Gordon and ‘The Leap’ … 160 years ago

Australian poet and horseman Adam Lindsay Gordon made his famous daredevil ‘leap’ alongside the Blue Lake Mount Gambier 160 years ago, on 28 July 1864. He jumped his horse Red Lancer over a post-and-rail guard fence beside the Blue Lake and landed on a small 1.8 metre ledge, with a 60 metre drop to the water, then jumped back on to the road.

Gordon’s comrades on that occasion were Robert Learmonth, William Trainor, and a couple of other friends including John Locke (publican at Port MacDonnell), Jim Galpin and others were out riding the day after Mount Gambier’s Border Steeplechase which Learmonth won on Ingleside, followed by Trainor on Longbow, and then Gordon on Modesty. Each had dared the others to better their feats over certain fences, then Gordon thought he would execute a jump that he thought the others couldn’t emulate. He had no challengers.

However, a young horse trainer Lance Skuthorpe made several attempts over two days, with three different horses, in October 1900. At the end of the second day, on a horse named Wallace, he cleared the fence and landed sideways on the ledge very close to the drop. It is believed the fence was dismantled to return the horse to the road.

More than 17 years after Gordon’s famous ‘leap’, an obelisk was erected near the spot on a rocky ledge between the Blue Lake and Leg of Mutton Lake, where the road runs between. The foundation stone was laid by Gordon’s close friend John Riddoch, of Yallum Park, on 8 July 1887. Erected on a site six metres above the road level, the lower part of the base is constructed of grey dolomite, and the upper part of pink dolomite, while the shaft is cut out of solid granite.

The idea for a monument to commemorate Gordon was instigated by then Mayor of Mount Gambier William Thurston, and the manager of Moorak station Thomas Williams. Subscriptions came from Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, the Western District of Victoria, and all parts of the south-east. The Adam Lindsay Gordon Memorial Obelisk was listed as a State Heritage Place on 29 June 1989.

Caption: ‘The Leap’ by Almar Zaadstra, c. 2020.