SHIPWRECK ON SAUMAREZ REEF ....Tropic of Capricorn
Copyright2007 on 30.11.07 @ 01:00 AM AEST [Tropic of Capricorn">link]
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Friday, November 30th Copyright2007 on 30.11.07 @ 01:00 AM AEST [Tropic of Capricorn">link] SAUMAREZ REEF MEMOIR ........ Francis Preston Blair
 The bronze prop was salvaged by Australian's sometime after this picture in 1964. We were the first divers to visit Saumarez Reef. Bob Grounds, Ron Zangari, Ron Taylor, Wally G. Muller (our Captain) and myself went there aboard the fishing boat Riversong departing from Yeppoon, Queensland. Ron Taylor (aged 29) filmed his 30 minute documentary of the expedition which included footage of this grand shipwreck - a wreck with a live WW2 ammunition. After the documentary was widely shown in theatres, unknown persons salvaged (stole) the big bronze four-blade propeller and others started a fire which detonated the ammunition. The 7,196 ton US Liberty Ship is now owned by the Australian military. RAAF aircraft have used it for target practice. What caused the explosion in the ship's bow has been denied as being from enemy action. Original fishermen folk lore had the ship 'hit by a torpedo and run aground to prevent sinking and loss'. This has been denied by authorities, others believe the truth will never be known. Today the wreck has collapsed completely. Rust never sleeps. Copyright2007 on 30.11.07 @ 12:47 AM AEST [Francis Preston Blair ">link] Saumarez Reef ........ Bow of ship
 The American TV show Wild Kingdom visited Saumarez Reef in a quest for shark and sea snake action. Show host Marlin Perkins (picture above) inspecting the explosion blast in the bow of Francis Preston Blair. Did a torpedo or Royal Australian Air Force bomb cause this? We filmed F-111a bombers making practice attacks on the wreck during the making of Sea Safari my own documentary made for home video in Australia. Copyright2007 on 30.11.07 @ 12:20 AM AEST [Bow of ship">link] Saumarez ......... Jocelyn Edwards visits wreck on reef
 Copyright2007 on 30.11.07 @ 12:16 AM AEST [Jocelyn Edwards visits wreck on reef">link] Wednesday, November 28th FUTURE SEA HUNT STAR ....Early era of Lloyd Bridges
 Following the 1937 movie of the same name, Secret Agent X-9 is a serial made in 1945 featuring a young Lloyd Bridges some years before he starred as Mike Nelson in the famed Sea Hunt TV series That show inspired many Australians into scuba diving. Tom Allen (mentioned elsewhere on this blog) was often a stand-in for Lloyd in the underwater scenes. All filmed in Florida's famed Silver Springs (as was The Creature from the Black Lagoon and the two sequels) - fantastic 200 foot fresh water visibility too. Equal to South Australia's Picaninnie Ponds and far warmer. The X-9 plot: On an island off the coast of China, (Taiwan or Hainan??) Secret Agent X-9 is sent to stop a terrible Nazi-Japanese plot involving an agent preparing to pick-up a formula for a secret aviation fuel. Australians, Chinese and American's save the day as forerunners to the United Nations. The Silent World was Jacques Cousteau's Academy Award winning documentary in 1956. It was shown at spear fishing club meetings in Sydney for many years and is an all time classic. The book of the same name has been re-published. It's interesting to check edits and omissions over the years. In at least one edition J.Y. Cousteau describes a Leonardo DaVinci diving sketch as a doodle. Yeah, a hundred thousand dollar doodle today. fathom on 28.11.07 @ 09:16 PM AEST [Early era of Lloyd Bridges">link] Tuesday, November 27th UNDERWATER SHOCK-HORROR FILM...... 1956
 The original Creature from the Black Lagoon was presented to the public in 1956 as a serious possibility that such a creature might exist somewhere in the unknown Amazon. Worthwhile for the superb underwater photography and serious effort by top actors of the era. The 10 minute featurette version Creature from the Lagoon (the word Black omitted) works as a comedy as does a 1960's spearfishing newsreel showing heaps of blue groper at an Australian spear fishing championships at Bermagui, New South Wales. Included in the newsreel, someone bitten by a wobbegong shark held high for the cameraman - by the tail. fathom on 27.11.07 @ 06:44 PM AEST [1956">link] Monday, November 26th KIWI IN THE SURF ...... self portrait with Nikonos
 Copyright2007 on 26.11.07 @ 11:14 PM AEST [self portrait with Nikonos">link] THE TRAVELING UNDERWATER FILM SHOW
