Steampunk makers and creators are prone to a bit of fun and don't take themselves too seriously so when it comes to telling a tale or two they are right up there with the best of the fiction writers.

I have often been reading a description of a Steampunk "invention" and found myself wondering, "Is this story truth or fiction?"

Thus it was that when I was building the Space Traveller's Trophy I developed an idea for a story of how it came into existence and wrote the following:

"For a while in the late 1890’s Godfrey Etooc was feted as the first farmer to journey into space.

This is a replica of the trophy awarded to him by an adoring and awestruck group of astronomy enthusiasts to celebrate his achievement.

Godfrey had a couple of acres at Yawong-on-River and was always experimenting with one invention or another. He was somewhat unkindly referred to as “That Mad Scientist” by his farming neighbours though they surreptitiously sought his help on many occasions. (See the story of the “Rain Precipitator”).

Godfrey let it slip one day that he was planning a journey to furthest outer space and was building a rocket in a strongly fortified shed on his property. He had been experimenting with a way of storing energy by freezing and compressing oxygen and hydrogen until all movement of the atoms pretty well ceased and the two gases became extremely dense solid blocks. He then planned to harvest energy from the sun in a controlled manner to thaw the gases gradually, mix them in a special engine then ignite them to propel his rocket.

Most people who heard of this plan were a bit skeptical but after some of them heard one of his neighbours telling those he met at the Jones’ clearing sale that he had seen the nose cone of a rocket poking up above the strongly fortified shed on Godfrey’s Yawong property, they started to give credence to Godfrey's ramblings.

This news started a mad rush of mostly naïve city folk to this neighbour’s property where they intended to spy on Godfrey’s invention. But all they could see was Godfrey extending the four walls of the surrounding structure in a skyward direction.

Some months later, however, on pleasant sunny morning passers-by and neighbours were astounded to hear a mighty roar and some caught sight of a silver object at the head of a sheet of flame and smoke disappearing into the sky above Godfrey’s strongly fortified shed.

Rumours spread like wild fire that “The Wizard of Yawong" had indeed taken off on his journey to the farthest reaches of outer space. Local police were called to investigate and were frustrated in their efforts to break into Godfey’s strongly fortified shed in an attempt to verify the rumours of the existence of a rocket. They also had no luck in locating either a living or dead Godfey Etooc.

Then at around midnight a couple of days after the sighting of the plumes of flame and smoke the aforementioned neighbour and his corpulent wife were thrown bodily from their brass embellished bed by a frightening explosion.

Recovering somewhat, they ventured out into the night to be confronted by a burning rocket-like object where Godfey’s strongly fortified shed once stood. As they hesitatingly crept closer they espied the prone body of their missing neighbour clad in a smouldering suit of a metallic looking material and wearing a metal helmet with a heavy glass visor through which they could recognise Godfey’s pale and almost lifeless face. Another curious neighbour then turned up and was dispatched urgently to summon the local ambulatory buggy and resident doctor.

Remarkably Godfrey survived the explosion and the subsequent bone shattering trip to the Bush Nursing Hospital, though he was barely conscious for some months and kept moaning and muttering about astronomy, space travel and other scientific discourse.

As is often the case, a group of curious space travel enthusiasts, on hearing of Godfrey’s plight descended on the small community where they spent many hours at his bedside in the Bush Nursing Hospital. Shortly after their arrival, the group of space travel enthusiasts announced that Godfrey was claiming, in his more lucid moments, that he had indeed journeyed to the farthest reaches of outer space and returned, only to crash land on top of his strongly fortified shed.

Determined to suitably acknowledge this momentous achievement the group of space travel enthusiasts began planning for a suitable trophy to present to Godfrey on his return to his relative state of normality. They scoured through the detritus of the strongly fortified shed and found various parts of a model Godfrey had presumably made during his design of the space probing apparatus. They rather cleverly married these pieces together into a presentable sculpture and topped the model with the latest example of current technical advancement: an electricised light!

On his eventual discharge from hospital a somewhat confused and humbled Godfey Etooc was ceremoniously presented with this sumptuous trophy and was photographed time and again in an effort to preserve the wondrous moment.

Of course we all know now that Godfrey was not actually the first farmer or indeed the first Australian to journey to the farthest reaches of outer space and the group of space travel enthusiasts was very disappointed when Godfrey arrived at a meeting of the group and returned the Space Traveller’s Trophy only days after having received it. He apologised for the misunderstanding and explained that his ramblings during his stay in the Bush Nursing Hospital had been misconstrued and that he hadn’t left the confines of the Earth’s atmosphere or gravitational field at all.

After years of planning, Godfrey explained, he had indeed managed to take off in his oxygen and hydrogen powered rocket. He had on board an ingenious device which was calibrated to keep one side of his craft pointing towards the Sun so that the heating apparatus which thawed the oxygen and hydrogen from a solid block to a usable gas was able to harvest the energy from the Sun’s rays.

Unfortunately Godfrey had activated this apparatus before he reached outer space and before he had properly aligned his trajectory, with the disastrous result that saw his precious rocket looping in an ever decreasing orbit approximately five miles above his small farm at Yawong-on-River. Eventually it crash landed unceremoniously on his strongly fortified shed only a couple of days after launching.

Embarrassed and hurt, the group of space travel enthusiasts withdrew the story from circulation before it was printed in the newspapers and the episode was not talked about in polite circles after that.

Thus the story of the space journey attempt was never included in any of the official contemporary journals either and the episode details were lost to history.

I was fortunate however, to have found a copy of one of the photographs taken at the time on the front steps of the Bush Nursing Hospital and after making extensive and very discreet inquiries was able to establish, not only details of the famous trophy but, piece by amazing piece, the true adventure of Godfrey Etooc, the space travelling farmer from Yawong-on-River."

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