By ROB WILLIS It all started when well-known local raconteur, Grahame (Dorsey) Uphill and a few of his mates got together for a cuppa and to solve the problems of the world. They also have a strong interest in the history of Forbes and their gathering raised a few questions about the Island in the middle of Lake Forbes, and an elephant! Dorsey sent me this email request. The Island in the lake has always just been there, but how did it get there? Someone thought it was built up from dirt excavated when the Olympic pool was built. I think it is much earlier and may have been built from dirt excavated from within the lake to make it deeper, probably done with horse drawn scoops. Someone also thought that a visiting circus buried an elephant on the island, I think this maybe a furphy. As with Dorsey and his mates I had just accepted that the Island was part of the Forbes landscape and never bothered to find out how, when, or why it got there. But the mention of an elephant really captured me, was it a furphy or could there be an element of truth in the story. Apart from that I love a challenge. Thanks to the National Library of Australia’s TROVE website and online copies of the Forbes Advocate my quest took me back to the economic depression era of the 1930s and a plan to beautify Lake Forbes. Does this sound familiar? It all happened in 1937 in the era when many thousands were out of work and unable to find employment. Unlike today Government assistance was limited, and many men were forced to take to the roads and travel in search of work. With plenty of labour available several schemes were put into place in regional Australia, one of these was our previously mentioned plan to beautify the lake. At the same time our new Olympic pool was being built and the park surrounding it, (King George V Memorial Park) which at that time was little more than a swamp, was also planned to benefit from the lake beautification. The Forbes Advocate of Friday April 6 1937 reports. “At the moment 100 men, 34 drays and six motor lorries are engaged in the filling of King George V Memorial Park with soil taken from Lake Forbes. The area has been an eyesore for many years” The Lake had been drained previously in anticipation of this work. Advocate papers of the same era also gave us the news that there were THREE Islands constructed. Yes, that is correct we have not just one but three. These Islands were constructed by deepening the lagoon around them and then “covering their surfaces with grass sods and planting them with grass”. Two of the three have been positively identified and we are working on the third. It is also interesting that these islands as well as being part of the lake beautification were primarily constructed as bird sanctuaries and breeding areas. Did you know that the Lake was declared as a bird sanctuary in 1919? I can hear you asking, “what about the elephant”, well there is an element of truth here and it’s a bit gory. In 1937 (a very busy year) a bull elephant named Tom from Perry’s Circus ran amok in Parkes trampling its keeper to death. Tom was coaxed back to its cage on the circus train and moved on to the next venue, Forbes. As Tom was still behaving very badly the decision was made to euthanise him and he was fed three poisoned apples - in the Forbes railway yards. Without going in to too much detail I will quote from the Forbes Advocate of Tues Sept 14 1937: “The four tons remains of Tom the mammoth killer elephant are now being cremated on the reserve three miles from Forbes on the South Condobolin Road” So here are your answers, Dorsey and mates: We have three, not one, Islands that were constructed by digging out the Lake around them in 1937. The dirt from the Lake went to build up the park that surrounds the swimming pool. There was an Elephant, but it was burnt, not buried. This is but a very brief overview of these amazing events that all happened in 1937. For the complete details on our Islands and Elephants please contact fellow researchers Cheryl and Rex Barton at the Forbes Family History rooms.