 It seems incredible today the distances I used to drive without much planning. For example this picture was at Mount Gambier, South Australia. A week before I was in Cairns, North Queensland and a week before that in Darwin, Northern Territory. I'd driven to Mt Gambier especially to join a USA underwater photo team which included my pen friend Hillary Hauser from California who was writing the text. Hillary's former husband was Dick Anderson who had MC'd our underwater film expo show in Los Angeles' Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. The trip to South Australia proved a mini sea change. Here I met Barry Holmes (pictured) who was a trusted distributor of the outback classic documentary Northern Safari owned by Keith F Adams of Perth. It turned out Northern Safari was booked for a return season of shows in New South Wales and there was an opening for another person to join the team. I was invited in after a meeting with Keith F Adams (The General), Barry Holmes, Tom Stokes and Ray Grimsey. Men who had been with the traveling show, independently and showing it all over the world for more than ten years. Barry had worked in South Africa showing Northern Safari. In Australia he was allocated Victoria. Tom Stokes had several years touring England with the film. Ray Grimsey had been allocated Canada, Queensland and New South Wales as his territories. Keith Adams kept Western Australia for himself plus USA. Often the team would gather for a joint effort in a new territory such as was the case with New Zealand and with Tasmanian shows. Amongst the theatre industry people the film was legendary. Pre Crocodile Dundee it was the highest grossing Australian film - ever. I can't find it listed in movie history books. Why? A mystery. Maybe as a 16mm film it didn't qualify as "professional". Keith made great profits as he and his team always handled the cash themselves. Film distributing companies were not very honest in the days when the film first appeared. Footnote: Here's a Following the Footsteps example. My father had been a traveling picture showman on the New South Wales south coast before getting a steady job as projectionist with the Kings Theatre, Bega. Later he bought a small cafe nearby, then a series of small hotels. I didn't mind following his film show footsteps. Life in the Sydney pubs was a bit tougher. Copyright2007 on 26.11.07 @ 10:44 PM AEST [link] TRAVELING FILM SHOW ...... advertising posters
 These tiger sharks were caught with a gaff while being filmed feeding on the 1006 pound black marlin, described below. Jocelyn Edwards - originally from New Zealand is the poster girl. Copyright2007 on 26.11.07 @ 04:24 PM AEST [advertising posters">link] AUSTRALIAN SEAFARI FILM ....... Tiger Sharks 'on location'
 From the stern of Peter Bristow's game fishing boat Avalon my documentary film shows tiger sharks 'recycling' a 1006 pound black marlin. The location was the Ribbon Reef's east of Cooktown, and north of Cairns, Queensland. A dozen or more large sharks including a few bull sharks, several tigers and lone oceanic whaler shark were caught on film with my pole camera co-designed by Peter Bristow. Peter Bristow had been seeing big tiger sharks feeding at sea behind the 'mother ship' for weeks. He suggested over the phone this would be a safe way of me getting good scenes. We had expected it to be an 'at night' feeding pattern, after large marlin are weighed at the 'mother ship'. The 'mother ship' is where angler's sleep, eat and relax after their day in the smaller game boats. An angler's charter might last one or two weeks, at several thousand dollars per day. The main shark filming action occurred on a wonderful calm day in bright sunlight. Superb conditions. The above stills were taken with a Nikon F. The still picture below is from the actual 16mm - with greatly increased film grain as a special effect (on the still only). Nobody entered the water that day. The sharks were far too active. (One small eight foot tiger is shown racing at speed toward the underwater movie camera then biting it. An interesting lesson learned and seen repeated years later. Underwater film producer Ben Cropp had his head in a similar position to the camera with a stray tiger rushing toward him from behind). With tiger sharks, I have learned there can be one that behaves differently to the pack's pecking order in the feast. One that might be the shark that bites a human without the usual pre-checks. With a few friends in the water the hazard should be minimized. If working alone it's a different situation. Copyright2007 on 26.11.07 @ 03:42 PM AEST [Tiger Sharks 'on location'">link] MAKE A MOVIE .... and live on the profits
 Using a pole camera I filmed a pack of tiger sharks eating a 1006 pound marlin, off Cairrns. The finished film had several titles, the most recent Australian Seafari. Copyright2007 on 26.11.07 @ 04:39 AM AEST [and live on the profits">link] MAP OF AUSTRALIA? ....... Rock sculpture
