Possibly delirious from a holiday in steamy Darwin , our S(h)ipping Reporter , the only one north of Wollongong , produced this bumper New Year roundup of activity on the Townsville waterfront -renowned for its ghost fleet which receives little media coverage- a tough area where local scribes rarely venture on foot or in a tinny .
From his leaky coracle , he photographed the large billboard sign for World Rugby League matches played in Townsville in October and early November 2017, actually being removed on January 18 , more than two months after the last event , from the prominent site next to the Townsville ferry terminal . It has been replaced with a Commonwealth Games booking sign .
On the same day , our nautical reporter was stunned to see the Townsville Bulletin actually had a detailed shipping report on P2 , with no photo, about the first shipment of 1600 cattle to China . As reported in the past , at times you can have two live cattle ships in port and there is not a line about them in the Townsville paper, no information about how many are being loaded and the ultimate destination . But in this case, it was a first, and it seems everybody connected wanted to be quoted . All the media had the same details which indicated there may have been handouts all round . The vessel involved was the Bison Endeavour , below, which had featured in a previous S(h)ipping Reporter's post .
Limping about the waterfront with his pet parrot on his shoulder, also on January 18 , the S(h)ipping Reporter noted that the massive anchor of the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea still displays the red graffiti name RECKLESS , rust showing through . Pointed out several times in this blog is the fact that this anchor was a gift from America to Townsville , deserves better treatment . Not far from the Townsville Bulletin office is a derelict building topped with RECKLESS in large letters . Any landlubber reporters noticed this ?
The strangest sighting , above, by SR the same day was in the heavens over the port - a cloud formation shaped like the side profile of the head of bushy browed former Australian Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies , also known as Ming the Merciless , whose wife had an Australian America's Cup yacht named after her , Dame Pattie . When it failed to sink the yank swashbucklers it was nicknamed Damned Pity .
Bloggers will immediately notice the snozzle of true blue Sir Robert seems somewhat blotchy - our expert waterfront reporter suggested it was due to the Conservative leader's time as Warden of the Cinque Ports , when he did indeed sink many a port and numerous other libations .
There were other vessels of interest in port on January 18-cargo ship Olivia and Golden Taka , a chemicals/ oil products tanker, built 2004, sailing under the Panamanian flag.
There were other vessels of interest in port on January 18-cargo ship Olivia and Golden Taka , a chemicals/ oil products tanker, built 2004, sailing under the Panamanian flag.
