On 26 August, Belvedere Hills experienced what witnesses described as a ferociously bad smell. The odour arrived without warning, lingered with confidence and appeared to have no interest in respecting property boundaries.
The first theory was that a nearby farmer had been spreading slurry. A second school of thought blamed a burst sewage pipe at the nearby building site. A third theory emerged from a young lad who accused his friend of being responsible.
“He farted, I heard him,” he said, offering what was considered compelling evidence at the time.
By the afternoon, windows had been closed, investigative noses had been deployed and the neighbourhood had divided into competing camps: Team Slurry, Team Sewage and Team He Definitely Did It. No culprit has been officially confirmed, although several innocent breezes remain under review.
The incident has since been upgraded from “bad smell” to “local atmospheric event”, with experts advising residents to remain calm, avoid drawing conclusions and remember that the truth may be somewhere between a farm, a pipe and an extremely suspicious teenager.