 We did holiday time underwater film shows at Narooma, NSW South Coast where there is this interesting (in the right angle) natural sculpture on the southern side of the river mouth. Copyright2007 on 26.11.07 @ 04:34 AM AEST [Rock sculpture">link] TRAVELING FILM SHOW ....... Arrives at Ravenswood, Qld
 We even took the film show to a ghost town called Ravenswood, once a boom town when the gold was being mined. In 1978 the town was quiet. Maybe it's changed since then? Located west of Townsville. Copyright2007 on 26.11.07 @ 04:29 AM AEST [Arrives at Ravenswood, Qld">link] MARINELAND MANLY ...... Inside tank looking out
 We lived near Manly and would often visit the original Marineland to have a swim with the sharks inside their aquarium. This was in the days before they opened it up for thrill-seeking novice divers. We did a job for a Glenn Campbell and Olivia Newton-John TV special by getting some good shark jaw close-ups on film. Wisely someone considered this as a better option than filming though glass windows. Glenn showed up for a look. Copyright2007 on 26.11.07 @ 04:24 AM AEST [Inside tank looking out">link] SEAVIEWS GALORE ...... Our former Sydney lifestyle
 Every room and every window had a sea view. That's Curl Curl Beach and sea baths below. My partner Jocelyn doing what she did best. She is a terrific cook and remains a favorite friend today. It was good lifestyle supported by my underwater film show in far away cinema's. Six weeks in Queensland, working Maryborough to Cairns earned us a year's wages. Impossible to repeat today. Cinema's are smaller. Plenty of shark film on TV too. On a calm day it was a dream being able to take advantage of the weather while living close to the sea. A few abalone and sometimes a lobster could be found in the shallows below. I lived here for six years. It was a bit of a spoil. The downside was rust. Worse for the houses at sea level below. Mist would roll in at night with the sea air speeding up recycling of cars and any exposed metal. Salt would coat the windows every few days and especially when the sea was rough, even this high up. I would never consider close to a beach. OK for a holiday though. Copyright2007 on 26.11.07 @ 04:13 AM AEST [Our former Sydney lifestyle">link] Friday, November 23rd THE HENRI BOURCE STORY ...... in pictures
 Copyright2007 on 23.11.07 @ 01:24 AM AEST [in pictures">link] HENRI BOURCE ...... Made gallant return to the sea
 Copyright2007 on 23.11.07 @ 01:18 AM AEST [Made gallant return to the sea">link] Thursday, November 22nd BEWARE THE WOBBE ....... they'll bite too
 Copyright2007 on 22.11.07 @ 10:07 PM AEST [they'll bite too">link] HENRI BOURCE AT WORK .......... chamber service (1997)
 Henri ran a medical re-compression chamber service in Melbourne, treating patients following spider bites, gangrene, lung problems and slow healing wounds. I tested the often suggested hangover treatment of breathing oxygen to relieve the headache. One Sunday morning we breathed what I assumed to be pure O2 under pressure equal to about 27 feet depth for 60 minutes . There was little or no positive effect worth recommending. The $200 fee for one hour was probably cheap. By 1997 when this picture was made, Henri was in advanced stages of the leukemia which was to later take his life. To combat phantom pains (itches and aches etc.) in the lost lower half of a leg, Henri learned self hypnosis soon after his 'accident' as he called the shark attack. The effect was, he could explain how the shark bit his leg off and almost turn the incident into a joke. Sometimes at parties late at night, hopping around a dimly lit room with his half leg protruding from his trouser fly, the artificial leg and shoe still attached inside his trousers. Get the idea? Women would scream. So convincing was his attitude to living normal life, I once criticized him (this man with one leg) for parking in a disabled persons parking space. Copyright2007 on 22.11.07 @ 12:38 PM AEST [ chamber service (1997)">link] HENRI BOURCE (R.I.P.).......... Shark ate his leg
 Copyright2007 on 22.11.07 @ 01:34 AM AEST [Shark ate his leg">link] Wednesday, November 21st BOTH BITTEN BY WHITE POINTER SHARKS
 Ray was a teenager when bitten by a sick female White Pointer at Coledale, south of Sydney. Ray was to become a scuba diving later - a trend followed by others following shark bite accidents. Copyright2007 on 21.11.07 @ 06:15 AM AEST [link] DIVER HAD LEG BITTEN OFF .... then makes shark documentary
