February 1, 2024 • 28 mins
Learn how the Torres Strait Islands played a part of Australia's first line of defence in WW2, and about the culture and customs of the Torres Strait Islands.
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Episode Transcript
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Vanessa (00:02):
they all go away gobsmacked with how much Horn
Island and the Torres Strait hadto do with World War II By the
end of that same year, 5,000were stationed here
Kate (00:17):
Welcome to Roadshow and tell a podcast for people hoping
to improve their pub trivia teamscore.
I'm your host, Kate, and I'llvisit museums so you can learn
things you never knew you wantedto.
In this episode, we're going tothe tippy tippy top of
Australia, even further thanCape York, to a place so far
(00:40):
north that a slice of it reachesinto Papua New Guinea.
We're in the Torres StraitIslands, an archipelago of
almost 300 small islands in theTorres Strait waterway that
separates Queensland from PapuaNew Guinea.
There are 16 inhabited islandswhich are home to a population
of just over 4, 000 peopleaccording to the most recent
(01:00):
census with a further 61, 000people identifying as Torres
Strait Islanders and living onthe Australian mainland.
Each island or community has adistinct culture, though there
are similarities across them aswell as connections to both
Australian Aboriginal cultureand Papuan culture.
Today we're visiting a museum inHorn Island, which is nestled
(01:23):
next to the most populous islandin the Torres Strait, Thursday
Island.
Despite its tiny population,horn Island has a really
fascinating history.
It begins with the indigenousKararag people.
Then, when World War II rollsaround, the island came into
prominence as Australia'snorthernmost frontier, standing
tall through eight Japanese airraids.
(01:45):
We'll be exploring the militaryhistory today with Horn Island
local, Vanessa Seakey, who runsWorld War II history tours on
the island.
She'll share some stories thathave formed the fabric of this
remarkable place and show usremnants of wartime buildings
and battles that serve as areminder of the vital role that
this area played.
(02:05):
So today I'll be talking withthe curator of the Torres Strait
Heritage Museum and Designer ofWorld War II tours on Horn
Island.
Vanessa Seekee.
Vanessa, welcome to the podcast.
Vanessa (02:16):
Yeah, thanks Kate for having me.
Kate (02:18):
And Vanessa, whose land are we on today?
Vanessa (02:20):
We're on the lands of the, the Kaurareg, the Kaurareg
Nation.
Kate (02:23):
Wonderful, thank you.
And so how did these toursstart?
Vanessa (02:27):
II so I arrived here, oh, I've been here nearly 30
years.
So when I first got here, Istarted to walk around in the
bush and you'd find things, sothere'd be underground rooms and
trenches and planes andconcrete, and, and no one knew
what these relics were or whowas here, what they'd done.
And I thought it was sad thatpeople had, had been here and
done something like joined thearmy of the Air Force in World
(02:47):
War II, served here, some haddied here, no one knew anything
about'em.
So that's how we really startedwith the research and then
developed the tours cause Ithought people might like to
come and see where these ladiesand fellows had served.
Kate (03:00):
And how long has the tour been going for?
Vanessa (03:02):
So we started very small in 98.
Really very small, but we gotthe buses in 99, so we've been
doing it since then, really.
See it's been going for a goodwhile, but yeah, it's, it's
great to see people coming tosee something they didn't
realize was here.
So they all go away gobsmackedwith how much Horn Island and
the Torres Strait and the peoplehad to do with World War Two.
Kate (03:23):
And what's the history of the museum?
How did that come to
Vanessa (03:25):
be?
It came about similar to theWorld War II tour.
I thought after seeing thesights, people might wanna see
their faces.
So they might wanna see who wasin these sites and they might
wanna read more about them.
So that's how the World War IIside came about.
I started with one veteran Mr.
Ball in Sydney, and he knew fiveother mates that served here.
Then they knew five other mates.
And so I just spread out a treeand we, we've interviewed about
(03:48):
350 veterans who served up hereover the years.
So that's how it started.
But then I thought, People mightwanna balance, they just
probably won't wanna see allWorld War ii.
So half the museum is World WarII with photographs and maps and
diaries and stories and artwork,et cetera.
And the other side is Pearling,Torres Strait Myths and Legends.
There's artwork in there aswell.
(04:09):
There's cultural artifacts.
So it's a bit of a mix.
It's a, it's a balance.
Kate (04:13):
What's the most popular part of the museum?
Vanessa (04:16):
I think the most popular part is other stories of
the veterans and the myths andlegends.
I think that's an equal cuzpeople have seen a lot about
first Nations on the mainlandand their dreamtime stories and
things.
I think they've seen more thanthe Torres Strait Islander myths
and legends.
So they are different.
So I think people love to seethem in the artwork.
But also the stories of theveterans cause it makes'em more
personable.
(04:37):
You're not just looking at a, alump of concrete or something,
you're able to see the man orthe woman who served there or
built this or something happenedthere so you can read their
stories.
Kate (04:46):
Do you have a favorite story that you've uncovered
through your research?
Vanessa (04:50):
I think stories about when families come back to see
where their World War IIveterans.
Families serve, but theirgrandfathers and great
grandfathers.
There was one lady, she rang mefrom Sydney, and her brother had
been killed up here in akittyhawk, but the family had
never known where he was killedor anything.
So I did some research.
We actually found out roughlywhere the plane went down, so
(05:11):
she came up from Sydney and wetook her and her sister in a
chopper out to the site.
So they were able to get downlow enough to lay a wreath on
the water and so they could seewhere he met his demise, because
they'd never known before.
So that's, it's just one.
We have a lot of families thatcome up and a lot of veterans
used to bring their families up.
But these days the veterans havelargely gone now.
(05:33):
So this year we had our firstWorld War II reunion with no
veterans.
It was all families this year.
I used to have a World War IIreunion every year for veterans
that served here.
And we, yeah, we don't do themanyway of this year was the
first year cuz they've all gonelargely or they're a hundred,
they're beyond traveling.
Kate (05:49):
And why should people come here and visit the museum and go
and one of the tours?
Vanessa (05:53):
Because it's a little known part.
You hear about Broome and Darwinand Townsville a lot but people
have hardly ever heard of HornIsland, and it's the second most
attacked location in Australianext to Darwin.
And it is a time capsule forWorld War II because we haven't
been developed upon like a cityand we haven't been blown away
by cyclones.
So everything is still outthere.
And the tour is not just factsand figures and archival, it's
(06:15):
also a mix of all the veteransstories that we've heard over
the years.
So you mix of veterans storieswith archival and you get a
better overall picture, and itmakes it more, it's humorous in
places too, and serious inothers, but yeah, it's a better
blend, a better, betternarrative, better narrative.
Kate (06:29):
So, we board the bus and start the tour with Vanessa.
While we drive to our firststop, we're treated to a bit of
the history of Horn Island andthe Kararag people.
Vanessa (06:38):
so this is where we all live on Horn Island.
Population here is about 600people.
Thursday Island about three anda half thousand.
But land wise we've got 56square kilometers of land here,
and Thursday Island's aboutthree and a half.
