 |
| Sylvia Ditchburn ,acrylic and graphite on canvas , $4000.. |
 |
| Sarah Hickey ,Selves ,oil on canvas,$8200. |
Furthermore, Becke ( 1855-1913 ) had worked as a bank clerk in Townsville after failing to make his fortune on the North Queensland goldfields.
Born in Port Macquarie ,NSW, George Louis Becke's adventures started at an early age. In 1869 he sailed to San Francisco , then , aged 16, he stowed away on a ship bound for Samoa. In coming years his experiences included sailing a ketch, involvement with the notorious blackbirder William "Bully" Hayes, being shipwrecked and acquitted in Brisbane of a charge of piracy .
Lured to the North Queensland goldfields , he took part in the Palmer River rush , lived at Charters Towers , a mining boomtown, worked for a time at Ravenswood Station. Then he did a quiet spell in the Townsville bank from l878-l879.
He was encouraged to write his experiences by J.F.Archibald of The Bulletin , Sydney . By Reef and Palm, a collection of short stories , was published in London in 1894 and reprinted three times that year . One of the stories in the book , Nell of Milliner's Camp, was set in a North Queensland mining camp.
Our Shipping Reporter thought Santa had come early when an odd package addressed to him arrived from Darwin which contained the above made in Indonesia luminescent mermaid ,with accessories, in recycled wrapping paper from a visit to France.
It was a delayed birthday present from a son who knows his barnacle- encrusted father is obsessed with mermaids , especially the mutilated one on Magnetic Island , off Townsville .
Readers of this blog are aware that the Shipping Reporter has long urged that the mauled mermaid be rebuilt and turned into the centre of a regular art festival, instead of the now brief part of her body remaining left to the elements on the rocks at the main entrance to the island.
He suggests the Townsville City Councii and the Perc Tucker Gallery should strongly examine this proposal, first made by a visiting Darwin artist.
Named Isla, by island residents shocked at her treatment, she could , he claims, become as big an attraction as the popular Little Mermaid of Copenhagen , Denmark .
It was exclusively revealed in Little Darwin that the mermaid had been bought in Geelong, Victoria, and transported to the island strapped next to the driver of a car , attracting some strange glances along the way , including from police .
During the trip north, the Queensland police pulled the driver over , and when the door was opened out fell a whisky bottle. The gendarmes immediately thought they had a case of driving under the influence of demon grog and a fibreglass mermaid . However, the driver explained he makes his own kickapoo juice , the dead marine that fell out one of about 24 empties to be filled carried onboard.
Photos of US Curtis P40 Warhawks, called KIttyhawks in Australia, of the 49 Fighter Group, like the one above , based in the Northern Territory Top End from 1942, will be included in a soon to be published booklet.
Called DeepWater, it has been compiled by Darwin agronomist and activist Robert Wesley-Smith, pictured sorting out his extensive files,
The title is derived from a deep waterhole on the Margaret River on Mount Bundy Station which enabled an abattoirs to be built by Alben Perrett who played an important part in the Territory meat industry . Perrett's grandson, Gary Richards , supplied Wesley-Smith with much background information about the large property, including wartime photos of the base located near the Adelaide River township .
There were 900 soldiers at the base with its dirt airstrip which had a hospital, a naval radio station which intercepted Japanese messages , a large vegetable garden and fruit trees.
Fighter planes pictured include one named Tojo's Hypo which included a drawing of a hypodermic needle. In another ,below, a man standing next to a plane numbered 55 , on which Smile is faintly visible in white lettering , is identified as Lieutenant Clyde "Smiley" Barnett . He was in planes which engaged Japanese over Darwin on April 29, l942.
UPCOMING: Another important project contemplated by Wesley-Smith is about Sammy Kruger , buried in Alice Springs, who is said to have played a part in Operation Vengeance , the April l943 shooting down by Americans of the plane carrying the Commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, on a flight from Rabaul to Balalae Airfield, a small island near Bougainville . Yamamoto was blamed for the attack on Pearl Harbour, hence the name of the special operation to get him .
During WWll, when Rabaul was occupied by the Japanese , it is said the Allies bombed the dormant volcanoes in the hope they would erupt.
 |
| Bowerbirds. |
 |
| Mainly Whistling Ducks . |
 |
| Ibis. |
 |
| Book ends. |
 |
| Arty Ingham Bush stone - Curlews . |
 |
| Magpie. Vallis flight of fancy series. |
Thankfully, there are no attention grabbing Pandas in this made in China Tasmania souvenir tile found in an old wares Townsville market . There is , however, a rare sighting of an extinct Tasmanian Tiger and other critters that cavort about the Apple Isle and waters. Felt backed, the tile is heat proof and can also be hung on the wall .
Set in Townsville and on nearby Magnetic Island, this interesting novel , by island resident Sue McLean , published by Austin Macauley , London, somehow escaped the attention of the mainland media. Our Shipping Reporter points out the Sydney to Hobart yacht race , about which he has had a long passionate interest , which will be explained later , gets a mention in between hugs .
 |
| Abra pix. |
