FathomOz

A few minutes before this picture was taken at a remote spot on Fraser Island, I thought this wild Australian dog was going to give me trouble.  After it was able to smell my scent it settled down and was becoming ‘playful’ when this picture was recorded.

A few months later a young child was killed by a dingo at this same location.  This led to a culling and many poor dogs were killed by park rangers under government  orders.

The northern Fraser Island dingo’s are a pure strain obviously isolated from the mainland breed.  This good-looking dog is a fine example.

Not many people had seen a whale underwater in Australia when this picture was taken, 1st September 1967.  At the time few folk appreciated what a whale was.  They were an unknown species almost on the brink of extinction – at least this species was.

Actors John Bonney, Janet Kingsbury (Contrabandits, ABC TV) and I had called into the bar at the then quaint Wooli Bowling Club for a pre dinner ale or two.

At the time Wooli was an fishing outpost on the mid north coast of New South Wales.

Ron and Valerie  Taylor were preparing dinner at the beach cabin we’d rented for a few days.

John got talking with a fisherman at the crowded bar.  It was Keith Knox – a pleasant and hard working fisherman with both front teeth missing.  Keith had ‘a strange creature caught in the ropes of his fish trap’.   He had no idea what it was.  Just a ‘monster of a thing.

John Bonney and I agreed to have a look and see what might be done.  We’d follow Keith in our boat the next morning.

It turned out to be this huge and very rare Green Sawfish, about five meters long in total.

The saw fish had wrapped itself in the tough nylon fish trap rope down near the bottom, 33 meters deep.

Back on the beach at MinnewaterValerie Taylor posed with my spear gun for this picture.

Solitary Island has become a popular scuba location since the formation of the Solitary Islands Marine Park.  The lighthouse went auto during the late 1970′s.

At the lighthouse Solitary Island are the southernmost coral formations on the Australian east coast.

Dean Cropp has a dolphin film project happening.  Recently he captured on video the birth of a dolphin.

Dean is also a news cameraman with the Seven Network in Sydney.  His famous father Ben Cropp has made at least one underwater documentary for television, each year since 1964.

Grey nurse sharks were once netted by professional fisherman at Big Seal Rock (NSW).  I understand  a shark liver oil processing plant was located further down the coast near Shoal Bay, in the 1930′s.

A surf expert finds it hard to believe there were ever rocks at Rainbow Bay in 1968.

Bob Grounds and I almost ran our 15 ft boat onto them when filming this rider.

It gave us a fright.   So much so only one slow motion film sequence was made.

(The original is much sharper than what appears here).

click picture to enlarge it

Part of an enormous colony of starfish, Otter Reef, near Townsville, July 1967