northcote folly

You know I can boast about my skills in research but I wonder if I could ever add anything to the story of this item. It's been around for a  long time and it's crazy. I wonder if there is anything in the City of Northcote archives that might explain a little. 
 

Update 24 March 26:

I can't be too harsh about this, because it did take me over a week to notice. But on that website I linked to above, there are images of the folly in its original (? or at least a former) location, and when you hover over the images you get a kind of a caption or whatever it's called. Alt text. Well, 

The surmise here is that the second image 'appears to be the same folly' as the first. But hell, it's exactly the same picture, unless perhaps that man sat on that bench every day to read his flamin' paper!

Anyway, I ordered the relevant file from the PROV, or as close as I can get to the relevant file, because the parks files for 1925-1940something are suspiciously missing. Cover up.