EXILE ON ISLAND

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19031, 3 June 1936, Page 2

EXILE ON ISLAND

TWO RADIO OPERATORS 12 MONTHS' LONELINESS SYDNEY, May ID. After 1- mouths spent on Willi.Island, with onlv a dug as company. Messrs. A. W. Hooper and W. L. Boyd, radio operators of Amalgamated Wire less (Australasia), Limited, returnee to Sydney yesterday. Willis Island is a mere sand spit, I'.OO miles off the coast of Queensland. The radio st.ntii.ui was established solely for the purpose of conveying weather warnings to the mainland, as (he island is on the edge ot" the Coral Sea, where cyclones originate. On many occasions, advices from the island have afforded several hours' warning to ship masters and residents of coastal towns, and have enabled them to take precautions against gales. Messrs. Hooper ami Boyd said l hoy found life on the island lonely, but otherwise quite agreeable. In the past the wireless operators had spent the whole period of V2 months without seeing even a ship, 'but lately the 'Bums. I'hilp liner Mfilaita had passed that way once in six weeks, and the ship's company had made every effort to provide ihem with fresh meat, vegetables, newspapers, and letters. These articles were sealed in tins ami thrown into the sea. They rowed out in a canoe and, on aboil! half the trips, they succeeded in securing the floating package, At other limes the tins wovo carried away by adverse currents. Willis Island teemed with bird and marine life. At times il was almost covered with terns and million birds, and the ground was thick with nests and holes. Thousands of turtles came ashore, dug holes in the sand, and laid SO or 100 eggs each. The young turtles would emerge later and march to sea. like battalions of soldiers. Their progress was interrupted by birds which snapped them up in hundreds.?' Many more were swallowed by sharks and other large fish as (hev entered (he witter.