tas-man wrote:I just did a search for "Harley Smith" to see if there were any references to Harley who wrote the Heybob article posted earlier in this thread, and was interested to find that there is a park on the corner of Tallebudgera Creek Road and Araluen Road named "Harley Smith Reserve." Do any of you in the region know the background story to this park?
Unless I'm mistaken, the reserve in the photo was an area used for camping back in the 80's. Beyond the carpark the road runs over a small bridge and continues winding up a steep hill for quite some time. It used to have a gate where the bridge is. And a name on the gate, similar to "Biassians", whom I believe owned the property at the time.
Talking about stories of the region, nearby is a street called Petsch's Creek Rd. Back in the early 80's my friend and I were there one day photographing our cars. We parked them just off the street in front of an old abandoned farm house. Whilst taking photos an old man road up the street on a bicycle and questioned why we were there. He seemed extremely paranoid, accusing us of being there to case the place for drugs. He ranted and raved about the governement and it was clear he didn't have all his marbles. We told him we'd leave and he rode off.
But before we could pack up a younger man driving a truck stopped and he also questioned us suspiciously about why we were there. He told us we shouldn't be there and we decided that it was best we leave straight away. He drove off and my mate and I just shook our heads in amazement at the crazies living in that street.
This would be the end of the story if it wasn't for a conversation I had with the local postie of that area a number of year later. I told him that some of the people in that street were nutters and he told me the following. Apparently the two people we met were father and son and they owned a very large portion of the land in Petsch's Creek Rd. One of them went mad and shot the other and then I think he killed himself. I just don't recall if it was father shot son (more likely) or son shot father. After the deaths the land was sold and subdivided and contains many acreage lots today.
Interestingly, the old farmhouse remains!! It's still sitting there, at the front of someone's block, just off the side of the road, surrounded by mature bushy trees. Why it was never torn down I don't understand.