Plumber Pikey bowled over by flush with fame
To the unknowing observer it's just a picture of a man and his unique thunderbox, but when you delve deeper it is the tale of what could quite possibly be South Hedland's first tourist attraction.
The search to find Michael Pike and his toilet letterbox began when _Pilbara News _journalist Peter de Kruijff got into an argument with colleagues about just how much toilet was too much toilet to show in the newspaper.
Hoping to prove a point, de Kruijff delved into the WA News archives searching for toilet images and up came "this black and white cracker taken by _The West Australian _photographer Bill Hatto".
De Kruijff said he had once been on a ride-along with Hatto when the photographer had told him about his stint in Port Hedland in the 1980s. "So I figured this gem must have been taken all the way back then and had a good laugh and sent it to you guys at the _North West Telegraph _," he said.
Not put off by Hatto's warning that the photo was taken sometime around 1985 when he worked for News of the North, the _North West Telegraph _tracked Pikey the Plumber down to a property in South Hedland with a little help from social media.
Laughing about the photo's reappearance almost 30 years after it was published, Pikey said the idea for the distinctive letterbox started with a conversation about junk mail.
"It was a bit of a conversation between myself and a bloke called Peter Withers; we were talking about all the crap mail you'd get ... and that it really should get flushed down the dunny," he said last week.
A plumber, Pikey belted together a toilet and cistern he had removed from a property and his mate Mr Withers created the sign, "Mail in here, Crap below", stuck to the front.
The "letterbox" was installed outside his house at Skippers Loop in South Hedland - at the time the only house on the Loop - and the ever-obliging mailman followed the instructions and put the mail in the top of the cistern and the catalogues in the bowl.
The tale goes that after its installation, a friendly neighbour used the letterbox to relieve themselves, forcing Pikey to fill the bowl with concrete.
But it was thanks to a visit from Hatto that Pikey and his unusual letterbox gained more than a little fame.
Hatto's photo was published in the now defunct Daily News on December 29, 1986, and in an Australia Post publication that was sent around the country, and internationally.
"I just thought it was a bit of a laugh, I'll get into the paper, big deal, you know - it just went on from there," Pikey said.
"There wasn't much happening around town at that stage for tourists, so they'd bring the tourists buses past my house and all the tourists would get out and get their photo taken with this stupid toilet letterbox. I thought it was something funny, unique for Port Hedland - it put us on the map."
The photo even appeared on national television, and Pikey was sent a copy to autograph from a Canadian admirer.
But South Hedland's first tourist attraction didn't last. The funny dunny was retired to the tip sometime in the 1990s.
Pikey removed it before leaving town for a bit because he didn't want anyone else to have it.
But the funny dunny may return to South Hedland, albeit in a new form. There are rumours Pikey has plans for a new letterbox design inspired by the female anatomy.