 Henri Bource traveled to North Stradbroke Island, Queensland where he optimistically hoped to film White Pointers for his Savage Shadows film. Henri already had graphic footage showing a 12 foot W/P eating another 12 footer in South Australia. He also kept partially quiet that he was a rock 'n roll celebrity saxophone musician in Victoria with The Thunderbirds - thus enjoying a 'double life', a trait also with others in his personal life - it was eventually discovered. Copyright2007 on 21.11.07 @ 06:08 AM AEST [then makes shark documentary">link] MARINELAND ....... Visiting Sydney's first big fish tank
 A Sydney teen model and JH get a personal intro to the underwater world for film producer Henri Bource (RIP) A scene from his Savage Shadows. fathom on 21.11.07 @ 01:07 AM AEST [Visiting Sydney's first big fish tank">link] Tuesday, November 20th GREY NURSE SHARK ........ ID guide - photo
 Note:Two dorsal fins, of almost equal size is the formula to remember. Others with two dorsals include Nurse/Tawney; Lemon shark; shovel-nose ray. This simple guide will help avoid confusion between the faster swimming sharks and the Grey Nurse shark (above). In South Africa the same shark is known as Ragged-tooth shark; elsewhere Sand tiger shark. A deeper water and similar protected species in Australia is.......Herbst's shark. Copyright2007 on 20.11.07 @ 05:45 PM AEST [ID guide - photo">link] Monday, November 19th A DANGEROUS SPECIES ....... Tiger shark
 Tiger sharks are always a potential problem with a confident, rarely excited swimming disposition, that is until they decide to feed, then they can't be easily discouraged. The power of the jaws when a tiger feeds is a real education - a bit frightening if you're lucky enough to be at close quarters. Raine Island is in the far north of Queensland where often hundreds of turtles nest ashore. The tigers have learned when to arrive during the season. There's an easy feed with any very tired turtle returning to the sea. Copyright2007 on 19.11.07 @ 08:59 PM AEST [Tiger shark">link] SEA MONSTER ....... what is it?
 Copyright2007 on 19.11.07 @ 03:52 PM AEST [what is it?">link] Sunday, November 18th CAPTAIN C WEED ...... Diver, Ron Isbell
 Captain of the dive charter boat Sea Hunt (and later Tropic Rover) was spear fishing and breath hold champion Ron Isbell now of Zilzie, Queensland. Demonstrating here how early divers made their own gear. The bucket has a viewing window. Flipper/fins are old sand shoes with butter-box lids screwed to the sole. The Captain C.Weed character was introduced to the public with a short comedy film premiered at Oceans (diving congress) in Melbourne about 1974. Later, highlights were edited into the traveling film show and feature length documentary Australian Seafari. The theme of underwater comedy in 16mm dive films was a Dick Anderson specialty in Californian underwater film festivals that proved popular with non-diving Australian audiences too. Copyright2007 on 18.11.07 @ 03:44 PM AEST [Diver, Ron Isbell">link] Saturday, November 17th CHEAP THRILLS ...... aluminium boat on wave
 My father had this picture framed at home, one of his favorites. Dad was driving our camera boat while I snapped this shot using a Rolleiflex medium format camera in an underwater housing. The location: Point Lookout on North Stradbroke Island - famous for waves and sharks. fathom on 17.11.07 @ 08:04 PM AEST [aluminium boat on wave">link] LEGENDS SURF MUSEUM ....... Scott Dillon - curator
 The surf art by Scott's sister. Part of his private collection at this unique museum on the highway 7km north of Coffs Harbour. Phone Scott (02) 66 536 536 Born Scott Brewster Dillon, virtually on Bondi Beach 19 August 1928 where his father was Secretary and Treasurer at Bondi Surf Life Saving Club for many years. Bondi SLSC being the premier surf life saving club in Australia for several years. Scott joined Bondi SLSC at aged 16 and remained a member for several years until he left for adventures overseas. A memorable day on the beach said Scott was when “Vince Wilson and I were surfboard riding off Ben Buckler (the northern headland) when the shark meshing boat pulled in their net to discover a four-meter white pointer shark trapped. The large shark proved difficult to remove and was bleeding following injuries caused by the boat crew. Alive when it finally escaped. Several tiger sharks attracted by the blood then attacked and ate this injured potential maneater”. The story and a photograph taken was published as front page news (Sydney Daily Telegraph 15 January 1949) and made celebrities of the two young surfers. Scott remembers other shark incidents from that era when large sharks were regularly off the beach at night. “Every morning you’d see the carcasses left on the beach of five or six large sharks caught during the previous night”. “I had a toothpick – a 16 foot hollow plywood board. The shark fishermen working from the beach often had me paddling their baits out