So we're a lot bigger in size,but we're smaller in population.
Now here on Horn Island, ourtraditional population are the
(06:58):
Kaurareg.
So the Kaurareg have been livinghere since well before Europeans
started to pop up in the area.
First European visitor was aSpanish fellow called De Torres.
Now he came through in 1606, andthat's how we got the name:
Torres Strai t.
So the Kaurareg are quite happyliving on Horn Island.
They start to see a fewexplorers enter the area.
(07:20):
However, in 1877, we had a bitof a change.
That's when a fellow by the nameof Henry Larger Banks, Chester,
arrived onto ti.
Now Henry would be TI's firstpolice magistrate.
And he settled the island forEuropean and Asian races.
Now the Kaurareg watched thesettlement of TI take off.
(07:41):
They then saw the pearlingindustry develop around Thursday
Island.
But 1922, the Queenslandgovernment and the Catholic
church put their heads together,decided that in the best
interest of the Kaurareg, theyshould be removed from Horn
Island and sent to an islandcalled MOA, up on the northeast.
Kate (07:58):
So the Kararik people were forcibly removed from Horn
Island to Moa Island in 1922.
Vanessa (08:04):
Now the years at Moa were not very happy ones, and in
1946, they decided to come backto Horn Island.
What prompted their decision tocome back was the fact that
during the second World War,Just about every man in the
Kaurareg had volunteered andserved in the Australian army.
The Army gave them an education,training, skills they would not
(08:27):
get as civilians and havingserved their country, they felt
they had the right to live in itwhere they wanted to.
So they came back home.
And as of May, 2001, theKaurareg have been granted
native title over Horn Island,entrance Island and Prince of
Wales Island.
So it means for us who arenon-Kaurareg, we can buy houses
(08:47):
and land inside the village areaonly.
We can't buy a block of land,say, out here or on the other
side of the island.
Kate (08:55):
Now we are rounding the Horn Island Airport, a tiny
airport with just two runways.
The airport started as anadvanced operational airbase
during the Second War.
So let's go back.
The year was 1939 and Australiawas starting to see war descend
over Europe.
Vanessa (09:12):
Now the Department of Defense started to envisage
Japan entering the conflict, buton the side of Germany.
Now, if that happened, we weregoing to need all the defenses
we could get.
We'd be faced with a war on thePacific and in Europe, so they
started to look for places toput advanced operational air
bases, especially around thenorth.
(09:34):
Now, they chose Horn Island asAustralia's most advanced air
base site because she's bigenough, flat enough and had the
possibility for a good wharf tobe built.
So the Main Roads Commission andCivilian Construction Corps or
CCC came here in 1940 and theybuilt to all purpose and back
then they were gravel runways.
Kate (09:55):
From there, the Australian Air Force and United States Army
Air Forces used it as a base foroperations in the Pacific
Theatre for the rest of the war.
Now Vanessa tells us about thevery first air raid at Horn
Island.
which happened on the 14th ofMarch 1942 at 12.
30pm and struck like a bolt fromthe blue.
(10:16):
The Japanese rolled in withtheir beddy bombers and zero
planes.
Now remember, this was prettyearly on in the Pacific War, so
there were only about 20 menstationed on the ground at that
stage.
And between them, the mightiestweapon that they could muster
was a trusty 303 rifle.
And that's not particularlyhelpful in an air raid.
Vanessa (10:36):
But by an absolute fluke chance, sitting on the
runways was a visiting group ofeight American kitty hawks just
back from patrol, foundthemselves in the middle of an
air raid.
So they took off and engaged thezeros in the skies above us and
above Thursday Island or ti.
First zero in Queensland wasshot down by Lieutenant House.
(10:57):
Cadet Iwasaki crashed ontoHammond Island
Kate (11:00):
Hammond Island is another small island close by to
Thursday and Horne Islands.
Vanessa (11:05):
So Iwasaki zero still on Hammond today.
The next zero didn't get shotdown.
Captain Morrisey was up thelead.
He's got a zero coming right uphis tailpipe.
House, saw what was about tohappen.
Tried to shoot the zero like hehad done the first one, but this
time his guns jammed up on him.
(11:26):
So in a split second decisionhouse, put his plane into a dive
and sliced the right wing of hiskitty hawk into the cockpit of
the zero.
Now it's killed, or if he fellto the water, Maurice's life was
saved.
House then looked across to theright hand side of his own plane
and realized he had a smallproblem.
Half his right wing was working.
(11:46):
So every time he slowed up toland here, the plane tried to
flip over on him.
It was no longer balanced.
So he screams in at 150 miles anhour, lands under the strip
skids off into the dust anddirt.
21 years of age.
That's his first combat mission.
But he would fly over 400missions in his career as a
(12:06):
combat fighter Pilot.
Retired with the rank of Coloneland has since passed away in
Florida.
And Morrissey whose life hesaved that day had one son
before the war.
He went back after the war andhad 12 more kids.
Same woman too.
Kate (12:22):
We stop at a trailhead to go on our next excursion.
Vanessa (12:25):
We're going to hop out and have a look at what was once
home to the 34th Australianheavy anti-aircraft battery.
These blokes came straight outof Melbourne and Country
Victoria arrived in October 42,just as the heat starts to pick
up.
They were given pick and shovelon arrival and told to start
digging.
But there's also a grave here.
(12:46):
So Roy passed away in 2002, butit was his wish to be buried
where he had served as a youngsoldier.
So his old mates and his familybrought him back and he got his
wish.
He's buried where he served.
Now Roy's the only non-Kauraregperson buried on horn.
The Kaurareg said yes to Roybecause Roy served here and so
did they.
And you got that bond.
(13:07):
His family came up here thisyear for Anzac Week, for the
first time since he was in turn.
So they've laid some reefs andsome flags there.
Okay, now it's a 3.7 inchanti-aircraft gun.
Kate (13:18):
So, what we see is like a round pit with a huge metal anti
aircraft gun in the middle
Vanessa (13:24):
They are as rare as hen's teeth.
It's about only 26 of them leftin the country.
The reason they're rare isbecause they're 10 tonne of
solid metal.
So largely at the end of thewar, they were melted down.
Now this one we finally found inDarwin.
So firstly, the big bays aroundus held the ammunition shells.
So to give you an idea of whereyou are, if you picture a circle
in your mind, the outside edgeof the circle are four massive
(13:47):
3.7 inch anti-aircraft guns.
So there's two that way.
Two that way.
This is the middle of thecircle, like the hub of the
wheel.
So all the decisions for theguns come from the command post
here.
Kate (13:57):
As Vanessa explains, there are many separate operations
that make this work.
And there are ten men to a crew.
Vanessa (14:03):
So they've all got different tasks, different jobs,
and they used to drillcontinuously.
So they all knew it'll work likea well oil machine.
So the Japanese come in from thenorth two blokes in the middle
pit on the telescope.
They'll spot'em.
Three fellows in this pit are onthe heightened range finder, but
it's the six blokes in the farpit.
They're on your predictor.
Kate (14:22):
The Predictor is a machine which does just that.
Predicts where the target willmove to.
