All along the Kings Highway between Queanbeyan and Bungendore, a peculiar form of wildlife has taken up residence in the roadside trees.

Dozens of teddy bears sit still and silent, perched on limbs or hanging from branches watching the traffic roll past.

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While some still look fresh and new, others are faded and tattered from years of wind, dust, rain, hail and snow.

After years travelling the road to Canberra daily, Rachel Przeslawski, a scientist and mother of two from Bungendore, was curious as to how they came to be there.

She asked Curious Canberra to investigate and invited us along to add to the ever-growing collection.

A myriad of myths and legends

There are toys of all shapes and sizes. ( ABC News: Tom Lowrey )

From teddy bear gangs to cheating spouses, plenty of tall tales have evolved to explain the appearance of the mysterious tree-dwellers.

Most Bungendore residents say the numbers fluctuate, but the bears have come and gone for close to three decades.

One common theory revolves around trees being cleared by a nefarious government agency to widen the roadway, with bears placed in trees to symbolise koala habitat being destroyed.

Others say they are signposts to a nearby nudist camp - if the bears are facing towards you, the camp is ahead, and if they are facing away, you've gone too far.

Bungendore local, Tanya Kucharski, told me the bears started to appear to remind a married man of his infidelity.

"There was a lady sleeping with a married man, and he bought her a teddy bear," she said.

"But when they broke up, she started putting the teddies in the trees, to remind him of her every time he came back through Bungendore."

Teddy bears have been appearing on this stretch of highway for decades. ( ABC News: Tom Lowrey )

Anne Elder from the Bungendore Post Office had a different story, which eventually emerged as the most common.

"It's related to a child that died on the road," she said.

She said two bears were placed in a nearby tree, acting as a memorial to the young person.

"Then the Council, in their wisdom, decided to take the first pair down," she said.

"So as a sort of protest, there have been many bears appear now."

Sparked by a tragedy?

Everything from bears to bunnies have appeared near Bungendore. ( ABC News: Tom Lowrey )

Local author and historian, Nichole Overall, spent plenty of time researching the history of the bears to include the tale in her book on the region, 'Queanbeyan: City of Champions'.

She said the story of a young person dying in a fatal accident on the Kings Highway, and a shrine being erected then removed, emerged as the most common (and likely) story.

"That's certainly the one that has the most support, if you go back through the records and things, that's the one that people fall back on most consistently," she said.

The mystery then splits in two - what was the tragedy that saw the first bears appear in trees, and what prompted others to start hanging their own?

After trawling through records of different accidents on the road, Ms Overall said she may have found the origin.

"On July 21st 1987, a 17-year-old Kingston teenager was killed when his motorbike was hit head-on by an Alfa Romeo driving from Bungendore," she said.

"It was only one kilometre down the road from Queanbeyan."

Historian Nichole Overall says one theory stands out. ( ABC News: Tom Lowrey )

Reports in the Canberra Times and Queanbeyan Age from the next day confirm the accident, however the Age reports the teenager as being from Goulburn.

Ms Overall said while there have been plenty of fatal accidents on that particular stretch of road, that accident was in the right location, at the right time, and would have likely caused a significant community reaction.

"As much as you'd say that you've never solved a mystery like this, I certainly think that account fits the bill," she said.

Bears still appearing, nearly three decades on

Questioner Rachel Przeslawski has added to the collection. ( ABC News: Tom Lowrey )

The second part of this origin story - of the original bears being removed - is nearly impossible to confirm.

Part of the highway falls in the ACT, but the ACT Government did not exist until 1989, while the rest of the highway fell under the Yarrowlumla Shire Council, which was dissolved in 2004.

But while the initial spread of the bears may have been sparked by a public protest, bears and other stuffed animals are still appearing in trees today for all sorts of reasons.

And one of those hanging the bears is our question-asker, Rachel Przeslawski.

To mark her children's third birthday, the family adds their own bear to the roadside collection.

I joined the family to hang a bear for the youngest of Rachel's two children, aged six and three.

"It's something that they can look at in the morning - 'that's my teddy bear!'" she said.

"It occupies them for a good two minutes on the road, so we've just got another 32 minutes to deal with."

These days the bears are self-perpetuating, multiplying simply because others are already there.

And as long as they continue to occupy the imaginations of travellers, the legends will continue to multiply with them.

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