FathomOz

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.

Spinner dolphin, Great Detached Reef.

The first tourist postcard to feature an anti-tourism subject. I posted a first edition copy to (the late) Dr Robert Endean (Reader in Zoology, University of Queensland) who was a CoT (as a eco threat problem) activist often quoted in the media. The postcard never arrived. The card was a good selling item for Peer Productions for several years. Girls featured underwater are Jocelyn Edwards and Christine Danaher.

Murray Island, October 1996 – brothers Phillip and Steven Tapau home from boarding school in Townsville, demonstrated there was no shortage of triton trumpet shells at a nearby reef.  Reef crayfish (lobster) were also plentiful there.   Photographed during a Ben Cropp documentary filming expedition to the island, which is also known as Mer Island. (The home of the late Eddie Mabo).

Sydney Harbour – Port Jackson (1969) – Picture  from movie film later inspired construction of a shark proof swimming enclosure.  Camp Cove is an exclusive and popular beach inside the southern entrance to Port Jackson, commonly called Sydney Harbour.

Grey Nurse from Flat Rock (June 1968)

Rodney Fox with large whaler 1966. (Note: Same shark may appear with different people).

The Late Henri Bource - shark victim who became shark film maker with his "Savage Shadows".

Using self-hypnosis Henri Bource  convinced himself – and many close friends – he was not handicapped.  One friend criticized him for parking in a ‘disabled persons’ parking place!  With an artificial leg, from the knee joint down, he walked with a stiff ankle.  Soon after his ‘accident’ (he never used the term shark attack) he considered joining the Australian army – as a commando.  So powerful is hypnosis.

North Stradbroke Island (8 August 1965)

Hand feeding tame giant groper from Perry Harvey's former charter boat "Friendship"

Christine Danaher is a talented underwater model who easily trains sea creatures.

Captain Perry Harvey took day-trip visitors to Beaver Cay (Mission Beach, Dunk Island region) for many years. With luck his deckhands would catch a mackerel on the way out – food for the pair of Giant Queensland Groper would would take up residence for several months each year.

The younger groper had sustained a boat propeller injury which had healed well.

Perry Harvey would hand-feed the large fish to the groper, right on the surface. It was a treat for the thousands of visitors who saw this over many years.

Further north at the now internationally known The Cod Hole a family of potato cod make friends with diving visitors – only because they are being offered food by the guides.

Potato cod are not Queensland groper.

It’s an example of how attitudes toward fish have changed. Live fish are worth considerably more than speared and dead ones.

In Taiwan the aquaculture people are testing the breeding of giant groper. These fish mature rapidly to “plate-sized” and may be ideal as breeders for this purpose.

A further example that a live Giant Groper is today far more valuable than a dead one.