Vanessa (14:28):
Cuz if you fire a shell at a plane dead on the pilot's
back having a beer before itgets up there, you gotta put the
shell where the plane's going tobe, not where it is.
So that screen's got thepredictor, so it'll move.
And so you've gotta elevate androtate.
So your little dot matches thatgreen one.
Then you're on target.
Kate (14:43):
So, the point of the anti aircraft wasn't to hit the
planes dead on.
This weapon was trying to getthe shells to explode within 80
feet of the target aircraft.
The shells they used were 3.7inch anti aircraft shells, which
were 20 kilos each.
Vanessa (14:58):
You watch your movies like The Battle of Britain, the
big black bursts around theplanes.
That's what this is putting up.
So they're trying to fill thesky with shrapnel and little
flack, so they dunno how manywent into the sea on the way
home damaged full of holes.
Kate (15:10):
now we get back on the bus to travel to our next excursion,
while Vanessa tells us about thelogistics of using Horn Island
as an airbase in the war.
Vanessa (15:18):
Now Horn Island here in 1942.
In.
The first 12 months alone,10,000 aircraft came through
this air base.
Now, just about every alliedaircraft type we had came
through here and they all haveto be refueled, but the fuel
didn't come here in thousandgallon tanks.
It arrived in individual 44gallon fuel drums.
(15:39):
If you look on the left, you'llsee them see them all stacked up
in there.
That is just one fuel drumdispersal point.
You could not put the fuel inone big lump here on the island
because you'd lose the island ifit was hit during an air raid.
So they hid them in differentspots like this one scattered
all over the island.
Now the young fellows used tocome long, grab hold of them and
(16:00):
scrub them out.
Then they made wonderfulbathtubs If you cut'em length
ways, seats for the outdoorpictures, if you lay'em down,
the odd one or two became a homebrew kit.
Long drop liners.
But the biggest usage here, andI know it's hard to think of it
at the moment with this drizzle,but water storage December to
(16:20):
May, the wet can bring anenormous amount of rain, but may
to December, the dry bringsbarely a sprinkle.
So all their water was rationed.
They got a canteen per personper day.
So whatever water you gatheredfor yourself in an old fuel drum
in the wet was a big bonus comeJuly time of year.
Kate (16:39):
That's not the only thing that was rationed on Horn
Island.
Here's a cracker of a story.
Vanessa (16:44):
So have a bit of a look about, oh, the date on the base
of the bottle, and don't dropher.
It's a World War II beer bottlewe found here.
Now, ration here, they got twoof those per man per week,
perhaps.
If you didn't drink, you wereeverybody else's best mate.
You swap it for something elsenow to get'em cold.
There's no lgs, no kelators, soto get'em cold, bit of a
(17:06):
challenge.
The young blokes they used tomake friends with the pilots.
Now take the ammunition out ofthe wings of a fighter plane.
Put the beer bottles into thewings.
Go up, fly around to test theengine or something.
Land on Horn Island.
Wonder of wonders.
You've got chill cold beer inthe wings of your plane, very
(17:27):
commonly done, especially ifthere was someone coming you
wanted to impress.
We have heard that same storyfrom different fighter pilots
that we interviewed.
Now, segueing into, what's thesecond longest running kids
program on the abc?
Mr.
Squiggle.
Now Mr.
Squiggle is a veteran of HornIsland.
Not the little puppet, the manthere.
Norman Hetherington is a veteranof Hornem New Guinea.
(17:50):
He was in the concert parties,so they would do concerts to
entertain everyone.
His act was to do a picture ofan unpopular major, flip it
upside down, and it became aBuckham Mae West.
So he honed his skill in thearmy here, and then he developed
the puppets in the fifties.
Kate (18:04):
So get that, Northern Hetherington, aka Mr Squiggles,
very early upside down drawingswere done here on Horn Island
while serving in World War II.
Vanessa also shares aninteresting story of Basil
Ramming, a veteran of HornIsland who she met with.
Vanessa (18:19):
You'll see Basil ramming now Basil was 13 years
and 10 months of age when heserved here.
I said to him, how did you getin the army at 13?
He turned to me with thistwinkle in his eye and said, oh,
we're a big boy.
I said, big?
You put your age up five yearsto get in.
So by the time he wasdischarged, he was 18 and a half
(18:40):
now, legally he still couldn'tbuy a beer and he couldn't vote.
But he still had served fiveyears.
Kate (18:45):
There weren't just officers up here in the war.
They needed nurses too.
In case of casualties.
Vanessa (18:50):
So beginning of 42, we had about 20 blokes here.
By the end of that same year,5,000 were stationed here,
Ozzies Americans Army Air Force,and along with 5,000 men, there
were nine women.
Great ratio for them.
First Australian Camp HospitalNursing staff arrived November
(19:10):
42 to a Canvas carpe tent for ahospital, wooden floorboards and
gore sides 36 beds in the ward.
And it might surprise you toknow out the nine ladies, five
of them met their futurehusbands while they were serving
here.
A little voice in the back says,how would you choose?
Now our next stop is just up infront where the signs were.
Kate (19:33):
We walk out to what are known as slit trenches.
Trenches in the ground, abouthalf a meter wide arranged in a
zigzag pattern.
The signal for an air raid waseither a siren or three rifle
shots.
When this happened, the troopswould either man their guns or
take cover in the slit trenches.
Vanessa (19:50):
So what got you was the shrapnel from the bombs.
But what do you think is thesilent thing that gets you in an
air raid?
Kate (19:56):
That's right, shockwaves, generated by explosions, lead to
rapid shifts in the airpressure.
This can cause severe harm,including internal injuries and
blunt force trauma.
The best way to minimise riskslinked to shockwaves is to seek
shelter during an air raid.
Vanessa (20:12):
Not silent, sorry, invisible.
You can't see it.
Have you ever seen a movie andall the trees are bending over a
shockwave?
You can't see it, but it getsyou.
So you had to be inside a slittrench.
Now usually they're dug in thedirt like this fellows.
The one in here is concreted.
So regardless though of dirt orconcrete, you've all got to have
at least one corner in them.
You can't put'em in a straightline cuz whatever lands there is
(20:35):
gonna zip straight through it.
You've gotta put the corners inso you can duck around a corner.
To avoid whatever's coming atyou.
Kate (20:41):
In 1942, some men of Torres Strait formed Australia's
only Indigenous battalion everformed, the Torres Strait Light
Infantry Battalion, comprised of880 men from the Outer Islands
who volunteered for service inthe Army.
This was the highest rate ofenlistment per population in
Australia at the time.
(21:02):
However, these soldiers receivedone third of the wage of a non
Indigenous soldier, couldn'tvote, and their dependents
received no allowances.
In 1943 they went on strike, andthe Australian government agreed
to increase their pay to twothirds the wage of a non
Indigenous soldier, buteventually offered full back pay
to the veterans in the 1980s.
(21:24):
Now we head back to the museumand Vanessa shows me around.
The museum is split into halfWorld War II artifacts and half
Torres Strait history andculture.
Vanessa (21:32):
the cabinet here.
