State Icons including the Checkside Punt

You may come across one slowly rusting near Surfleet Cove in Lincoln National Park. This contraption was discovered by accident when farmer Richard Bowyer Smith broke a bolt on his plough. He found that when it hit a mallee stump, it jumped over it and he was able to continue tilling his field. And so the Stump Jump Plough was born.

Then again, you may have one in your kitchen pantry complete with hundreds of recipes for lamingtons, prune whip pie and passion fruit flummery. The Green and Gold cookbook has sold more than four hundred thousand copies since it started in 1923 as a fund raiser for King's College, now Pembroke School.

Then again you've probably grown up with this one - the Adelaide Christmas Pageant.

They're all State Icons and have been officially recorded on the Bank SA Heritage Icons List along with this classic which is described in a piece of football commentary from the archives:

“He’s about thirty yards out - almost identical to the position from where Endersbee kicked an earlier goal. Another “backscrew punt” and another goal - his second and Sturt's third.”

In the 1968 Grand Final, Sturt's Peter Endersbee kicked two "back screwies" as his legendary coach Jack Oatey called them to help win the flag against arch rival Port Adelaide. This uniquely South Australian creation was one of Jack's many lasting contributions to our great game.

While Jack called it the "Back Screwie" we now know it as the Checkside Punt. Jack Oatey's son Bob, another football legend, remembers his dad's approach to skills training at Unley Oval during an era when the Double Blues won five premierships on the trot:

“As he said if everybody is the same physically in the end the skill factor is going to determine who wins.”

The Checkside Punt is just one of the uniquely South Aussie creations listed on the Bank SA Heritage Icons List. The National Trust is calling for more nominations this year. You can pick up a form at any branch of Bank SA but get them in before the end of the month. You can also visit the National Trust web site for more details. www.nationaltrustsa.org.au