Yarns of the Pacific

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32536, 20 February 1971, Page 10

Yarns of the Pacific

Naked Island and Other South See Tales. By Keith Willey. Hodder and Stoughton. 166 pp. The use of the expression “South Sea Tales” in the title of this book may be misleading to some. Certainly the five stories are all set in Australia or th- islands of the Pacific but none of them bears any resemblance to the usual romantic and mysterious tales of the South Pacific. Keith Willey, a well-known Australian journalist has collected a group of unusual stories, all based on fact, and retold them in a simple, direct easy style which makes enjoyable reading.

The title story tells of the astonishing survival of six Tongan boys who were shipwrecked on an uninhabited waterless island where they lived for thirteen months. It is a tale of endurance, resourcefulness and courage in the face of conditions that would have killed most men. Two other yarns, Nym and the Crocodile and Damper are told mainly from the animal’s viewpoint—in the first a huge ancient crocodile and in the second a loyal dog, both of which have become legends among the Aborigines and stockmen of the Australian hinterland. Mr Willey was fortunate enough to gain possession of the diaries of Ginger Palmer and extracts from these form the most fascinating story in this collection. In the early 1930’s Ginger stole a ketch from Cairns and set off on as strange an odyssey as any recorded this century. The final story is a short account of a tragic voyage made by the schooner Young Dick in 1886. It was engaged in the blackbirding trade, bringing Islanders to Queensland for labour on the sugar plantations.

All the stories are interesting; some seem almost incredible; and Mr Willey recounts them in a matter-of-fact yet fluent style which adds to the readers’ enjoyment.