It's got some of the artifactsof the TA straits.
So we've got different carvings,like there's a wire up carving
there.
We've also got pearling luggerson display too.
This is a headdress, but it'sused in the World War II dance.
So Torres Strait culture is, isoral.
It's handed down through musicand stories and legends.
So in World War ii, The fellowsdesigned a dance that would pass
(21:57):
on the story of what they didduring World War ii, but instead
of daris as headdress, they wearaircraft.
Kate (22:02):
The Dari style of headdress is iconic the Torres
Strait Islands, andtraditionally uses white
feathers of a seabird and eithera pearl shell or turtle shell in
the center.
These specific headdresses areincredible.
They are a band around the headwhich holding up what looks like
model aircraft on top, which areintricate replicas of
Kittyhawks, B 17s, Mitchells andLiberators.
Vanessa (22:25):
So the, the aircraft that they saw during World War
ii, they're making hisheaddress, and when they did the
dance, they mimic the sweepingand the diving of the planes and
the aircraft.
That's so, it's, it's rarelydone, but when you do see it,
it's fantastic dance to watch.
Kate (22:39):
A big part of Torres Strait history is pearling.
And here we see a large pearlinglugger, which is a small sailing
ship with two or three masts anda lug sail on each side.
Vanessa (22:49):
Between ti and Broom, we cultivate or gathered, almost
half the world's pearl shell atone point.
So that's why pearling, you'llsee a lot of pearling history in
the museum cuz it's an integralpart of the European history of,
of the Torres Strait.
So Captain Banner in 1866discovered shallow pearl shell
in the Torres Strait and thoughtU Beauty because it was valued
(23:10):
commodity and it was shallow.
So he started collecting theshell and then it just drew in
cultures from all over theworld.
So you've got a lot of Asiaticcultures, Japanese, Chinese,
Malays Thais, Filipinos allcoming for the pearling
industry.
Kate (23:24):
we also see a heavy pearling helmet on display.
Vanessa (23:27):
So the diver would go down the ladder with his corset
and boots and everything else,and then the helmet was screwed
on and then he'd just drop intothe water.
Cuz they're so heavy, theydidn't walk around on the deck
Like you see in the movies.
The far too heavy if you try andlift it, it's heavy as so you're
not gonna walk around with thaton your head.
But yeah, it's quiteclaustrophobic when you put your
head inside.
So the divers used to go downwith these baskets, and gather
(23:49):
the shell.
Then to come back up though, itwould take hours cuz you had to
stage to come back up.
You had, they'd bring you up alittle bit, then you'd just
dangle there for hours like afish on a hook because they were
trying to stop the bends.
Yeah.
And this side of the museum,we've got all our artwork and
there's myths and legends ofTorres Strait as well.
Kate (24:07):
These are mostly depicted in paintings, with stories told
underneath.
I asked Vanessa what herfavourite myth or legend was.
Vanessa (24:14):
it's about Yepatu, it's about how mosquitoes came to
Horn Island.
So she was traveling with herbasket and at one point she's
fallen over and all the mozziescome out of her basket and she
just happened to be on HornIsland when that happened.
So that's how Horn Island gotall its mozzies, but.
We don't have so many mozziesanymore.
The elders tell me that whenthey were little, like in the
forties, fifties, they used toknow when it was time to come
(24:37):
home.
Not because mum and dad calledthem, but because the mozzies
came out and chased them home.
Kate (24:40):
There's also a beautiful painting of a car a wreck man
and a white woman.
And this one, it's not a myth,it's a true story.
Vanessa tells us about the storyof Barbara Thompson in 1844.
Vanessa (24:51):
This is not a myth and legend.
This is a true story, but Ithink it's my favorite true
story.
It's about Barbara Thompson.
So she was a young woman.
She was 16, newly married, shipwrecked with her husband between
Prince Wales and Horn Island,and the Carig rescued her.
Her husband had drowned, so thecar reg rescued her and she
stayed with them for four orfive years.
So Barbara Thompson wasshipwrecked in 1844 and she was
(25:15):
rescued in 1849 by thesefellows.
This is the, the crew of therattlesnake.
So she had gone to Cape Yorkwith the carig to do trading
with the Gudang tribe on CapeYork, and the seamen were
walking along the beach and theysaw a white woman amongst them.
So they were quite surprised.
So they went up.
She'd almost lost English atthat point, but she could
(25:37):
remember some of the English,and she was Scottish, so she had
the lilt still with her accent.
So they recognized that she wasa Scotts lady.
So they took her back on boardand yeah, she went back to
Sydney with them.
So she was rescued.
So Barbara gave all herinformation from about the carig
to Oswell really.
And he recorded everything inhis notebook.
And that became one big volume,which was how the carig were
(26:00):
able to get the native title.
Because all their history, alltheir traditions are in one book
and they can prove that they'rea culture and they've lived here
thousands and thousands ofyears.
So without her records, theywouldn't have everything
recorded in one book.
Actually, and last year, herfamily came up for the first
time,because I'd been writing tothem.
So we took her family back towhere she was camped with the
(26:20):
carig on Lauralug and they,yeah, lots of crying in tears
and stuff because the elderstook them to the descendants of
the people that rescued, heardtheir descendant, all got
together at the spot where theyall used to be living, so that
was really nice.
Kate (26:39):
Vanessa and her partner Liberty run the In Their Steps
World War II Horn Island Tour aswell as a museum.
Entry to the museum is only 10for adults and is open 9 5pm, 7
days a week.
Tours run through the highseason from May to September and
can be booked online.
The museum is on one flat leveland accessible to wheelchairs
(27:00):
and walking frames.
The tour is mostly conducted ona bus which is accessible,
however the tracks are a bitrough and may not be suitable
for some mobility aids.
The tours also feature Vanessa'snarration and audio descriptions
of each point of interest.
You know what?
I never would have thought thatI'd end up in the Torres Strait,
(27:22):
but it was a truly rewardingexperience.
The islands were incredible.
They had the bluest water, somereally stunning landscapes, a
rich culture and really warmhospitality.
Vanessa's tour felt likestepping back in time and
getting a glimpse of just onechapter of the Torres Strait's
really fascinating past.
(27:42):
So if you can get up to theislands, I would entirely
recommend it.
I thought it was great.
That's all I have for you today.
Thanks for listening to Roadshowand Tell.
If you enjoyed this deep diveinto a specialty museum, make
sure you subscribe so you don'tmiss an episode.
We're a new podcast.
(28:03):
So if you wanna help support us,please share it with a friend
and leave a rating and review.
If you are involved with or knowof a regional or specialty
museum that should be featured,please get in touch at
roadshowandtell@gmail.com.
I'm your host, Kate.
Roadshow and Tell was edited andproduced on the lands of the
(28:24):
Gadigal people.
I acknowledge the TraditionalCustodians of the various lands
on which you may be listeningfrom, and the lands that the
museums featured in this podcastreside on.
I also acknowledge anyAboriginal or Torres Strait
Islander people listening tothis podcast.
