The chair of wisdom, where Donald “Trunk” once sat. Photo: Beth Riolo. Inset: Donald dressed up for Easter before going missing. Photo: Supplied.
The much-loved elephant Donald “Trunk”, who has greeted children on their way to Jamberoo for the past four years, was stolen from his “chair of wisdom” on a Jamberoo farm, leaving a community heartbroken and its owners pleading for his return.
Owner Juanita Harris said the roadside fibreglass elephant was stolen on Easter Saturday and, two weeks on, his chair sat in the front paddock empty.
“Someone saw him on their way through to Albion Park at 7 pm but somebody else said that he was gone at 11 pm,” Juanita said.
She said she was overwhelmed by the community response for the unofficial “Jamberoo mascot”, with people still posting on social media calling for the person responsible to “bring him back”, and some even offering to help fund a replacement Donald.
“Mostly it’s grandparents whose grandkids are really missing him,” she said.
Juanita believes he’s been taken well away from Jamberoo, saying someone would likely know something if he were still in the area.
When asked what message she wanted to send to the person responsible, she said their “joy couldn’t possibly be as strong as the sadness of the community that Donald’s gone”.
“It’s just very sad.”
She said the one-metre tall elephant first appeared four years ago thanks to her husband Col, sitting just 10 metres from Jamberoo Road beyond a ditch and barbed wire fence.
“My husband is a bit of a hoarder,” she said, laughing.
“He took a load of stuff to the Dunmore Waste Depot, and came back with Donald.”
She said the community took to him right from the start.
“When he was first there, it was when Donald Trump was in all sorts of trouble, and my husband built a cage around him, like a jail,” she said.
“Then when he was wanting to come back into politics, my husband put up a big sign saying, ‘Vote one Donald Trump’. It just went from there.
“My husband’s a practical joker.”
She said originally Donald sat on a concrete slab but was attacked by the resident bull, so they put in in a canoe on the dam at the front of the property.
“But then we got torrential rain and the canoe sunk, so Donald sunk with it,” she said.
“Then we had him up on top of the dam in the canoe with a fishing rod, and the winds came and blew him down the hill in the canoe.
“The canoe came out of it OK, but Donald had horrific injuries, so he had to be repaired.
“He was gone for some time and the kids in Jamberoo were most upset, so we had to say that he’d had a terrible canoeing accident and that he would be back soon.”
Juanita said it was the tenants on the old farmhouse on the property who put him in the “chair of wisdom” to protect him from the bull.
She said whatever national celebration was happening, Donald would be decked out in outfits to match, including Australia Day, Easter, Christmas, St Patricks Day and Anzac Day.
There’s even stories that often go along with his outfits, with his Hawaiian shirt and lei outfit worn due to having come back from holiday after his injury.
Juanita said they were now looking for a replacement elephant, but admitted they wouldn’t be able to find one quite like Donald.
“We want to find something that’s still a bit attractive to the kids,” she said.
