Thursday, July 4, 2024
Wednesday, July 3, 2024
CHRONICLER OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC
Rummaging about North Queensland , our Shipping Reporter found a sunned copy of the above book by Louis Becke, once regarded internationally as the renowned Australian writer with a swag of stories about the fabulous South Pacific.
His extensive writings , which included books, short stories, novellas, historic and ethnographic works, were compared to Rudyard Kipling , Herman Melville , Joseph Conrad and Robert Louis Stevenson.
Furthermore, Becke ( 1855-1913 ) had worked as a bank clerk in Townsville after failing to make his fortune in 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. Becke was popular in America , some of his output published there.
Tuesday, July 2, 2024
TENNIS GRAND SLAM / YUCKY CANE TOAD KISSING / SLOW BOAT TO SINGAPORE
From deep inside dusty files bounced this l985 first day cover marking the reopening of the Lawn Tennis Museum , Wimbledon. It was sent to former Townsville schoolteacher Verne Jack , a keen sportsman ,who when he lived on Magnetic Island , ran cane toad races, fed wallabies , had a vegetable stall .
Upon his death in 2019, the Townsville Bulletin decribed him as a great North Queensland character who even kissed cane toads . He encouraged children to capture toads , which he bought and auctioned at races held at the Arcadia Village Hotel , proceeds going to the local surf club .
Those races are still staged and have been going for 40 years. It must be said that not everyone was happy about the noxious pests,imported from Hawaii, a threat to native wildlife, being promoted on the island.
During his time as a Townsville teacher , Jack encouraged many children to become involved in a wide range of sports, including softball and swimming . He went to Wimbledon and is even said to have attended international golfing events .
On Magnetic Island he was involved in many communty events and regularly fed wild rock wallabies , there being a memorial to him in this respect.
He revealed that when he was a schoolboy he was caught in a police raid on an SP betting shop and was named and listed as Verne Jack, student . Modern day children were lucky , he pointed out, not named in court reports .
Apart from running a vegetable stall on the island , Verne also occasionally sold odd items of interest from his collections - one being the postal cover for the "Can Tiki" first beer can boat expedition from Darwin to Singapore in 1977.
The daring 2500 mile voyage , in rough seas, was made by the former Darwin Reconstruction Commission chairman and ALP ex- Brisbane Mayor , Clem Jones, Darwin used car dealer Lutz Frankenfeld ,originator of the Darwin Beer Can Regatte , and Sydney yachtsman Paul Harding . The signatures of all three are on the Singapore stamped envelope.
FROM PIER TO PODS
Conversion of Townsville's popular The Pier restaurant into new accommodation pods with a great view will be completed in about two weeks, according to our Shipping Reporter who provided these snaps.
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| The Pier, left, reflected ,Castle Hill in background. |
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