I pay my respects to elderspast, present, and emerging, and
(28:45):
celebrate the diversity ofAboriginal peoples and their
ongoing cultures and connectionsto the lands and waters of
Australia.
they all go away gobsmacked with how much Horn
Island and the Torres Strait hadto do with World War II By the
end of that same year, 5,000were stationed here
Kate (00:17):
Welcome to Roadshow and tell a podcast for people hoping
to improve their pub trivia teamscore.
I'm your host, Kate, and I'llvisit museums so you can learn
things you never knew you wantedto.
In this episode, we're going tothe tippy tippy top of
Australia, even further thanCape York, to a place so far
(00:40):
north that a slice of it reachesinto Papua New Guinea.
We're in the Torres StraitIslands, an archipelago of
almost 300 small islands in theTorres Strait waterway that
separates Queensland from PapuaNew Guinea.
There are 16 inhabited islandswhich are home to a population
of just over 4, 000 peopleaccording to the most recent
(01:00):
census with a further 61, 000people identifying as Torres
Strait Islanders and living onthe Australian mainland.
Each island or community has adistinct culture, though there
are similarities across them aswell as connections to both
Australian Aboriginal cultureand Papuan culture.
Today we're visiting a museum inHorn Island, which is nestled
(01:23):
next to the most populous islandin the Torres Strait, Thursday
Island.
Despite its tiny population,horn Island has a really
fascinating history.
It begins with the indigenousKararag people.
Then, when World War II rollsaround, the island came into
prominence as Australia'snorthernmost frontier, standing
tall through eight Japanese airraids.
(01:45):
We'll be exploring the militaryhistory today with Horn Island
local, Vanessa Seakey, who runsWorld War II history tours on
the island.
She'll share some stories thathave formed the fabric of this
remarkable place and show usremnants of wartime buildings
and battles that serve as areminder of the vital role that
this area played.
(02:05):
So today I'll be talking withthe curator of the Torres Strait
Heritage Museum and Designer ofWorld War II tours on Horn
Island.
Vanessa Seekee.
Vanessa, welcome to the podcast.
Vanessa (02:16):
Yeah, thanks Kate for having me.
Kate (02:18):
And Vanessa, whose land are we on today?
Vanessa (02:20):
We're on the lands of the, the Kaurareg, the Kaurareg
Nation.
Kate (02:23):
Wonderful, thank you.
And so how did these toursstart?
Vanessa (02:27):
II so I arrived here, oh, I've been here nearly 30
years.
So when I first got here, Istarted to walk around in the
bush and you'd find things, sothere'd be underground rooms and
trenches and planes andconcrete, and, and no one knew
what these relics were or whowas here, what they'd done.
And I thought it was sad thatpeople had, had been here and
done something like joined thearmy of the Air Force in World
(02:47):
War II, served here, some haddied here, no one knew anything
about'em.
So that's how we really startedwith the research and then
developed the tours cause Ithought people might like to
come and see where these ladiesand fellows had served.
Kate (03:00):
And how long has the tour been going for?
Vanessa (03:02):
So we started very small in 98.
Really very small, but we gotthe buses in 99, so we've been
doing it since then, really.
See it's been going for a goodwhile, but yeah, it's, it's
great to see people coming tosee something they didn't
realize was here.
So they all go away gobsmackedwith how much Horn Island and
the Torres Strait and the peoplehad to do with World War Two.
Kate (03:23):
And what's the history of the museum?
How did that come to
Vanessa (03:25):
be?
It came about similar to theWorld War II tour.
I thought after seeing thesights, people might wanna see
their faces.
So they might wanna see who wasin these sites and they might
wanna read more about them.
So that's how the World War IIside came about.
I started with one veteran Mr.
Ball in Sydney, and he knew fiveother mates that served here.
Then they knew five other mates.
And so I just spread out a treeand we, we've interviewed about
(03:48):
350 veterans who served up hereover the years.
So that's how it started.
But then I thought, People mightwanna balance, they just
probably won't wanna see allWorld War ii.
So half the museum is World WarII with photographs and maps and
diaries and stories and artwork,et cetera.
And the other side is Pearling,Torres Strait Myths and Legends.
There's artwork in there aswell.
(04:09):
There's cultural artifacts.
So it's a bit of a mix.
It's a, it's a balance.
Kate (04:13):
What's the most popular part of the museum?
Vanessa (04:16):
I think the most popular part is other stories of
the veterans and the myths andlegends.
I think that's an equal cuzpeople have seen a lot about
first Nations on the mainlandand their dreamtime stories and
things.
I think they've seen more thanthe Torres Strait Islander myths
and legends.
So they are different.
So I think people love to seethem in the artwork.
But also the stories of theveterans cause it makes'em more
personable.
(04:37):
You're not just looking at a, alump of concrete or something,
you're able to see the man orthe woman who served there or
built this or something happenedthere so you can read their
stories.
Kate (04:46):
Do you have a favorite story that you've uncovered
through your research?
Vanessa (04:50):
I think stories about when families come back to see
where their World War IIveterans.
Families serve, but theirgrandfathers and great
grandfathers.
There was one lady, she rang mefrom Sydney, and her brother had
been killed up here in akittyhawk, but the family had
never known where he was killedor anything.
So I did some research.
We actually found out roughlywhere the plane went down, so
(05:11):
she came up from Sydney and wetook her and her sister in a
chopper out to the site.
So they were able to get downlow enough to lay a wreath on
the water and so they could seewhere he met his demise, because
they'd never known before.
So that's, it's just one.
We have a lot of families thatcome up and a lot of veterans
used to bring their families up.
But these days the veterans havelargely gone now.
(05:33):
So this year we had our firstWorld War II reunion with no
veterans.
It was all families this year.
I used to have a World War IIreunion every year for veterans
that served here.
And we, yeah, we don't do themanyway of this year was the
first year cuz they've all gonelargely or they're a hundred,
they're beyond traveling.
Kate (05:49):
And why should people come here and visit the museum and go
and one of the tours?
Vanessa (05:53):
Because it's a little known part.
You hear about Broome and Darwinand Townsville a lot but people
have hardly ever heard of HornIsland, and it's the second most
attacked location in Australianext to Darwin.
And it is a time capsule forWorld War II because we haven't
been developed upon like a cityand we haven't been blown away
by cyclones.
So everything is still outthere.
And the tour is not just factsand figures and archival, it's
(06:15):
also a mix of all the veteransstories that we've heard over
the years.
So you mix of veterans storieswith archival and you get a
better overall picture, and itmakes it more, it's humorous in
places too, and serious inothers, but yeah, it's a better
blend, a better, betternarrative, better narrative.
Kate (06:29):
So, we board the bus and start the tour with Vanessa.
While we drive to our firststop, we're treated to a bit of
the history of Horn Island andthe Kararag people.
Vanessa (06:38):
so this is where we all live on Horn Island.
Population here is about 600people.
Thursday Island about three anda half thousand.
But land wise we've got 56square kilometers of land here,
and Thursday Island's aboutthree and a half.
So we're a lot bigger in size,but we're smaller in population.
Now here on Horn Island, ourtraditional population are the
(06:58):
Kaurareg.
