The
darndest things are
washed ashore in
Darwin . Recently, an
unusual bundle bobbed
up and was
pounced upon by an
alert
runner of ours .
It consists of
a large , jumbled file
of photocopied pages,
handwritten notes , instructions
for publication ,
newspaper articles, etc. Some
of the subjects
covered are :
· The
battle over the
construction of the Magnetic Quays so- called safe harbour on
Magnetic Island , North Queensland ,
which played a part
in the
collapse of a
bank and the
demise of the Victorian
government .
· What to
do in an air raid-- drive
no faster than 20 mph in brownouts - and
a statement that the
Catholic Church is
considering a total
ban on marriages
between American fighting
men in Australia
and local girls . “These men did
not come to Australia to marry , they came to fight ,” sayeth
the Catholic Bishop of
Brisbane, Dr Duhig.
· The historic
New South Wales
town of Carcoar ;
mention of a
murder .
· A
performance of the
comedy NO, NO ,NANETTE ,
with photos of the cast , at
the long gone Harris
Grand Theatre, Bloomington , Indiana , USA.
· How
Americans were settling
in to life
in Australian after
WW11 in various occupations
.
A most
interesting lump of flotsam
and jetsam , which
raises many questions
. In the
documents dealing with
Magnetic Island ( and
the Townsville City Council , which supported the
project ) is the
above portion of the
October 16 , l990 copy of the
weekly newsletter , Magneto.
It was
produced by environmentalists and
others who opposed
the harbour , blasted out of
Bright Point . It
was a long
and often
vicious struggle . An - investigative author could write
a fascinating book
about the affair ,
there being extensive , well- kept archives
in Townsville, including
sheafs of legal
documents of immense
interest, some of which
have been sighted
by this
writer .
Other extremely interesting documents could
fall from the
back of a
truck , if you were given the right truckie
contacts, it has
been intimated. The
above edition of Magneto
drew attention to
one of the
financiers of the
project, the collapsed
Tricontinental , of Victoria .
It went down the gurgler with
massive losses . Magneto said
a string of criminal charges were
pending , the
whole board of
the State Bank of
Victoria had resigned
and the Victorian Government
had destroyed itself
over the performance of Tricon,
Estate Mortgages and
other financing companies .
Magneto
folded after the
publication was sued
for defamation by
Mayor Tony Mooney, particularly upset
by a crude cartoon. There
was a pro-harbour
development publication , Community News, which
is still produced .
Lively broadsides were
exchanged between the
two publications .
The safe harbour
and its terminal
were eventually constructed . The associated Bright Point apartments , now openly
referred to as “AlcatraZ ” by islanders and
mainlanders with units
selling for way
below the original
price, went up . A proposed commercial and underground parking
area filled with water
soon after construction ; abandoned , it still regularly floods , is fenced off
by rusting barricades , rusty reinforcing
rods visible on site. The breakwater
constructed to form the marina
resulted in sand piling up
on the
Nelly Bay beach , regularly moved at great cost .
In the bundle are photocopies
of early tourist
guides to Magnetic
Island , details of the stone
artefacts in the
safe harbour site
and a chart
of Cleveland Bay ,
in which the
island is situated , using soundings
by HMS Paluma
in 1886, 1942
Army maps and l962
additions and corrections.
