FathomOz

Narrated by Chuck Faulker, Music by Geoff Harvey. 30 minutes, Kodachrome

Trial version narrated by Ward Austin; 30 minutes, Kodachrome

Narrated by Hayes Gordon, Music by Geoff Harvey.  30 minutes. Kodachrome.

Highlights featured on Robert Raymond‘s Project 64 documentary series.

Double click picture

A larger and similar picture is at  http://fathomoz.wordpress.com

Walter A.Starck, Vic Ley, Ron Taylor, Phil Eather, Richard Weir, Wally Gibbins, Mal McLeod, Gai Girdlestone, John Harding

Wally Muller, Van Laman, Ben Cropp, Kathy Troutt, Lynn Roberts, John Michael Harding, Bob Grounds, Dean Cropp, Ron Taylor, Trevor Collins (with marlin), Valerie May Taylor, Henri Bource, Wally Gibbins-John Sumner-Terry Morrison,

The Late IRVIN ROCKMAN  CBE

We went 250 miles offshore in this tiny fishing boat.   A great adventure with a pioneer of The Great Barrier Reef, Captain Wally Muller- later of Coralita charter boat notoriety. Coralita was Australia’s first scuba dive boat on the GBR, launched in 1969.

Wally Muller built Coralita which was launched in 1969. Originally it was intended as a cruise boat working the islands and reefs offshore on the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef.   The vessel, while being an excellent open sea craft was prone to ‘rocking wildly’ at anchor. Tourists were often seasick.  Wally Muller then turned to fishing and  diving charters.  Through his friendship with Ron Taylor and John Harding (then the founding editor of FATHOM) he was able to attract local and overseas scuba divers, especially from USA.  Hollywood producers seeking shark scenes obtained these in The Coral Sea.  Wally returned to Saumarez Reef several  times and found a magnificent bommie in 100 feet of water that rose to 30 feet under the surface.  Modestly named “Wal’s Bommie” it was for a short time one of the best scuba dive locations known.  Today the location would be ‘lost’. Although Wally Muller chartered and named many reefs in The Swain Reefs, only one retains one of his original names “Riversong Cay”.

Underwater models of today might enjoy researching the films of Esther Williams.  Hollywood movies based around synchronized pool swimming were big in the 1950′s and no expense was spared in their production.  Esther was the queen of the era.

I spotted this poster at a town west of Townsville, Queensland called Ravenswood.   It was 1978 so the poster is unlikely to be still on display.

Gina Taylor (pictured) and I did presented our underwater film show in the local hall that night, just for fun.   The roll-up was surprisingly good for a ‘ghost town’, formerly a gold mining boom town.

A pair of hotels remained open, otherwise it’s worth a visit to see the main street with old shops with wooden footpaths, just like a Hollywood western movie.

Originally published in Wade Doak’s DIVE New Zealand magazine, these pictures show what free diving was doing in the late 1960′s.

Far left pictures (upper and lower) feature the late Captain Wally Muller – stalking and bagging a blue spot coral trout in the Swain Reefs 1967.   Wally Muller was a professional fisherman who became a free diver – a very unusual thing. Pro fishermen see lots of shark action and most would not dream of diving.  To them it was a realm of guaranteed doom, in the 1960′s at least.  Large blue spot coral trout would be a good source of ciguatera, the tasteless and odorless toxin present in many tropical fish predators.

Other pictures show Bob Grounds at Yeppoon, Queensland offshore coral formations.  The coral and speargun picture was an intentional copy of a famous Ben Cropp/Ron Taylor image.  In both examples a home made speargun is shown.

The Spanish Mackerel picture was from the era when some sponsorship was being made to divers.  In this example it was Evinrude outboard motors and Sea Hornet spear guns.   Sea Hornet assisted the production of “John Harding’s Aquarius” by supplying 3000 feet of 16mm color film.

Bob Grounds holds one of the final Blue Groper at Shark Island, Cronulla (Sydney) before they were banned from capture by spear fishing.  The picture was published in Sydney’s The Sun newspaper with a page 3 headline “Don’t Say You Were Not Warned”.

December 2009: The charter boat “Friendship” is no longer at Mission Beach doing her once famous day-trips, neither is the live coral shown exposed at low tide on Ellison Reef. Crown of Thorns starfish devastated that reef two years after the above picture was taken.  A pity as good examples of low tide reef are not easily seen in tourist zones today.   Live hard coral would still, hopefully, exist at Beaver Cay which is the key destination for day trips out of Mission Beach. JHH
The wild dingo was ‘a bit of a worry’ at the time it was encountered.  Eighteen months later many island dingos were shot by park rangers after a young boy died from being mauled by one of these native dogs.  In the north of Fraser Island their strain is considered ‘pure’ as the above picture illustrates.

One of the crew was Henri Moeyaert who sent these pictures of everyone when they arrived home.  The ship’s doctor met and married an Australian girl.

Henri seeks a picture of the wedding which was aboard the ship.

David Barnes PhD, now of Townsville, Queensland was part of the expedition.  Dave commented to Henri:

I am sorry that I cannot help you with photos taken on the day that Dr Pullinckx was married.  I remember that day very well.  Also, I visited Gus and his Australian wife in Ostend – and they visited me in the UK.

I think your model of the De Moor is fabulous.  I note that you even left the gun out of the forward turret – as it was for the expedition to the GBR (the forward turret was used for storage).  I have many times looked to see if there is a commercial model of a Flower class corvette but have never found one.

Note: The Belgian Expedition was primarily to make scientific marine biology films in 35mm underwater.  It was a huge and very expensive operation on behalf of a university.  Ron Taylor was one of two cinematographers.

Charter boat owner and skipper, Wally Muller assisted with navigation, especially around The Swain Reefs – his home territory.

The expedition visited all the dive locations we know so well today between Lady Elliott Island in the south and Lizard Island in the far north.

Few divers in 1967 had been privileged to see so much of the Great Barrier Reef.  It was still largely an unknown frontier underwater.

Editor JHH assisted Wally Muller as a deckhand for part of the expedition, thanks to an invitation from his friends Valerie and Ron Taylor.

Additional ship and dive pictures at:   thejohnharding.com