In one day, alert waterfront scribe , Barnacle Bill, uncovered at least three major stories missed by local media which devotes much attention to mind numbing Kardashian handbags , celebrities and other trivial subjects... handbag items on consecutive days in the Townsville Bulletin, for example , aint real local news and makes one want to upchuck.
Scoop 1
Circular devices supposed to prevent rats from coming ashore on lines attached to wharves appear not fitted properly to some vessels, some just flapping in the breeze. Could this lead to the plague , Black Death , foot and mouth , Blue Tongue , more port babble ?
Scoop 2
With Queensland media preoccupied with Johnny Depp and his dogs showing that animal quarantine and biosecurity checks in the Sunshine State leave a lot to be desired ( much more on this subject later, including the Northern Territory) and shooting of the latest Pirates of the Caribbean there , how come a galleon, sails into Townsville and nobody in the shrinking Fourth Estate fails to notice ?
It was the bulk carrier MV Galleon which could be the subject of a newspaper do up about a Spanish Galleon , perhaps a bit corny, but what isn't in the blats and TV nowadays? And there could have been an angle about Depp and his scurvy rats rushing to sack the treasure ship, said to be loaded to the scuppers with golden Kardashian handbags .
It is too late for a churnalist to leave the desk and dash down to the wharf and board the fairly new Galleon...it is at sea heading for South Korea .
Newspapers used to have a SHIPPING NEWS column in bygone days in which information about all vessels arriving and departing port were listed. Little Darwin raised the fact that in Darwin reporters did not keep a close shipping watch and as a result all kinds of interesting vessels were coming and going without coverage ; it also seemed that vessels entering port were being escorted by naval vessels , surely a news story. In Darwin the ABC started to keep a waterfront watch after Little Darwin's post but so much more of maritime news of the Top End still goes unreported , as it does in Townsville today .
Scoop 3 Newspapers used to have a SHIPPING NEWS column in bygone days in which information about all vessels arriving and departing port were listed. Little Darwin raised the fact that in Darwin reporters did not keep a close shipping watch and as a result all kinds of interesting vessels were coming and going without coverage ; it also seemed that vessels entering port were being escorted by naval vessels , surely a news story. In Darwin the ABC started to keep a waterfront watch after Little Darwin's post but so much more of maritime news of the Top End still goes unreported , as it does in Townsville today .
The almost completely submerged vessel which has been in Townsville Harbour for more than a year appears to have been removed or is now resting in Davy Jones's locker , without any mention in the local media machines . Would make an interesting story. Another possible Scoop , with free steak knives thrown in for an alert scribe , is what is going on below in the action shot in the channel ?
