RADIO HERMITS

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 June 1939, Page 4

RADIO HERMITS

MONTHS ON TINY ISLAND

SYDNEY, June. 8.

Messrs E. M. Gollan and P. G. Priestly. of Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia), Ltd., returned to Sydney last week after spending 14 months on the otherwise uninhabited Willis Island, a tiny sandspit 300 miles east of Townsville and on the edge of the Coral Sea. Every year two A.W.A. men take up residence there to operate the company’s wireless station, the sole purpose of which is to convey warnings of cyclones and general weather reports to the Commonwealth Weather Bureau.

Four times during their solitude Messrs Gollan and Priestly gave 24 hours’ warning of definite cyclonic depressions. Three cyclones struck the North Queensland coast; the fourth travelled south-east to New Caledonia. One swept over Willis Island, damaged the wireless men’s sleeping quarters and fowihouses, and killed thousands of seabirds. Messrs Gollan and Priestley were glad to take shelter in a concrete dugout which had been prepared for such an emergency. The wireless station, continued in action throughout the storm.

At one period the wireless men spent many nights in succession ejecting huge turtles from their quarters. Every night from 30 to 50 turtles would emerge from the sea, dig large holes with their flippers, and lay 50 to 100 eggs. In due course the young turtles would hatch out and march down to the sea. Not more than half probably would reach the water, the others being snapped up by predatory seafowl. Those that made the distance; were immediately attacked by sharks and other large fish. Possibly 1 per cent, escaped.

"’rhe water was alive with sharks,” said Mr. Gollan. “On one occasion I shot a 51b mullet which was jumping into the air. It fell into the water, and I ran to recover it. Just as 1 was about to seize the mullet a 14-foot shark swept past me and “grabbed it. I got out of the water quicker than I went in.”

Willis Island is a. bird lover’s paradise. Thousand of mutton birds lay their eggs in deep furrows in the ground, and the island at times is almost covered with terns. Huge gannets, bloated with the products of their fishing expeditions, sit about, too lazy to shift out of the way. The only human beings seen were the crews of two Japanese fishing luggers which visited the island.