
paint the footprints, but no evidence was
found to incriminate any students.
Years later, when I was a PhD student in
the physics department, a Senior Research
Fellow mentioned to me that someone called
Bob Duncan, who had preceded me as a
student, had left the University suddenly
just after the prank. Maybe he was the
initiator. I became intensely interested
because a person called Bob Duncan
had published a paper in the Australian
Journal of Physics suggesting that electron
diffusion might make accurate measurement
of electron drift velocities impossible. This
was the subject of my own thesis!
In about 1990, 40 years after the prank,
I discovered that Bob Duncan was a staff
member of CSIRO Radio Physics in
Sydney. I phoned him, told him of my
interest in his early paper, and asked to
have coffee with him.
the student magazine, On Dit, marvelled at
the perpetrators of the prank, its successful
execution, and complete secrecy.
On the morning of 25 November 1952,
large yellow footprints, each three feet in
diameter, were found leading from the front
It was student examination time, and a large
number of people, including University
officials, were gazing up at the dummy on
Elder Hall the next morning when suddenly
a skull and crossbones flag rose up the
flagpole of Bonython Hall.
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As I was leaving him after coffee, I dared
to ask if he was the perpetrator of the prank.
There was a long pause. He finally said
“yes”. He told me he had two collaborators,
Eric Murray, who designed and implemented
