'Menacing': the weird 'rule' around a big old tank

Or, if a rule is not in writing, how does everyone know to follow it?

Our recent update on the current status of the site of the old Canberra Services Club did not include the answer to a question that has persisted since shortly after the club burned to the ground in 2011.

Why is the imposing, 2.7-metre Leopard Tank, currently stationed on the edge of the empty block, facing towards Manuka and, by extension, towards the much-cherished Kokoda Memorial?

The answer, according to current club president Jon Hunt-Sharman, is that the tank is "not allowed" to point towards Parliament House.

The same goes for the Bofors 40mm Anti-Aircraft Gun also standing on the site; large, destructive weapons must always point away from Parliament House.

But this deceptively simple explanation has only given rise to more questions.

Is it just our Parliament House, or houses of parliament, generally?

How destructive does it need to be? Are spears, knives or rifles included?

And what about the cannons used in official salutes?

So many questions, and no definite answers.

Yet a quick poll among other members of the club showed they were all in agreement: this, they said, was a long-standing protocol.

"One hundred per cent," said immediate past president Mike Kinniburgh, adding that it was a protocol he and his predecessors had "inherited".

But no one knew its origins or whether it was in writing anywhere.

Strange, too, that it had never been put forward as an explanation to persistent concerns around the placing of the tank, with the Kokoda Memorial almost - but not quite - in firing range.

The bronze sculpture depicts a "Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel" - the name given by Australian soldiers to Papua New Guinean war carriers who, during World War II, were recruited to bring supplies and carry injured Australian troops down the Kokoda trail - helping an Australian soldier, and was designed by Helena Anderson in 1981. It was donated by the Kingston Narrabundah RSL in 1983.

A letter to The Canberra Times in 2022 voiced the concerns apparently shared by many.

"For far too long now, the solemnity of the Kokoda Memorial has been compromised by the menacing proximity of the muzzle of the unfortunately located Leopard tank, overgrown vegetation, dilapidated flag pole and a derelict sign," wrote Ian Pearson, of Barton

"Shame on the club."

The massive battle tank, meanwhile, the last of 71 redundant Australian Army Leopards to be delivered to RSL and services clubs around the country, was installed on a reinforced concrete pad adjacent to the site of the burnt-out club in November, 2011.

At the time, it was seen as the start of the club's "rise from the ashes" as it made plans to rebuild.

It was also noted at the time that Australia's Leopards had largely been replaced by 59 Abrams M1A1 tanks, and that none had ever "fired a shot in anger".

Mr Hunt-Sharman told The Canberra Times the club was cognisant of the standing of the Kokoda sculpture, and had every intention of incorporating it into any new iteration of the club.

If, for example, the club did succeed in having its lease changed, and was later able to build the boutique hotel of everyone's dreams, the Kokoda Memorial would likely be displayed "tastefully" in the foyer.

The future of the tank, on long-term loan from the military, was less certain. In a statement, the club said it may well "be returned to the military, given to another club or be incorporated into the new club".

But given the club has aspirations of moving beyond its associations with only defence services, it would be strange to see it stationed at the entrance.

Even if it was pointing southwards towards Manuka or Kingston.

On this note, a senior member of the Canberra branch of the RSL club maintained he had never heard of such a protocol.

"I have no idea where it would even have come from," he said.

A response from the National Capital Authority, which has jurisdiction over the national triangle and all its peculiar laws and conventions, was slightly more diplomatic.

It had no immediate record of any such rule or protocol, though this did not preclude its existence at some juncture.

And one from Defence Media was equally non-committal, if unequivocal; no one had heard of such a protocol, and a perfunctory search in the expected places had turned up nothing.

It was one unnamed club member who perhaps put it best, suggesting that such a protocol was "unlikely to be the kind of thing that's written down", and was more down to an enduring belief.

"And that belief is why it's not pointing towards Parliament House," he concluded.

A superstition, if you will.