beyond the surf as they were unable to cast that distance. That’s how thick sharks were back then, 58 years ago. Almost every bait would catch a shark. They’d use a four pound Australian salmon – not much good to eat, as bait. The sharks were all big things – eight footers or more. All swimmers took greater risks in those days”. “The elements proved the biggest danger with more drowning by far than shark attacks, sharks always grabbed the headlines and still do this today”. Scott became known as designer and builder of surfboards starting at Bondi in 1956 then moving some months later to the northern Sydney beach suburb of Brookvale where he opened his first surf board making factory. Many leading surfers began their career by shaping and finishing surfboards at the Scott Dillon’s factory. Brothers Bob, Peter and Jimmy Pike, Mick Dooley, Bob McTavish, Warrick Smith, Ron“Little Kiss” Wade, Robert Kennerson and especially Gordon Merchant - founder of international surf clothing company Billabong. Future world champion Robert “Nat” Young rode Scott Dillon’s surfboards for several years from 1963 The pinnacles of Scott Dillon’s own surfing career were his big wave conquests at the Queenscliff bombora 1963 and monster surf, Bare Island 1963-64. He was photographed regularly on big swells at Fairy Bower, and also North Narrabeen in the era 1963 to 1969. Scott Dillon traveled to Hawaii 1963-64 with surf stars he was able to partially sponsor. Bob Pike, Mick Dooley. Also in the team was surf photographer Jack Eden. They attended the Makaha International Titles which ended with the entire Australian surf team rejected (in the organizers opinion) for late entries. The disqualification was not popular. It made front page news in Australia. American Joey Cabell won the main event that year. It is not commonly known that Scott was a successful boxer for many years winning several bantamweight titles 1951 to 1953. He was runner-up in the Australian titles to select who would be representing Australia for the 1952 Olympic Games, Helsinki, Finland. This great disappointment inspired Scott to try his talent elsewhere. Boxing in Canada was preceded with professional spear fishing for coral trout and other reef fish in the virgin waters of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) for several months. Scott had been a pioneer spearman in Australia with companions founder of Undersea Products Don Linklater, Andy Armstrong, “Gelignite” Jack Murray, and prize fighter Tony Maddigan. This group often speared fish off the rocks at Bondi, North and South Head and in Sydney Harbour in the era 1956 to 1957. Scott had learned his free diving skills during his year of professional spearing in Ceylon and also the Mediterranean way back in 1952, making him today, the most senior of the legendary Australian spear fishermen. (It was recently learned Scott had began his spear fishing a few years before Wally Gibbins – long regarded as the longest surviving master of the talent in Australia). In addition to his ocean adventures, Scott Dillon became a high ranking speedway driver at the Sydney Showground and Liverpool Speedways. He was team captain for interstate contests in midget speed cars and sedans 1966 to 71. Scott moved to Coffs Harbour on the mid North Coast of New South Wales and returned to surf board building for several years. He also conducted surf safari type tours to Bali and Hawaii many times leading groups of young surfers and their girlfriends on adventures seeking waves and fun. In 1999 he opened the unique and successful Legends Surf Museum where he is today the curator. Antique surf boards, surf culture and shark attack history is displayed with a personal commentary provided. The museum has become a stopover must for bus loads of young international surfers on the Kings Cross to Byron Bay 5-day tour. Scott has ceased full-time board manufacturing and now concentrates on rebuilding quality antiques for museum display only. In 2004 Scott was inducted into the Surfing Hall of Fame as one of the true original six legends of the Australian surfing industry. As he approaches his 80th year here is genuine real life example of a Peter Pan. Scott has a remarkable and unique attitude toward life that is a terrific inspiration of many much younger people. Scott Dillon today is a terrific inspiration for all ages and proof that working in a profession you love can be very invigorating and regenerating beyond ordinary imagination. His enthusiasm for life and the history of surfing and beach culture must be seen and heard in person to be believed. vortex on 17.11.07 @ 01:44 AM AEST [Scott Dillon - curator">link] Wednesday, November 14th BEAVER ...... Houdini of the sea?
