Great video thanks Garry, i grew up knowing of the Cayzers but your documentary gave me a much better knowledge of the history of the business, family members involved , varieties and sourcing of timbers and the families boats were built for. I really enjoyed watching this. Do you have any idea of the name of the planing hull pictured underway in the Apollo Bay harbour at around the 12:50min mark of the video?
You are an absolute legend for taking your time to craft these epic events and show case all aspects of these untold industry's. Orange roughy was the best.. Tassy is nothing short of spectacular
I did a bit over a year on the Lella in 97/98 as a deckhand, but earned less than $600 (minus all the sub-advances)… great fun but not lucrative. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, I enjoyed this.
Thank you for doing this l grew up with this man and his father and his kids...awsome stuff regards Doc..PS l went to the DARK side and became a Fisheries Inspector..miss those care free days.
Enough for your needs but not your greed. Free for all, regardless of the resource, ends in tears. The quota system has its own problems but it is a step in the right direction in making sure that there is something left for our offspring.
This is awsome, I worked on these boats for a couple of seasons & went to Yemen to collect the Kalf boats with Ciril Tomlinson & John (Dakom ? ). Good job, great times, friends made for life & a bloody good little town .❤
Hey Garry, I have a question. Was the name “LENNA” popular for a vessel in Lakes Entrance? I have a series of black and white prints (4) that are all of Lakes Entrance and one features the MV LENNA BIRD. Another one features 2 unnamed fishing vessels in dry dock. They’re dated ’74 - ‘76. Cheers mate 🍻🇦🇺
Hi Aaron, yes Lenna was a trading ketch in Hobart, bought by the Richie family in the 60's for salmon fishing. Converted to a cruise boat on the lakes as Lenna Bird. Ended up in Gosford NSW as a cruise boat. Broken up maybe 20 years ago, cheers, Garry
Yes I remember the Kalf boats and a quick tour or the factory barge. One engine seized an engine die to vessel heeling over hauling purse and the baffle in the lube tank had no limber holes prevented it flowing back to the pump inlet within the tank. An interesting ex South African navy marine engineer was very interesting to listen too .
Once again Garry, Excellent and very informative documentary regarding another one of the ol'school fisheries here in the S.E australian fisheries. Carnt wait for your scallop fishing doco.... :)
I used to catch mackeral in the late 70s on a silver hook, no need for bait! now there is no mackeral left, after watching this, now I know why, very irresponsible fishing mis-management!
Thanks for this and all your other work Garry. I grew up in Portland and spent a lot of time in this area of tassie, so this history means a lot to me.
Thanks for another great history lesson cheers from the mid North Coast of nsw i am 5th generation in this small town my surname has a long history Thank you for videos
Great video. I remember well, watching my father growing potatoes in the 1940/50 era. Very hard tedious work for kids. They did make some money which helped them get on their feet. Interestingly every thing they did in Portland was done exactly the same in South Gippsland
Watching this from Warrior Island on 31/8/24 at 2100. Heavy rain with thunder and finished making my speargun today and had mud crab and octopus and rice and cabage for dinner.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiwo_Maru_(1989) Japanese Navy. Still sailing. The USS Constitution, a four master, is still "commissioned" in the US Navy, but it is not clear that it will ever sail again.
Roy and his brothers were angry at not getting paid for much of their work following failure of the Spero River pining venture to get enough Huon Pine through saw-mills to cover all costs. Hence Roy's too easily dismissing Victor's vision for it, the problems Victor had trying to get it across to others, essentially the idea that coastal pine in the Spero and Wanderer Rivers was more accessible than far reaches of the Gordon catchment where everyone else was looking. Roy did hit the nail on the head though, in his remarks about the boats, Roy's Wy Wurry and that steamship they brought up from Huon River trade. Their being UNDER-POWERED. My guess is that this was the final challenge to Victor's vision, that him and those other two investors would have been having, and finally failed at: GETTING A POWERFUL ENOUGH TUG-BOAT!?! Victor was well informed about everything else. He was telling me as a child that he had physically explored all stands of Huon Pine in all of SW Tasmania. He'd picked the brains of all piners working there, to find out where and how to put in new equipment to take out more Huon Pine, and had ended up deciding that those two coastal rivers, the Spero and the Wanderer were the way to go. When I got to look at a map as a teenager I found that Victor had named all the rivers I was seeing on it. He'd mentioned the Hardwood and Serpentine and other Rivers for their having no Huon Pine, and a giant sink-hole full of inaccessible Huon Pine. Victor was AHEAD OF HIS TIME. Even tug-boats were tiny in those days. All engines were under-powered at that time, early 1930s, BEFORE WW2. IC engine technology matured strongly during WW2, was close to maturity at the end of WW2. NOT BEFORE! Nor did they have the global wave height maps we have today, so did NOT KNOW where or when big waves, big swell would be hitting them while towing long strings of Huon Pine logs with under-powered boats. Hence Victor's first shipment of logs into Strahan Harbour being received by hand-clapping from the Strahan community, its being perceived as SO RISKY!?! The Macquarie Harbour tidal jet is another thing making such shipments risky, its being quite strong, Victor's needing to enter Hell's Gate pulling a huge load in an under-powered boat immediately an outflowing tide ended, whatever else was going on. No wonder Victor had a hard time communicating his vision . . .
Garry I can’t stop watching the part where he said “it would never end!! It would never end. These were the days my friend, we thought they would never end…. It was great “ brought a tear to my eye as my grandfather use to work on the boats he was Croatian 😢😢
Photo shows my grandfather Victor Nielsen, LHS, and his sons Horace and Roy, my father, on the RHS. Eldest son Oscar is taking the photo. There ~1930 to "open it up" by felling and shipping out its Huon Pine.
Thank you Garry for going to such remarkable lengths to produce a work so radiant. Here's to your health and to the memory of the men who sailed the ships.
when I was 11, I sailed around the horn in a 90 foot vessel, the seas were consistently about 35 feet. If you go the wrong time of year it's dangerous.
I absolutely love these videos mate. I grew up on the east coast of Tasmania as a kid and my boss at the time had purchased one of the Wilson built boats. He was also a Wilson. I’m not sure if he was in exact relation to Bernard but I spent about three months working with Bernard on a boat in about 2008 at least I think it was burning from memory.
Great video! My father used to work a box mill with his father and brother in the hills of Franklin, Huon Valley. Along with the fordson tractor, they also used a draught horse to drag the logs once felled. The men and women were built tough in those days.
The stories of sailing around the Cape are legendary. The seas could not only be rough but the direction of the current would be opposed to the wind. This could result in No forward progress for days. All the while, your ship was being battered by the waves.
What a great story lived in East Geelong Rodeo bikes to Queenscliff as a kid and watched boat builders had their doors open there was something happening always near the water
