John Telfer and Ken Turner celebrate David Stephenson’s feat of endurance after spending a week living on a pole in Wagga’s CBD. Photo: Museum of the Riverina.
If you had to sit alone in a tiny cubbyhouse on top of a 15-metre pole for a whole week, how would you occupy your time?
According to Mark Stephenson, whose father performed this feat in Wagga 57 years ago, drinking beer was a popular option!
This week’s yarn takes us back to the late 1960s when the Wagga Apex Club staged this unusual stunt to raise money for the Murrumbidgee Ambulance Service.
Pole sitting is a test of endurance that has ancient roots in 5th-century Christian history when the ‘Pillar Saints’, or ‘Stylites’, would settle in for years on top of a pillar or a pole.
The most famous was Simeon Stylites the Elder, who planted himself on the top of a pillar in northern Syria in the year 423 and remained there until he died more than three decades later.
The practice was revived in the US in the early 20th century when stuntman Alvin ‘Shipwreck’ Kelly responded to a dare by sitting on a flagpole for 13 hours and 13 minutes in 1924.
The fad escalated with record attempts, fundraisers and protests that lasted days, weeks and even years.
Wagga’s only recorded pole sitting adventure took place in August of 1968 when local Apexian David Stephenson scaled an enormous pole that was raised at the end of Fitzmaurice Street next to the Wollundry Bridge.
The fundraiser was the brainchild of the Wagga Apex Club and the lads built a cosy little tin cubbyhouse complete with a small veranda affixed with a sign that read “Help us buy a crash Waggon” (The extra ‘g’ of course a nod to the city’s name).
The tiny cubby on the pole was reportedly equipped with a telephone to call potential donors. Photo: Museum of the Riverina.
David’s son Mark said the stunt was something of a family legend and the cubby had been kitted out with supplies and a telephone.
“He raised money up the pole for the first Wagga Ambulance Rescue Truck (crash wagon),” Mark said.
“Basically all day he was ringing businesses and people in the community to donate.
“I’m assuming with my father’s love of beer I reckon he would have been drinking a fair bit too!”
For those wondering what he did with all that used beer, Mark said he believed a toilet was installed.
After a full week of looking out across the city and hustling for donations, David climbed down from his perch to a hero’s welcome and was photographed being hoisted onto the shoulders of John Telfer and Ken Turner.
In total, the stunt raised an impressive $3815 and president David Kennedy and Richard Gray from Wagga Apex formally presented a cheque to the District Chairman of the Murrumbidgee Ambulance Service, Morris Gissing.
In a nice bit of serendipity, Mark not only continued his father’s legacy as a proud Apex member, but he actually joined the ambulance service in 1996 and continues to work in Wagga as a rescue paramedic.
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