The mysterious naked lady of the Cootamundra hills narrowly escaped being shot by a hunter. Photo: Created using Ai and Photoshop.
In early 1932, rumours of a naked lady roaming the hills between Junee and Stockinbingle titillated the nation and men across the Riverina scrambled to form search parties.
The story began in February with a widely syndicated story from a snarky Cootamundra correspondent under the headline “Godiva” in reference to the English noble woman who famously rode naked through the streets of Coventry.
Enjoying his medieval literary theme the reporter described the “elusive mystery of pink skin and dishevelled hair” glimpsed by moonlight along with the “pattering of bare feet and the flash of quickly moving limbs” as she dashed off towards Stockinbingal.
As word began to spread, the “chivalrous” men of the region dragged themselves from their armchairs and “the search was on”.
At one stage the correspondent claims that more than 50 men were enthusiastically scouring the scrub.
“A party ventured into the hills in quest of the strange demented lady who darted here and there – like a will-o’-the-wisp – defying convention and bringing a blush of embarrassment to wanderers,” he said.
After three days, the searchers could find no sign of her, and struggling in the scorching summer heat, declared the story a hoax and headed back home for some shade.
But while the correspondent was happy to laugh it off as a joke aimed at embarrassing the “gallant” locals, there were more sightings the following month.
“What is believed to be a demented woman wandering in the bush almost fell to a local man who was shooting at North Junee yesterday,” reported the Telegraph on 12 March.
“Seeing what he thought was an animal of some kind, he was about to shoot, when he found that his mark was a woman, hidden in the bushes.”
The elusive streaker, now wearing a black beret, was also spotted by a woman outside the town and the news report recalled the numerous sightings in the Cootamundra hills in previous weeks.
The police resumed their search and days after her encounter with a hunter, the mystery woman was finally captured on the Junee golf links.
“When arrested she was wearing badly torn clothes, and had obviously spent a long time in the open, eating whatever she was able to find,” recounted Melbourne’s Sun News.
Despite her tattered black dress, the woman was calm and well spoken with a “prepossessing appearance” and gave her name as May Smith.
Charged at Junee court with “having no visible means of support”, she was refused bail and was remanded for eight days while police tried to piece things together.
In the meantime, Ms ‘Smith’ settled into her cell where she declined to give any further information and refused to eat.
“You don’t need to eat to live. You can get along all right without food,” she told her captors.
Police doubted the name she gave was authentic and despite locating a campsite and a suitcase filled with good quality clothes, they were unable to discover any more details about her.
Now that Ms Smith was fully dressed, and apparently “demented”, the newspapers lost interest and the final report describes the unfortunate woman being handed over for medical examination.