 Beaver is a character from the pioneering era of the early diving. We began as ‘divers’ when actually we were simple free diving, shallow water spear fishermen. In those early days this was a high form of adventure easily possible with the coast and affordable to most. In Sydney, the Port Hacking Penguins junior club members included a gang of friends. Bob Grounds, John Barlow, Phil Eather and ‘The Beaver’ - correct name Gordon Beaver. This wasn’t the sweet little boy as per a TV show, "Leave It To Beaver" – the Australian 'Beaver' was a wild kid who would take impossible risks, I thought. Was he getting high on his own adrenalin? This has been known to become an addiction in others. Whatever, the stories we were hearing on the grapevine, over the years were incredible. As these guys entered their twenties, many turned to new opportunities available with commercial abalone diving. Fortunes were being made by the underwater harvesting of tons of these shellfish. Price paid of about $5 per kilo in today’s adjusted values, (which is only 10% of what divers earn today). It was an underwater gold rush. Fortunes were made fast by a hundred or so young men in the southern part of Australia and spent even faster soon afterwards in the Sydney pubs. Chinatown restaurants were buying a small part of the catch in those days. When the NSW abalone beds thinned out, divers like those mentioned above moved to work on international oil rigs, others to Tasmania where incidents with large white pointer sharks shattered their confidence. Beaver struggled on with abalone diving in southern New South Wales, where the work is harder and the shellfish smaller. At one time at Bermagui living in a caravan with an electric heater throughout winter - it was a tough life underwater as well as out of it. Beaver became the target of fisheries inspectors in southern states. They got wind he was up to something and eventually got him for under sized lobsters on a highway stake-out as he tried to cross into Victoria to sell the catch. The stories Beaver told me of his close shaves or near-death experiences with the sea, with broken outboards and failed equipment that had almost killed him would fill a large volume. It was thrill seeking stuff, to the extreme. Regrettably, no one has fully documented these amazing adventures. In 1981, I found Beaver living once in a bay side house close to the oil refinery at Botany Bay or Kurnell. His XC Falcon had broken down the night before. By the time we returned the next morning the rear window was smashed. Soon after the car was stripped. Tough neighborhood. Beaver’s adventure seeking once diverted to drinking wine with homeless people in the park. For strange thrills he set fire to a small pile of cash banknotes (some $750 which would be $2000 today). With the money in flames he the fought off the destitute group with a stick as they tried to save the burning cash. Why? I asked at the time. “For the thrill of experiencing their reactions” replied the Beaver. I can appreciate what he was doing. A bit of a waste though. (A nameless person once paid, at auction, a similar sum for a TV model’s chamois bikini. It was later stolen. Any sillier a stunt for cheap thrills)? Beaver was a promising writer in his early days. A pity he didn't continue with it. Maybe he failed to impress Jack Evans the skindiving magazine editor. As a teenager Beaver used 13 teaspoons of sugar in his cup of tea at Jack's house before being told to stop. The last I heard of Beaver was at Bonnie Hills, NSW a few years ago. He ran a professional fishing boat and the motor had just blown up. Then Beaver, in typical escape from trouble mode won about $75,000 on a poker machine jackpot. This got him out of trouble, again. There is no other ‘diver’ I’ve heard of who could fill a book with such a variety of unusual stories most with some connection to diving. Beaver is always great entertainment value. fathom on 14.11.07 @ 08:55 PM AEST [Houdini of the sea?">link] Sunday, November 11th OUTDATED PR PICTURE ...... for the record
 fathom on 11.11.07 @ 03:49 AM AEST [for the record">link] Thursday, November 8th WITZIG GALLERY ........ North Coast of New South Wales
 Returning to Coffs Harbour yesterday, this large billboard was sighted north of Maclean. Paul Witzig is a former surfing film maker, and a long term friend. We should visit the gallery when time permits. His artistic eye is sure to have spotted some interesting items from New Guinea. I'm back from Taipei with a few idea's. Saw the Foreign Correspondent thing on ABC TV on Tuesday night featuring Taiwan. The show seemed about 85% to 90% correct. The reporter made a couple of errors within the research. Few would pick it up. Best to forget them. This blog might be a little slow with updates during the coming weeks. Much to catch up on. fathom on 08.11.07 @ 04:08 AM AEST [North Coast of New South Wales">link] |
