FISHERMAN’S CASTLE •

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 4 May 1931, Page 5

FISHERMAN’S CASTLE •

BARBED WIRE RAMPARTS SPECIAL DRAWBRIDGE INVENTED SYDNEY, 16th April. ’ Here is the story of a fisherman’s family, which lives behind barbed-wire entanglements, at one of the prettiest, spots on the south coast of New South Wales —Wallaga Lakes. A delightful fishing and camping settlement, Wallaga is the last place where one would expect a little war that _bor> rows the best features from medieval and modern history. Mr Paul McKenna is a fisherman with a wife and seven children. Two years ago lid left Botany, Sydney, for Wallaga Lakes, and built a hut on land owned by a Mr Neville. For a time the best of terms existed between landlord and tenant' But then a little rift crept into the lute. In .fact, the cosmos was sbat : tered, and for six months Mr McKenna’s room has been preferred to his company. But be is made of stuff of which tho Highlanders of old, for some reason, were: wont to boast.

‘.When Mr McKenna heard of threats to put'him off the property, lie erected barbecl-wire entanglements. He purchased sevei'al rolls of wire, and with the assistance of two sons, aged 19 and 18, quickly converted his homestead into a fair imitation of a front line in Flanders. The hut was completely surrounded by four lines of fence, each with six strands of barbed wire. ■ • Then the problem presented itself of the beleaguered defenders having a way out of the impasse. Here it was that Mr McKenna forsook the lessons of modern warfare, and dipped into the history of the Middle Ages. He and his sons invented a special type of drawbridge, which could be placed in post: tion and pulled down again in half-a-ininute. - Behind such ramparts, how could a McKenna be dislodged ? He has not been, and ho threatens that lie will not be for months, unless —and there is just this chance for the besiegers. Mr McKenna wants a block of land near the lakes for himself, and if he succeeds in getting one, lie will move the hut and its entanglements. Until then— But—there is always a but —Mr iu> Kenna, a picturesque figure from the lacking the finer touches of chivalry and romance, decided that the fortified hut did not provide fit living, quarters for olden days, cannot bend everything modern to his owji desires. A prosaic law, the two youngest children of the. house of McKenna, and last week a magistrate, acting on the application of the Child Welfare Department, ordered that the children he handed over to the custody of the department. %