Lost and found old rifle out Minmi way

Long Shot: An old rifle that Bob Skelton found at the Jewboy Cave near Mount Sugarloaf, before losing it and finding it again.

You know when you misplace something and never find it again?

Well actually, sometimes you do find it. Sometimes you find it many many years later, like in the case of an old rifle that Bob "Minmi Magster" Skelton found on his property.

While removing his pool, an old rifle was unearthed next to the pool's paling fence.

"I found the rifle at the Jewboy Cave [near Mount Sugarloaf] 40 to 50 years ago. It was a lever-action thing, virtually rusted away. I lost it about 10 years ago," the Magster said.

"It could have belonged to the Jewboy bushranger gang - you never know. More likely kids that were out there later on."

The Magster said he must have left the rifle "standing up against a fence post".

"It's virtually the same as what it was. I must have walked away and left it there absent-mindedly," he said.

"I had been searching for it, so I was pleased I found it. You find things when you're not looking for them. When you're looking for them, you never find them."

Mystery Footprint

A child's footprint in mortar at the old Minmi school.

The Magster said his young bloke had been "working on pulling the pool out", having hired a bobcat.

"He exposed the footings where the old Minmi school was," Bob said.

The old school, which is now Bob's property, was built around 1877.

The pool's removal exposed the school's foundation stones.

"On a thin bed of mortar on top of some slate, there's a perfect footprint of a child. One of the workers must have had a child there. There's no scribbled name or date, though. Maybe the father wasn't with them at the time."

The footprint is actually a shoe-print. While we can't say who the shoe belonged to, we can definitely say it would not have been a Nike or Adidas shoe [or RM WIlliams, as the Magster said].