Page 23 - Go55s summer web

Lifestyle

shelter this little spot from the the stormy and often violent
breeze and a bend in the estuary relationship between the
gives a beautiful view across the traditional owners and the
lake to Mumbulla Mountain…. settlers as the colony grew and
as the sun goes down and the the once rudimentary fishing
mullet start to jump, everything industry began to develop and
is covered in a final film of plunder the seemingly endless
warm, soft light. resources of the oceans and
“As a kid I used to go waterways.
down to the beach after dinner “Sealers inhabited shacks
and watch ‘the men’ (my on remote rocky islands off the
grandfather, dad and uncles) south coast and Tasmania and
spinning off the rocks or bait frequently forced indigenous
fishing in the estuary…. they women to live with them in their
had me casting lures across the cold and windy settlements,” she
paddocks before I was let loose writes. Continued on page 14
on the rocks…
“Now I go there with my
kids and we catch flathead
and luderick, trevally and
whiting. A mask and snorkel
A community of Aboriginal fishers, spotting from cliff tops, pulling crays out of the rocks, spearing and cooking the reveal more beauties below the
water. Flounder, octopus and
catch. Painting by Joseph Lycett (circa 1817)
the many means of indigenous fish, were like charms for the there, standing on the water’s leatherjacket hide in the weeds.
fishing…kangaroo tail tendon Dreaming that cascaded through edge of Paradise in the late Rays cover themselves with sand
was used to bind fish hooks in the weave.” afternoon. and pretend they’re not there.
northern Australia…..nets were In her evocative introduction “Every school holidays my Sometimes a rogue kingfish or
made from lengths of finely to the book, Dr Clark writes: family would head out from salmon makes it up the estuary
twisted twine so carefully “When they shut their eyes and Sydney to my grandparents’ and on to the fire, if we’re
knotted together that when pause for a moment, fishers have property on the NSW South lucky….
Arthur Phillip, the first governor a place they go to in their mind. Coast. After the long drive we’d “We like to think of it as
of New South Wales, showed “A special place, a fishing spill out of the car and I’d run to our little piece of paradise…
them to the white women in place. Mine is called Paradise, look at the tide. but it isn’t of course……there
the colony, the elegant loops but you won’t find it on any map. “I still do. If it’s low enough, are deep, full middens…shells
reminded them of English “I can be anywhere, hanging I grab a nipper pump, a bucket and bones are scattered through
lace… out the washing, sitting in traffic, and a rod and run down the dirt the sandy soil like hundreds
“To strengthen their fishing waiting at the bus stop – and track that winds through the and thousands. Countless
powers Aboriginal people sang this glorious daydream appears. bush, across the sandy paddocks generations have been here Murray River fishermen were called
to their nets; their music and When the sun catches the side of and down to the beach…… before….” “Murray Whalers”, understandable
considering the size of this monster
words, literally singing to the my face, I close my eyes and I’m “Coastal mahogany trees Dr Clark also chronicles cod caught in 1914.

Summer 2017 | The Go55s Newspaper 23