SINISTER WATERWAYS

Taranaki Daily News, 20 July 1935, Page 1 (Supplement)

SINISTER WATERWAYS

MAHENO & OTHER WRECKS

(By

H.E.C.)

The wreck of the steamer Maheno on Fraser Island added one more item to a long list of mishaps in what was for many years one of the most sinister waterways south of the Line. Steamers going north from Brisbane usually keep well out from Fraser Island, but small craft put out from Bundaberg occasionally for visits to that little known- portion of Queensland. ’ • The rescued crew of the Maheno may have been taken aboard the Oonah, a vessel that many “poor sailor” passengers on the journey between Melbourne and Tasmania have often considered fit only for breaking up, although she gave many years of excellent service in the stormy waters of Bass . Strait. The Oonah was also making her last voyage and towing the Maheno to a “knacker’s yard” in Japan, when a storm and a broken towrope, settled the fate of the wartime New Zealand hospital ship, once the pride of an intercolonial service. If the shipwrecked crew were taken to Bundaberg they would find it quite a pleasant town. It lies ten miles up from the mouth of the river Burnett, and the town sprawls on both banks of the river. It is at Bundaberg that the visitor from the south gets his first realisation of the importance of the sugar industry to Australia. It began not far north of Bundaberg over seventy years ago. Like the dairying industry of Taranaki it has known some ups and downs, but for the past 30 years has been heavily protected as part of Australia’s determination to keep the Commonwealth “white.” There are sugar mills at Bundaberg'and in one way or another the industry provides for many of the 12,000 inhabitants of the town, through which passes the main north railway line from Brisbane to Cairns.

It was nearly 100 years before the first sugar cane was planted in Queensland that Captain James Cook made that epic voyage of his of which the history is so well known. Cook struggled along that unknown coastline in the year 1770 and it remained almost as unknown after his visit for another 32 years when Mathew Flinders poked along the course laid down by Cook, and made completer charts of the waterway for the use of British seamen. !' That route remains to this day one of those that every mariner treats with respect. Given daylight and fine weather one of the loveliest sea journeys imaginable is from Brisbane to Thursday Island. For most of the way calm water is assured by the protection of the Barrier Reef from the swell of the-Pacific, the coastline is in sight, and the monotony of sea travel is broken by many islets with tropical foliage making them pleasing pictures. ■ But the captain and pilot of the steamer know the difficulties and the dangers of the passage. It is not so long since steamers would make the journey in daylight only, and it is on record that on one occasion some ships of the Royal Navy disobeyed that rule and but for good luck would have been wrecked.

In the “hurricane season,” from December to April, every precaution is taken by mariners. For the weather can change with great rapidity, the calm sea become a whirl of noisy waves,, and the roaring wind, has to be experienced to be thoroughly appreciated. The reason for the caution can be seen on many of the jagged outcrops of coral on the coastline or among the islands, for there can be seen the remains of many vessels gradually disappearing through the poundings of the winds and the waves.

The open sea is reached when Thursday Island is passed, but the last stage of the “barrier trip” is one of the most interesting. It includes the journey through the Albany Passage, a narrow strip of watej with a deep water channel running between many a reef of which the steamer passenger ,is blissfully unaware. .........

Two objects of interest are almost certain to be shown to him. One is the ruin of a large house on the mainland halfway through the Passage, and the other is an island almost opposite the homestead. ’ Near that island many years ago the steamer Quetta was wrecked on her way from Brisbane to Calcutta', and out of 239 people aboard her only. 106 were saved. It was a fine moonlight night, the perils of the Barrier passage were supposed to be behind them and the captain’s instructions were “full steam ahead.” Near Albany Island the vessel struck an uncharted rock and sank almost like a stone. When divers ( examined the wreck they found the engine room instructions still stood at “full ,speed ahead.” The owners of the homestead rendered such fine service in rescuing the shipwrecked people that so long as the house was occupied every Australian-owned ship and many owned in Britain and elsewhere always saluted the house as iv passed. :/ There is a more permanent memorial of the disaster in the township on Thursday Island, the port where the pilots leave the steamers going north and join them for the southward journey to Brisbane. Seen from the harbour the township looks rather. attractive. It is built on the slopes of a hill about the height of jfaritutu, there are many trees to break the monotony of the houses, and the harbour is usually full of small craft such as pearling luggers and fishing boats.

The “White Australia” policy gains converts when people from the south visit Thursday Island. There are some straiige hybrids there and they do not support Mr. G. B. Shaw’s recommendation that white and coloured races should intermarry for the sake of breeding a better race! Life moves slowly at Thursday Island. The visitor has only to watch the watersiders at work to realise that southern standards of work do not apply in the tropics. He wanders along a long and rather shabby wharf and finds the town is not nearly so picturesque as he had imagined.

There are Chinese and Japanese stores, there are hotels kept by Europeans, on the hillside a flag waves over a nice looking bungalow where the Government Resident, who represents State authority on the island, has his home. Most of the local residents Who are riot European are not only shabby but seem to enjoy the condition.

Thursday Island is the “seat” of an Anglican bishopric that covers an area in which New Zealand would be but a respectably sized parish, and the cathedral church, whatever its real title, is usually referred to as the “Quetta” church. It is a dignified little church and it contains a lot of the relics from the unfortunate steamer. These are shown to the. visitor, and he is sure to be told of the generosity of the church by one of the survivors. She was a girl of 16 when the Quetta went down and for 36 hours she swam and floated in a sea that is noted for sharks and crocodiles. Yet she escaped almost unharmed and was brought to Thursday Island where she made a complete recovery. Since the wreck of the Quetta the waterway has been charted and lighted

with the utmost care and precision. Steamers proceed on their lawful occasions by day or night, in stormy weather or calm. In spite of all the precautions, however, only the pilots know by how narrow a margin disaster is sometimes ’averted. Now and then, ao in the case of the Maheno, Nature takes a hand and the margin disappears.