So the Kaurareg have been livinghere since well before Europeans
started to pop up in the area.
First European visitor was aSpanish fellow called De Torres.
Now he came through in 1606, andthat's how we got the name:
Torres Strai t.
So the Kaurareg are quite happyliving on Horn Island.
They start to see a fewexplorers enter the area.
(07:20):
However, in 1877, we had a bitof a change.
That's when a fellow by the nameof Henry Larger Banks, Chester,
arrived onto ti.
Now Henry would be TI's firstpolice magistrate.
And he settled the island forEuropean and Asian races.
Now the Kaurareg watched thesettlement of TI take off.
(07:41):
They then saw the pearlingindustry develop around Thursday
Island.
But 1922, the Queenslandgovernment and the Catholic
church put their heads together,decided that in the best
interest of the Kaurareg, theyshould be removed from Horn
Island and sent to an islandcalled MOA, up on the northeast.
Kate (07:58):
So the Kararik people were forcibly removed from Horn
Island to Moa Island in 1922.
Vanessa (08:04):
Now the years at Moa were not very happy ones, and in
1946, they decided to come backto Horn Island.
What prompted their decision tocome back was the fact that
during the second World War,Just about every man in the
Kaurareg had volunteered andserved in the Australian army.
The Army gave them an education,training, skills they would not
(08:27):
get as civilians and havingserved their country, they felt
they had the right to live in itwhere they wanted to.
So they came back home.
And as of May, 2001, theKaurareg have been granted
native title over Horn Island,entrance Island and Prince of
Wales Island.
So it means for us who arenon-Kaurareg, we can buy houses
(08:47):
and land inside the village areaonly.
We can't buy a block of land,say, out here or on the other
side of the island.
Kate (08:55):
Now we are rounding the Horn Island Airport, a tiny
airport with just two runways.
The airport started as anadvanced operational airbase
during the Second War.
So let's go back.
The year was 1939 and Australiawas starting to see war descend
over Europe.
Vanessa (09:12):
Now the Department of Defense started to envisage
Japan entering the conflict, buton the side of Germany.
Now, if that happened, we weregoing to need all the defenses
we could get.
We'd be faced with a war on thePacific and in Europe, so they
started to look for places toput advanced operational air
bases, especially around thenorth.
(09:34):
Now, they chose Horn Island asAustralia's most advanced air
base site because she's bigenough, flat enough and had the
possibility for a good wharf tobe built.
So the Main Roads Commission andCivilian Construction Corps or
CCC came here in 1940 and theybuilt to all purpose and back
then they were gravel runways.
Kate (09:55):
From there, the Australian Air Force and United States Army
Air Forces used it as a base foroperations in the Pacific
Theatre for the rest of the war.
Now Vanessa tells us about thevery first air raid at Horn
Island.
which happened on the 14th ofMarch 1942 at 12.
30pm and struck like a bolt fromthe blue.
(10:16):
The Japanese rolled in withtheir beddy bombers and zero
planes.
Now remember, this was prettyearly on in the Pacific War, so
there were only about 20 menstationed on the ground at that
stage.
And between them, the mightiestweapon that they could muster
was a trusty 303 rifle.
And that's not particularlyhelpful in an air raid.
Vanessa (10:36):
But by an absolute fluke chance, sitting on the
runways was a visiting group ofeight American kitty hawks just
back from patrol, foundthemselves in the middle of an
air raid.
So they took off and engaged thezeros in the skies above us and
above Thursday Island or ti.
First zero in Queensland wasshot down by Lieutenant House.
(10:57):
Cadet Iwasaki crashed ontoHammond Island
Kate (11:00):
Hammond Island is another small island close by to
Thursday and Horne Islands.
Vanessa (11:05):
So Iwasaki zero still on Hammond today.
The next zero didn't get shotdown.
Captain Morrisey was up thelead.
He's got a zero coming right uphis tailpipe.
House, saw what was about tohappen.
Tried to shoot the zero like hehad done the first one, but this
time his guns jammed up on him.
(11:26):
So in a split second decisionhouse, put his plane into a dive
and sliced the right wing of hiskitty hawk into the cockpit of
the zero.
Now it's killed, or if he fellto the water, Maurice's life was
saved.
House then looked across to theright hand side of his own plane
and realized he had a smallproblem.
Half his right wing was working.
(11:46):
So every time he slowed up toland here, the plane tried to
flip over on him.
It was no longer balanced.
So he screams in at 150 miles anhour, lands under the strip
skids off into the dust anddirt.
21 years of age.
That's his first combat mission.
But he would fly over 400missions in his career as a
(12:06):
combat fighter Pilot.
Retired with the rank of Coloneland has since passed away in
Florida.
And Morrissey whose life hesaved that day had one son
before the war.
He went back after the war andhad 12 more kids.
Same woman too.
Kate (12:22):
We stop at a trailhead to go on our next excursion.
Vanessa (12:25):
We're going to hop out and have a look at what was once
home to the 34th Australianheavy anti-aircraft battery.
These blokes came straight outof Melbourne and Country
Victoria arrived in October 42,just as the heat starts to pick
up.
They were given pick and shovelon arrival and told to start
digging.
But there's also a grave here.
(12:46):
So Roy passed away in 2002, butit was his wish to be buried
where he had served as a youngsoldier.
So his old mates and his familybrought him back and he got his
wish.
He's buried where he served.
Now Roy's the only non-Kauraregperson buried on horn.
The Kaurareg said yes to Roybecause Roy served here and so
did they.
And you got that bond.
(13:07):
His family came up here thisyear for Anzac Week, for the
first time since he was in turn.
So they've laid some reefs andsome flags there.
Okay, now it's a 3.7 inchanti-aircraft gun.
Kate (13:18):
So, what we see is like a round pit with a huge metal anti
aircraft gun in the middle
Vanessa (13:24):
They are as rare as hen's teeth.
It's about only 26 of them leftin the country.
The reason they're rare isbecause they're 10 tonne of
solid metal.
So largely at the end of thewar, they were melted down.
Now this one we finally found inDarwin.
So firstly, the big bays aroundus held the ammunition shells.
So to give you an idea of whereyou are, if you picture a circle
in your mind, the outside edgeof the circle are four massive
(13:47):
3.7 inch anti-aircraft guns.
So there's two that way.
Two that way.
This is the middle of thecircle, like the hub of the
wheel.
So all the decisions for theguns come from the command post
here.
Kate (13:57):
As Vanessa explains, there are many separate operations
that make this work.
And there are ten men to a crew.
Vanessa (14:03):
So they've all got different tasks, different jobs,
and they used to drillcontinuously.
So they all knew it'll work likea well oil machine.
So the Japanese come in from thenorth two blokes in the middle
pit on the telescope.
They'll spot'em.
Three fellows in this pit are onthe heightened range finder, but
it's the six blokes in the farpit.
They're on your predictor.
Kate (14:22):
The Predictor is a machine which does just that.
Predicts where the target willmove to.
Vanessa (14:28):
Cuz if you fire a shell at a plane dead on the pilot's
back having a beer before itgets up there, you gotta put the
shell where the plane's going tobe, not where it is.
