In the main street of the South Australian town of Meningie stands a life-sized saddled-up statue of an ostrich.
The sign beside the big bird tells of bushranger John Francis Peggotty, also known as the Birdman of the Coorong, who gallivanted around the region, robbing Cobb & Co coaches on ostrich-back.
The metal statue is hefty enough to take the weight of tourists — it even has foot pegs to help them climb up and shoot finger pistols in the air, just as Peggotty might have done 150 years ago — but is the story behind it as flimsy as the grass that grows around the ostrich's feet?
South Australia wasn't known for bushrangers, and definitely not bushrangers who could ride ostriches, but local schoolteacher Denice Mason says it is all part of the unique story of Peggotty.
He was born three months premature in Limerick, Ireland in 1864, and never caught up to his peers in the height stakes.
"He only grew to the size of a 7-year-old … so he became a chimney sweep in rich people's houses," Ms Mason says.
"He became addicted to taking little samples of rich people's belongings, but he was caught out by one of his landladies as he was parading around in his finery."
The story goes that Peggotty managed to escape to South Africa where he was employed as an ostrich jockey.
Apparently, though, his family didn't approve of gambling on big birds to make a living so he was shipped off to a sheep farm near Orange, NSW, where an uncle took him in.
Ms Mason says that didn't work out either. The uncle found his guest wearing his wife's jewellery, so he was asked to leave.
So Peggotty made his way to South Australia, where he found a wild ostrich and became a robber along the Coorong road.
Although the existence of John Francis Peggoty is very much in question, there are facts about ostriches in South Australia which line up with the story.
Ostriches in South Australia
Ostriches are native to Africa, but people might be surprised to know that Australia has wild populations of them too, says Rohan Clarke, an ecologist at Monash University and co-author of The Australian Bird Guide.
"There's probably the largest populations in South Australia."
They started off as farmed creatures. For instance, just outside Port Augusta in the 1880s, South African ostriches were imported and farmed for their feathers to make plumed hats and fashion pieces.
But around 1915 the industry collapsed, leading to wild populations roaming the outback.
Dr Clarke says, it is plausible that wild ostriches were wandering Australia earlier — even by the late 1800s.
"We were pretty good at importing all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures."
Ms Mason also says wild ostriches were around the Coorong around the turn of the 20th century.
"A few years ago someone gave us to put on display an ostrich egg that had been found on the Coorong, and it belonged to their great grandmother, so that probably was around about 100 years old."
So that part of the story checks out. Ostriches were around during Peggotty's time, and he could have commandeered a wild one or a farm escapee — but what about saddling it up?
Dr Clarke says riding an ostrich can be done.
"I've never tried it and I've never witnessed that directly.
"But certainly there are ostrich races and there are plenty of videos online of people riding ostriches.
"So, I think probably in the same space as camel races and a few other things, largely a novelty, but definitely doable."
Where did this wild tale come from?
Ms Mason says during the 2000s, in grip of the Millennium Drought, Meningie was facing a rough future.
"The lake at Meningie had basically dried up and the town became almost a ghost town because lots of the dairies had to close with the lack of water."
The "John Peggotty project" was one idea that came after hooking in with SA Tourism to find ways for the town to survive without water.
"There was a group of people who aimed to gather stories about the town and promote the town through stories rather than through historical events," Ms Mason says.
And the Peggotty story in particular resonated with the committee, she adds.
"It was given to us by a local person who had the original copy [of the story] that had been printed in a magazine in the 1960s."
Ms Mason did try to confirm the story's veracity, but her research didn't turn up much outside that magazine article.
So while the Birdman of the Coorong is almost definitely a myth, the town worked together to create a climbable life-size ostrich statue, a sign and a story to give tourists something to see and ride.
The statue is actually an emu painted to look like an ostrich.
"I think it was a financial decision," Ms Mason says.
"People who get funny about the whole story will come and say, 'But it has three toes and ostriches only have two.'"
Still, the story has lasted longer than the committee expected, and the statue is starting to show a few signs of wear.
The town will need to find the money to replace it, perhaps with an anatomically correct two-toed ostrich statue, Ms Mason says.
"Or we could just keep dressing up the emu."
So what became of John Peggotty?
The escapades of the ostrich-riding bushranger came to a sad end, Ms Mason says.
"He was hiding in the bushes along the Coorong and, the story goes, there was a glint from the sun shining on his jewellery which attracted the attention of the locals."
His ostrich was shot, and Peggotty, now on foot, was chased into the dunes and never seen again.
So, Ms Mason says, "possibly along the Coorong somewhere is quite a lot of gold and jewellery, probably hanging around a skeleton".
