TH E GHOST OF LEE PAO SUNG

When Chinese sailor Lee Pao Sung failed to turn up to work in 1944, the captain of his ship reported him as a deserter. The truth was far more sinister.

Port Adelaide police found his body floating in the Port River, his head wrapped in hessian. Upon removing the hessian, they found that Mr Lee’s killer or killers had driven three large nails into his skull, and there were obvious signs of torture.

Newspaper reports from the day told of a possible link to Triad criminal gangs. Two men were arrested but each blamed the other and nobody was eventually convicted.

There have been a number of reports of moans and groans being heard in the Queens Wharf area, and some even claim to have seen Mr Lee’s disembodied figure haunting the docks. Lee Pao Sung is buried at Cheltenham Cemetery.

■ Port Adelaide Ghost Crime Tours, May 8, 10, 15, 17 and 24, 7.30pm-9.45pm. Book online at www.ghost-crime-tours.com.au

TRUNK AND DISORDERLY

These days, pubs use poker machines and drinks specials to get punters through the door but, in the past, they were more creative.

In the 1850s, the Cremorne Hotel, on Unley Rd, Unley, had its own elephant, a big male named Tommy, who lived in the gardens at the rear for the entertainment of the patrons. Tommy was later moved to the Gepps Cross Hotel.

According to Paul M. Hoskins’ book Caleb, Tommy was originally a “farm elephant” in Adelaide’s north, used to pull wagons out of bogs and win ploughing races for which he was rewarded with a loaf of bread and a bucket of beer.

The keeping exotic animals in pubs was not as rare as you might think. The Union Hotel, in Waymouth St, city, had a Bengal tiger, with drinkers paying sixpence to look at it. The tiger was later sold after it bit the head off the landlord’s duck.

■ Pint at the Old Zoo: Cremorne Hotel, 1925. May 25, 12.30pm-1.30pm. Phone 8272 5117

FARINA IS A GHOST TOWN

Australian and American farmers in the 19th century had an interesting meteorological theory — rain follows the plough.

Essentially, the theory went like this: move to an arid area, build some houses, plough the land and, somehow, the area would become more humid and the rainfall would increase.

Of course, it wasn’t true, but that didn’t stop some enterprising South Australians from establishing the town of Farina well north of Goyder’s Line. At its peak, the town had 600 residents, two pubs, two breweries, five blacksmiths shops and a school.

The crops failed, the people left and the town collapsed into ruin — but a dedicated group of volunteers is restoring it, piece by piece.

■ Farina Restoration — A Work in Progress. Sunday, May 18, to Wednesday, June 18. Farina Station, 26km north of Lyndhurst on the Oodnadatta Track. Phone 8675 7790

GO YOU BIG RED … JAGUAR

When fire chief Jock Whyte attended blazes in Adelaide in the 1950s, he did it in style.

The flamboyant chief roared to emergencies in a bright red Jaguar XK120 sports car, a vehicle capable of speeds up to 140mph (225km/h).

The car was seen as an extravagance by many, with Burnside councillor G. Roberts describing it as being fit “for a playboy”.

“I can see no rhyme nor reason why a super-sports Jaguar should be selected for use in the metropolitan area,” he said.

Councillor R. Cooper, however, said the sight of Mr Whyte driving his speedy Jag gave people a “feeling of vast confidence in the fire brigade”.

■ The vehicle, now restored, will be on display as part of the Fabulous Fire Engines at Beaumont House, May 25, 10am-4pm. Phone 8536 8053

PARKLANDS PLAYGROUND

Long before Womad, the Garden of Unearthly Delights or Soundwave, the city parklands hosted more unusual events.

Criminals were executed in public view, it was used as a dumping ground for rubbish and rubble, and hosted a performance by Charles Blondin — the first person to walk a tightrope across Niagara Falls.

The greenbelt was an integral part of Colonel William Light’s vision of the city and, for decades, has been the playground for the rich, the poor, and home to large festivals and private encounters.

More recently, the future of the parklands has centred on whether it should be subject to further development to bring more people into the city.

■ Patricia Sumerling has compiled a book, The Adelaide Park Lands, Social History, documenting the activities hosted in the parklands. She will speak at the Marion Cultural Centre, Oaklands Park, on May 13, 2pm-3pm. Free. Phone 8375 6750 or 8375 6755

A BRUSH WITH FAME

Each day after work at Cowell’s Timber Yard, on the corner of The Parade and Sydenham Rd, Norwood, a young lad would race up to the Norwood Town Hall for painting lessons.

There, under the tutelage of James Ashton — one of SA’s most influential art educators — the budding artist would develop the skills that would set him on course to become the state’s most acclaimed landscape painter.

That boy was Hans Heysen. A tanning salon is now on the site of the former timber yard that employed Heysen when he left school at 14.

C.J. Dennis, considered alongside Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson as one of Australia’s most famous poets, lived around the corner at 63 Elizabeth St, Norwood.

■ Hear their stories on the Nostalgic Norwood Tour. May 21, 10.30am-12.30pm. Departing Norwood Town Hall. Free. Phone 8344 0262 or 8366 4612.