So that screen's got thepredictor, so it'll move.
And so you've gotta elevate androtate.
So your little dot matches thatgreen one.
Then you're on target.
Kate (14:43):
So, the point of the anti aircraft wasn't to hit the
planes dead on.
This weapon was trying to getthe shells to explode within 80
feet of the target aircraft.
The shells they used were 3.7inch anti aircraft shells, which
were 20 kilos each.
Vanessa (14:58):
You watch your movies like The Battle of Britain, the
big black bursts around theplanes.
That's what this is putting up.
So they're trying to fill thesky with shrapnel and little
flack, so they dunno how manywent into the sea on the way
home damaged full of holes.
Kate (15:10):
now we get back on the bus to travel to our next excursion,
while Vanessa tells us about thelogistics of using Horn Island
as an airbase in the war.
Vanessa (15:18):
Now Horn Island here in 1942.
In.
The first 12 months alone,10,000 aircraft came through
this air base.
Now, just about every alliedaircraft type we had came
through here and they all haveto be refueled, but the fuel
didn't come here in thousandgallon tanks.
It arrived in individual 44gallon fuel drums.
(15:39):
If you look on the left, you'llsee them see them all stacked up
in there.
That is just one fuel drumdispersal point.
You could not put the fuel inone big lump here on the island
because you'd lose the island ifit was hit during an air raid.
So they hid them in differentspots like this one scattered
all over the island.
Now the young fellows used tocome long, grab hold of them and
(16:00):
scrub them out.
Then they made wonderfulbathtubs If you cut'em length
ways, seats for the outdoorpictures, if you lay'em down,
the odd one or two became a homebrew kit.
Long drop liners.
But the biggest usage here, andI know it's hard to think of it
at the moment with this drizzle,but water storage December to
(16:20):
May, the wet can bring anenormous amount of rain, but may
to December, the dry bringsbarely a sprinkle.
So all their water was rationed.
They got a canteen per personper day.
So whatever water you gatheredfor yourself in an old fuel drum
in the wet was a big bonus comeJuly time of year.
Kate (16:39):
That's not the only thing that was rationed on Horn
Island.
Here's a cracker of a story.
Vanessa (16:44):
So have a bit of a look about, oh, the date on the base
of the bottle, and don't dropher.
It's a World War II beer bottlewe found here.
Now, ration here, they got twoof those per man per week,
perhaps.
If you didn't drink, you wereeverybody else's best mate.
You swap it for something elsenow to get'em cold.
There's no lgs, no kelators, soto get'em cold, bit of a
(17:06):
challenge.
The young blokes they used tomake friends with the pilots.
Now take the ammunition out ofthe wings of a fighter plane.
Put the beer bottles into thewings.
Go up, fly around to test theengine or something.
Land on Horn Island.
Wonder of wonders.
You've got chill cold beer inthe wings of your plane, very
(17:27):
commonly done, especially ifthere was someone coming you
wanted to impress.
We have heard that same storyfrom different fighter pilots
that we interviewed.
Now, segueing into, what's thesecond longest running kids
program on the abc?
Mr.
Squiggle.
Now Mr.
Squiggle is a veteran of HornIsland.
Not the little puppet, the manthere.
Norman Hetherington is a veteranof Hornem New Guinea.
(17:50):
He was in the concert parties,so they would do concerts to
entertain everyone.
His act was to do a picture ofan unpopular major, flip it
upside down, and it became aBuckham Mae West.
So he honed his skill in thearmy here, and then he developed
the puppets in the fifties.
Kate (18:04):
So get that, Northern Hetherington, aka Mr Squiggles,
very early upside down drawingswere done here on Horn Island
while serving in World War II.
Vanessa also shares aninteresting story of Basil
Ramming, a veteran of HornIsland who she met with.
Vanessa (18:19):
You'll see Basil ramming now Basil was 13 years
and 10 months of age when heserved here.
I said to him, how did you getin the army at 13?
He turned to me with thistwinkle in his eye and said, oh,
we're a big boy.
I said, big?
You put your age up five yearsto get in.
So by the time he wasdischarged, he was 18 and a half
(18:40):
now, legally he still couldn'tbuy a beer and he couldn't vote.
But he still had served fiveyears.
Kate (18:45):
There weren't just officers up here in the war.
They needed nurses too.
In case of casualties.
Vanessa (18:50):
So beginning of 42, we had about 20 blokes here.
By the end of that same year,5,000 were stationed here,
Ozzies Americans Army Air Force,and along with 5,000 men, there
were nine women.
Great ratio for them.
First Australian Camp HospitalNursing staff arrived November
(19:10):
42 to a Canvas carpe tent for ahospital, wooden floorboards and
gore sides 36 beds in the ward.
And it might surprise you toknow out the nine ladies, five
of them met their futurehusbands while they were serving
here.
A little voice in the back says,how would you choose?
Now our next stop is just up infront where the signs were.
Kate (19:33):
We walk out to what are known as slit trenches.
Trenches in the ground, abouthalf a meter wide arranged in a
zigzag pattern.
The signal for an air raid waseither a siren or three rifle
shots.
When this happened, the troopswould either man their guns or
take cover in the slit trenches.
Vanessa (19:50):
So what got you was the shrapnel from the bombs.
But what do you think is thesilent thing that gets you in an
air raid?
Kate (19:56):
That's right, shockwaves, generated by explosions, lead to
rapid shifts in the airpressure.
This can cause severe harm,including internal injuries and
blunt force trauma.
The best way to minimise riskslinked to shockwaves is to seek
shelter during an air raid.
Vanessa (20:12):
Not silent, sorry, invisible.
You can't see it.
Have you ever seen a movie andall the trees are bending over a
shockwave?
You can't see it, but it getsyou.
So you had to be inside a slittrench.
Now usually they're dug in thedirt like this fellows.
The one in here is concreted.
So regardless though of dirt orconcrete, you've all got to have
at least one corner in them.
You can't put'em in a straightline cuz whatever lands there is
(20:35):
gonna zip straight through it.
You've gotta put the corners inso you can duck around a corner.
To avoid whatever's coming atyou.
Kate (20:41):
In 1942, some men of Torres Strait formed Australia's
only Indigenous battalion everformed, the Torres Strait Light
Infantry Battalion, comprised of880 men from the Outer Islands
who volunteered for service inthe Army.
This was the highest rate ofenlistment per population in
Australia at the time.
(21:02):
However, these soldiers receivedone third of the wage of a non
Indigenous soldier, couldn'tvote, and their dependents
received no allowances.
In 1943 they went on strike, andthe Australian government agreed
to increase their pay to twothirds the wage of a non
Indigenous soldier, buteventually offered full back pay
to the veterans in the 1980s.
(21:24):
Now we head back to the museumand Vanessa shows me around.
The museum is split into halfWorld War II artifacts and half
Torres Strait history andculture.
Vanessa (21:32):
the cabinet here.
It's got some of the artifactsof the TA straits.
So we've got different carvings,like there's a wire up carving
there.
