Sound-and-light spectacular not without teething troubles

Funny how you can get a bee in your bonnet about the most unlikely matters.

As I confessed to you in this column a couple of weeks ago, if I could travel back in time, I would love to see the Star Fountain in its pomp in the lower Octagon.

I'm not a fountain aficionado especially, but I do have an appreciation of the quirky and of things that cannot by any means be considered mainstream.

Anyway, so there I am, beamed into the centre of Dunedin on a winter's evening, say in about 1969. It's nice and dark and nobody can tell that my clothes look a bit strange. There's a cold wind blowing (some things never change). Suddenly, it's all go.

(For this bit I have to copy the words on a postcard of the fountain in the Allied Press photographic database. But hopefully, it sounds like I'm really there.)

As I said, suddenly the fountain ''presents a varied programme of water patterns and coloured lights, all changing in time with recorded music''.

I'm listening to Orpheus in the Underworld, Light Cavalry Overture, Waltz of the Fairy Dolls, Jolly Robbers, Flotte Burschen and Waltz, from the opera Faust, the postcard tells me. But it also says the display is a quick one, only lasting from 9pm to 9.15pm.

Leaving the late '60s, I beam back into my office in 2017 and find an email (purely non-coincidentally) from Maurice Hayward, of Dunedin's Film Heritage Trust, with his recollections of the fountain.

''The late Alan Ganderton, a local plumber and electrician, helped the German representative from the supplier to assemble the pipe work. Alan didn't speak German and maybe the German didn't speak English.

''The pipes had to be connected in the correct sequence, either clockwise or anticlockwise. Unfortunately the wrong sequence was used, and the pipes had to be separated and reconnected the correct way.

''The fountain played at set times. Initially it started with the loud announcement 'Achtung!', followed by very German military music. Subsequently the music was changed (I think) by the late Eric Andersen.

''The sound came from reel-to-reel magnetic tapes fitted with foil to operate the water jets. The tape deck and other controls were located in the old underground men's toilets.

''Young hooligans put detergent in the water and maybe also dye. Repairs were done at one stage as water was leaking into the submerged lights. The electric pumps also had to be reconditioned.''

Maurice says the trust owns only a few seconds of footage of the Star Fountain. He asks anyone who has any to get in touch with him on either (03) 473-9506 or email filmheritagetrust@gmail.com so it can be added to the archive's 500 hours of historic footage.

I wonder if it might be worth bringing the fountain back to life as part of the Dunedin City Council's multimillion-dollar plan for revitalising the city centre?

Bucket-list request

Do you remember Gordon Brown, from the northeast of England, who will be visiting Dunedin about Waitangi Day and wanted more information about his Uncle Rob, who worked in the family business Brown, Ewing & Co?

Gordon has been wanting to come to Dunedin since he was 6 and wishes to visit the grave of his uncle, who died on Christmas Day 1967.

Thank you to Raeleene Munro, of Dunedin, and my ODT colleague Janice Murphy for digging up some material, which I sent to Gordon. Unfortunately, it was not all good news.

Gordon replied recently and said he was grateful to Raeleene and Janice for their help.

''I see Uncle Rob's ashes were scattered, so bang goes my wish to place flowers on his grave!

''His younger brother (my granddad) and older sister are buried next to each other in our local churchyard. His sister was a favourite of their Uncle Thomas. She was born in 1881.

''Thomas Brown used to sail back to the UK almost annually to source goods for Brown Ewing and, from her 18th birthday, he used to pay for her to travel from Northumberland to London to spend with him the duration of his stay.

''She enjoyed the grand style that his success enabled him to treat her to. At some later time, after Thomas Brown's death, Uncle Rob emigrated and she and her husband were tempted to follow.

''Her husband Ernie, a barber in Durham, sailed to Dunedin to see whether he would then send for my great-aunt to follow him, but almost as soon as he arrived so too did the telegram from his recent, former employer offering him the barber's business in Durham.

''So Ernie swiftly boarded a UK-bound ship but died of a heart attack and was buried at sea, somewhere in the Indian Ocean.

''Another relative whose last resting place is unavailable to me!''

Thanks for sharing that family story with us, Gordon.

Last one

Yep, it's the last column of the year tomorrow. See you then.