A MAN OF THE KING

Speech therapist Lionel Logue’s work to treat King George VI’s stammer was made famous in the Oscar-winning film The King’s Speech but it was his own stammer that ended a friendship.

It was while playing in the street near his Norwood home that he befriended a boy, Frederick Charles Grubb, who would later go on to establish the cordial chain F.C. Grubb.

But Frederick’s mother soon put an end to the friendship after her son developed his own stammer, blaming young Lionel.

Historian Denise Schumann will hold a tour on Logue’s life, visiting where he was born and the brewery his grandfather, Edward, built at Kent Town.

■ The King’s Speech — Lionel Logue Bus Tour. May 23, 10.30am-1pm. Departs Norwood Town Hall. Free. Phone 8344 0262 or

8366 4612.

CYCLING INTO HISTORY

Alice Murada was a pacesetter and also a groundbreaker.

The daughter of Italian migrants, she was only the eighth woman licensed to compete as a racing cyclist at the Payneham Velodrome in the 1930s.

Her life will be celebrated in a display at St Peters Town Hall, giving an insight into the migration of young men and women from northern Italy and the search for a cultural identity.

■ Alice’s Story: Cycling Into Payneham’s History 1930s. Cultural Heritage Centre, St Peters Town Hall, 101 Payneham Rd, St Peters.

Free. Phone 8334 0262 or 8366 4612

FEARLESS CAMPAIGNER

When Adelaide actor Muriel Matters made international headlines in 1909, it wasn’t for a stage role but for taking to the skies over London in a 25m balloon emblazoned with “Votes For Women’’ and equipped with a megaphone, flags and hundreds of leaflets to drop.

The gifted orator was a suffragette who travelled England and Wales in a horse-drawn caravan making impassioned speeches to the public. She was often pelted with eggs and rotten fish for her troubles.

Muriel was incarcerated in Holloway Prison for chaining herself to a grille in the British House of Commons that separated women from the rest of the room. Born one of 10 children in a Methodist family in Bowden in 1877, her legacy is still celebrated in SA by the Muriel Matters Society.

■ Why Muriel Matters: A SA Suffragette’s Story. May 12, 7pm-8pm. Unley Town Hall, Oxford Tce, Unley. Book at www.unley.sa.gov.au/museum

HOLLYWOOD PIONEER

He was Hollywood’s first Australian, paving the way for the Gibsons and Jackmans of the future.

Born in Terowie, in the Mid North, John “JP” McGowan was a pioneer of the action blockbuster with a silver-screen career panning 30 years and more than 600 movies from the silent era onwards.

A revered exponent of railroad melodrama and westerns, the rugged adventurer gave John Wayne some of his early roles, and worked with everyone from Spencer Tracy to Rita Hayworth. He remains the only Australian to be named an honorary life member of the Directors Guild of America, alongside the likes of Walt Disney and Charlie Chaplin.

■ Hollywood’s First Australian: An Islington Lad. Reepham Hotel, 273 Churchill Rd, Prospect. May 8, 11.30am-12.30pm. Phone: 82675069

NEW FRONTIERS

When he circumnavigated Earth on the spacecraft Endeavour in 1996, Australia’s only astronaut, Dr Andy Thomas, carried with him a flint from John McDouall Stuart’s 1861-62 crossing of the Australian continent.

Dr Thomas is the great-great-grandson of one of the members of Stuart’s final expedition, naturalist Frederick Waterhouse — after whom the popular Waterhouse Art Prize is named — who set off with the explorer from what is now Carclew mansion in North Adelaide.

Dr Thomas, who is patron of the John McDouall Stuart Society, made three subsequent trips into space.

■ Explorer Extraordinaire, Every Thursday in May, 2pm-4pm. Adelaide Masonic Centre, 254 North Tce, Adelaide

HOLD YOUR HORSES

From 1858 to 1915, horse-drawn stage coaches travelling from

Adelaide to Willunga would stop to swap animals at Old Reynella.

Early settlers were carried along the route by famous coach companies such as William Rounsevell’s Royal Mail Coaches and Cobb & Co.

The State Heritage-listed Old Reynella horse-changing station was built in 1850 on land owned by pioneering pastoralist John Reynell, who was responsible for planting the state’s first vineyard.

■ Celebrate About Time at the historic horse changing station. May 5-10, 10am-2pm. Horse Changing Station, Old Reynella Shopping Centre

ALL GUNS BLAZING

The two old cannons on Torrens Parade Ground have a long and colourful history. Captured as trophies during the Crimean War, the 24-pounders were gifted to SA by Queen Victoria and the British Government in 1859.

Mounted on carriages at the expense of the colony, they were used to give a daily time signal at noon — and even a royal salute for the Duke of Edinburgh in 1867.

The guns enjoyed time in the spotlight in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, the south parklands and near the Art Gallery before moving to Adelaide Parade Ground in 1900.

They were among the defence assets transferred to the new Australian Army at Federation in 1901. After more than a century, they made a brief shift to Keswick Barracks before lobbying saw them returned to a revitalised parade ground.

■ Garden Secrets

May 16-21, 2pm-3.30pm.

Visitor Information Centre, Adelaide Botanic Gardens

● Details compiled by Renato Castello, Jackie Tracy and Nathan Davies