We've also got pearling luggerson display too.
This is a headdress, but it'sused in the World War II dance.
So Torres Strait culture is, isoral.
It's handed down through musicand stories and legends.
So in World War ii, The fellowsdesigned a dance that would pass
(21:57):
on the story of what they didduring World War ii, but instead
of daris as headdress, they wearaircraft.
Kate (22:02):
The Dari style of headdress is iconic the Torres
Strait Islands, andtraditionally uses white
feathers of a seabird and eithera pearl shell or turtle shell in
the center.
These specific headdresses areincredible.
They are a band around the headwhich holding up what looks like
model aircraft on top, which areintricate replicas of
Kittyhawks, B 17s, Mitchells andLiberators.
Vanessa (22:25):
So the, the aircraft that they saw during World War
ii, they're making hisheaddress, and when they did the
dance, they mimic the sweepingand the diving of the planes and
the aircraft.
That's so, it's, it's rarelydone, but when you do see it,
it's fantastic dance to watch.
Kate (22:39):
A big part of Torres Strait history is pearling.
And here we see a large pearlinglugger, which is a small sailing
ship with two or three masts anda lug sail on each side.
Vanessa (22:49):
Between ti and Broom, we cultivate or gathered, almost
half the world's pearl shell atone point.
So that's why pearling, you'llsee a lot of pearling history in
the museum cuz it's an integralpart of the European history of,
of the Torres Strait.
So Captain Banner in 1866discovered shallow pearl shell
in the Torres Strait and thoughtU Beauty because it was valued
(23:10):
commodity and it was shallow.
So he started collecting theshell and then it just drew in
cultures from all over theworld.
So you've got a lot of Asiaticcultures, Japanese, Chinese,
Malays Thais, Filipinos allcoming for the pearling
industry.
Kate (23:24):
we also see a heavy pearling helmet on display.
Vanessa (23:27):
So the diver would go down the ladder with his corset
and boots and everything else,and then the helmet was screwed
on and then he'd just drop intothe water.
Cuz they're so heavy, theydidn't walk around on the deck
Like you see in the movies.
The far too heavy if you try andlift it, it's heavy as so you're
not gonna walk around with thaton your head.
But yeah, it's quiteclaustrophobic when you put your
head inside.
So the divers used to go downwith these baskets, and gather
(23:49):
the shell.
Then to come back up though, itwould take hours cuz you had to
stage to come back up.
You had, they'd bring you up alittle bit, then you'd just
dangle there for hours like afish on a hook because they were
trying to stop the bends.
Yeah.
And this side of the museum,we've got all our artwork and
there's myths and legends ofTorres Strait as well.
Kate (24:07):
These are mostly depicted in paintings, with stories told
underneath.
I asked Vanessa what herfavourite myth or legend was.
Vanessa (24:14):
it's about Yepatu, it's about how mosquitoes came to
Horn Island.
So she was traveling with herbasket and at one point she's
fallen over and all the mozziescome out of her basket and she
just happened to be on HornIsland when that happened.
So that's how Horn Island gotall its mozzies, but.
We don't have so many mozziesanymore.
The elders tell me that whenthey were little, like in the
forties, fifties, they used toknow when it was time to come
(24:37):
home.
Not because mum and dad calledthem, but because the mozzies
came out and chased them home.
Kate (24:40):
There's also a beautiful painting of a car a wreck man
and a white woman.
And this one, it's not a myth,it's a true story.
Vanessa tells us about the storyof Barbara Thompson in 1844.
Vanessa (24:51):
This is not a myth and legend.
This is a true story, but Ithink it's my favorite true
story.
It's about Barbara Thompson.
So she was a young woman.
She was 16, newly married, shipwrecked with her husband between
Prince Wales and Horn Island,and the Carig rescued her.
Her husband had drowned, so thecar reg rescued her and she
stayed with them for four orfive years.
So Barbara Thompson wasshipwrecked in 1844 and she was
(25:15):
rescued in 1849 by thesefellows.
This is the, the crew of therattlesnake.
So she had gone to Cape Yorkwith the carig to do trading
with the Gudang tribe on CapeYork, and the seamen were
walking along the beach and theysaw a white woman amongst them.
So they were quite surprised.
So they went up.
She'd almost lost English atthat point, but she could
(25:37):
remember some of the English,and she was Scottish, so she had
the lilt still with her accent.
So they recognized that she wasa Scotts lady.
So they took her back on boardand yeah, she went back to
Sydney with them.
So she was rescued.
So Barbara gave all herinformation from about the carig
to Oswell really.
And he recorded everything inhis notebook.
And that became one big volume,which was how the carig were
(26:00):
able to get the native title.
Because all their history, alltheir traditions are in one book
and they can prove that they'rea culture and they've lived here
thousands and thousands ofyears.
So without her records, theywouldn't have everything
recorded in one book.
Actually, and last year, herfamily came up for the first
time,because I'd been writing tothem.
So we took her family back towhere she was camped with the
(26:20):
carig on Lauralug and they,yeah, lots of crying in tears
and stuff because the elderstook them to the descendants of
the people that rescued, heardtheir descendant, all got
together at the spot where theyall used to be living, so that
was really nice.
Kate (26:39):
Vanessa and her partner Liberty run the In Their Steps
World War II Horn Island Tour aswell as a museum.
Entry to the museum is only 10for adults and is open 9 5pm, 7
days a week.
Tours run through the highseason from May to September and
can be booked online.
The museum is on one flat leveland accessible to wheelchairs
(27:00):
and walking frames.
The tour is mostly conducted ona bus which is accessible,
however the tracks are a bitrough and may not be suitable
for some mobility aids.
The tours also feature Vanessa'snarration and audio descriptions
of each point of interest.
You know what?
I never would have thought thatI'd end up in the Torres Strait,
(27:22):
but it was a truly rewardingexperience.
The islands were incredible.
They had the bluest water, somereally stunning landscapes, a
rich culture and really warmhospitality.
Vanessa's tour felt likestepping back in time and
getting a glimpse of just onechapter of the Torres Strait's
really fascinating past.
(27:42):
So if you can get up to theislands, I would entirely
recommend it.
I thought it was great.
That's all I have for you today.
Thanks for listening to Roadshowand Tell.
If you enjoyed this deep diveinto a specialty museum, make
sure you subscribe so you don'tmiss an episode.
We're a new podcast.
(28:03):
So if you wanna help support us,please share it with a friend
and leave a rating and review.
If you are involved with or knowof a regional or specialty
museum that should be featured,please get in touch at
roadshowandtell@gmail.com.
I'm your host, Kate.
Roadshow and Tell was edited andproduced on the lands of the
(28:24):
Gadigal people.
I acknowledge the TraditionalCustodians of the various lands
on which you may be listeningfrom, and the lands that the
museums featured in this podcastreside on.
I also acknowledge anyAboriginal or Torres Strait
Islander people listening tothis podcast.
I pay my respects to elderspast, present, and emerging, and
(28:45):
celebrate the diversity ofAboriginal peoples and their
ongoing cultures and connectionsto the lands and waters of
Australia.
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