In plane view, Adelaide Airport's Buck the bear
CHRIS PEPPER
August 16, 2009 12:01am
IF you go out on the tarmac today, be sure of a big surprise - a 1m-high teddy bear riding a bicycle, to be exact.
Dubbed "Buck" by Adelaide Airport staff, the bear has stood guard along the international runway for the past 27 years in various incarnations - clutching a beer on Australia Day, riding a bike during the Tour Down Under, or dressed up in a Port Adelaide guernsey for the premiership.
What started off as a light-hearted challenge to keep air traffic controllers on their toes has turned into a much-loved institution.
"He's representative of what's going on in the state," said airport operations manager John McArdle.
"He gets a regular feature on the staff intranet. The staff like to keep abreast of where he's at and what he's doing . . . if he's not there people write letters asking where he is."
The Buck legend began in 1982 when a member of staff salvaged an old wicker chair from a local dump, and shoved it on to the airfield during the night as a bit of a joke for air traffic controllers.
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"At first light, they had a bit of a challenge to see who was the first one to spot it," said Mr McArdle.
"It encouraged a good survey of the airfield before it opened."
Soon after an airport employee whose children had left home donated one of their old teddy bears to the airport, and it was promptly stuffed into the chair.
Staff christened the toy "Buck" after Buck Brooksbank, a colourful former Civil Aviation Authority official from Canberra.
Twenty-seven years later, Buck is still keeping watch over the runways and entertaining tourists - he is often the last thing passengers see on the ground as their planes roar down the tarmac.
He might not actually do much but it's been a hard couple of decades for Buck, with harsh sun, wind, rain and hail all taking their toll on his stuffing - not to mention the wasps.
"Once wasps made a nest inside Buck's head," Mr McArdle said.
"Then he got attacked by crows, seriously. He was severely damaged."
And that's not the only spot of bother Buck has been in.
"Just prior to the Ansett collapse he was kidnapped and held to ransom," Mr McArdle said. "A charity got a sizeable donation when he was returned with a broken arm."
Over the years there have been about three different Bucks. Each has undergone a significant amount of surgery in its time, but all have eventually fallen into "permanent hibernation" - otherwise known as the shredder.
It's a somewhat inglorious end for such a unique role - Adelaide is believed to be the only airport in the world with a runway ambassador.
