A new prank revealed
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
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 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.
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.
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.
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 the mechanical mechanism for the raising of the skull and cross bones flag, and Des Lilly, an ardent prankster, who did nothing on this occasion as he was afraid of heights!
University authorities thought the best way to remove it would be either by a steeplejack, or by cutting the ropes with a rifle shotReported by The News
Bob said that the tying of the mannequin to the spire was achieved not by climbing the outside wall, but by climbing to the top of Elder Hall from inside the building. He forced a hole in the roof at the top of the spire to the outside and installed a pulley.
By means of a “bosun’s chair”, he could raise or lower himself on the outside of the building to lash “Fanny” to the spire and paint the footprints, effectively “abseiling”. The footprint paint was yellow ochre dissolved in shellac, because it was quick drying. Bob also said that there were no animosities at all with the Vice-Chancellor; this was just a prank.
The three students involved had distinguished careers later. Bob Duncan became a leading scientist at the CSIRO Division of Radio Physics and was awarded a DSc degree by the University of Adelaide for his research. Dr Eric Murray was a lecturer in Physics at Flinders University. Des Lilly became senior manager of the insurance division of NRMA, which later became the company IAG.
I told these exploits to Dr Ron Eckers, former Director of the Australia Telescope and also employer of Bob, and he made them public in his eulogy at Bob Duncan’s funeral on April 28, 2004.
Dr Eckers extolled Bob’s scientific achievements and also gave details of the prank and its originators. He also mentioned Bob’s embarrassment when, during breakfast just after the prank, his mother made a close examination of the stitching of the skull and crossbones flag from a photograph that was shown on the front page of The Advertiser. She recognised that it was the same flag that she had made for her son for an earlier student theatre production!
Dr John J Lowke, now aged 90, earned his PhD in Physics from the University in 1963. He is a former Chief of CSIRO Division of Applied Physics, Sydney. Lumen thanks him most sincerely for sharing this story.
Photo of John at home - with the tear sheets he has kept preserved from the 1950s - by Isaac Freeman, Lumen photographic editor. Main image from The News, then Adelaide’s afternoon newspaper.
If readers have other such stories, we would love to hear them: lumen@adelaide.edu.au