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January 1, 2022 |
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Newsletter for the
Offshore Residents of Pittwater, Australia - Volume 23,
Issue 1167
We acknowledge and pay our
respects to the Traditional Custodians of
Pittwater, as well as our indigenous readers
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Contents
A Brief History of Scotland Island Fire BrigadePart IV: 1975 - 1985Roy Baker
Drawing principally on Scotland Island News (SI News) archives, Part IV looks at issues around water supply and old trucks.
Founded in 1955, the brigade's early history is marked by a struggle for resources. By the mid-1970s the island had a fire truck and a fire boat. But such equipment is useless without water, and the island had no reticulated water supply.
As late as 1973 Warringah’s failure to provide the island with an emergency water supply was a source of rancour for residents. But then, sometime during the late 1970s, a water tank was installed just above Bells wharf. Fed by a pipe from the mainland, the tank was intended for the sole use of the brigade. But it rapidly became apparent that locals were helping themselves. Things came to a head around the time of the 1980/81 fire season. At the time Sydney was experiencing the worst drought in living memory, and the summer saw an abnormally high number of Total Fire Ban (TOBAN) days. In the absence of a viable alternative, islanders were tapping the brigade storage tank. And, complained SI News, they were doing so ‘to a critical degree’. ‘Water raiders can threaten fire-fighting’, ran the headline. Yet the brigade appears to have been quite magnanimous, tolerating the taking of some water for household purposes, provided the reserve was never left more than half empty.
Even so, the brigade was evidently worried. ‘Someday the whole bloody island could burn down’, opined one member. Indeed, the previous season had seen numerous illegal burns on the island, including one at the top of the island which consumed around half an acre. Fortunately the brigade was at the scene within eight minutes. Even Leicester Warburton, then editor of this august journal, had a close escape when a pot belly stove flue set fire to his roof. Adding to its problems, the brigade was having to make do with a 1960s Land Rover, towing a 900-litre tanker trailer which took 15 minutes to fill from the Bells tank. By 1982 the Land Rover was experiencing more and more mechanical problems and the time had come for a new truck. But how to fund it? The brigade’s answer was to enter a competition, run by Channel 7, which was offering two Land Rovers to the brigades making the most persuasive submission for assistance. Unfortunately the island lost out to Lake Munmorah and Brooklyn brigades who, it transpired, didn’t have any mobile equipment at all.
Fortunately help was to hand. In 1982 SI News announced the imminent arrival of a new Toyota Land Cruiser. What’s more, in March 1985 long-serving fire captain Bruce Lane announced the arrival of a 2,300-litre tanker. But it seems that this didn’t last long, because in November of the same year SI News reported that it had been exchanged for an ‘upgraded AB160 tanker with a crew cabin’. The AB160 was a truck manufactured by International Harvester and which had gone into production in Australia in 1961. The age of the model supplied to Scotland Island is unknown but, according to John Travers, equipment officer at the time, it wasn’t the best of trucks. ‘I’m not sure it had any brakes’, he recalls. What’s more, according to John, it had problems starting. Apparently the brigade’s answer was to always park the Toyota Land Cruiser behind it, so that the Toyota could give the larger truck a good shove, should it be needed.
 Scotland Island Oral History Project
17 July 2022 will mark the
40th anniversary of the official opening of the Scotland
Island Community Hall. This was built using volunteer
labour supplied by residents.
In order to mark the event, the PON, in association with Oneill Photographics and the Scotland Island Recreation Club, is preparing an oral history of the island. The idea is to photograph and interview current residents who were around at the time of the hall’s construction. Each interviewee will be invited to sit for a professional portrait photograph (free of charge). At the same time a short interview (sound only) will be recorded (approx 15 minutes). The interview will focus on
the part the community hall has played in island life
over the last 40 years, as well as how the island and
community have changed and how they have remained the
same. The photos and interviews will be used as part of
the celebration of the hall’s anniversary.
To be considered for interview you must:
If you feel that you qualify for interview and are interested in taking part, please email me at editor@scotlandisland.org.au. Interviews will be conducted during the coming months. Roy Baker Greg Roberts: Funeral Arrangements On 26 December we reported
the sad news that Greg Roberts has died. Greg, along
with his widow Louise, had lived on Scotland Island for
27 years and throughout that period contributed
significantly to the offshore community.
Greg’s family has asked me to announce that there will be a family service for Greg on Friday, 7 January at 11.30 am. The numbers attending will be limited, but a Zoom link will be available closer to the date for anyone who would like to join in online. The Zoom link will be published on the PON’s Facebook site once it is known: click here. The service will also be recorded and a link to the video will be made available as soon as possible, via the Facebook site as well as a subsequent edition of the PON. A celebration of Greg’s life is planned for Sunday, 30 January at 2 pm, to be held at the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club. There is also a planned procession of boats around Scotland Island, to be held the same morning. The family would like to invite anyone interested to join in the procession. Details concerning the celebration and the procession will be announced via the PON once they are known. If anyone has a fairly large boat that could be used to lead the procession and carry the family then that would be appreciated. Please contact Megan Sadler, Greg’s daughter-in-law, at meganmsadler@hotmail.com. Roy Baker Mario of the Antarctic Roy Baker
 A few months ago I
suggested a tenuous link between Scotland Island and the
South Pole: Catherine Bouffier, who gave her name to
Catherine Park, was the aunt of Frank Hurley, the
photographer on the ill-fated 1914 Shackleton
trans-Antarctic expedition. But for quite some time
there was a much stronger connection: a sign on
Antarctica pointing towards our island.
The sign was put there by Mariano Martinez, better known as Mario. He lived just above Carols Wharf between 1987 and 1999. An enthusiastic sportsman, Mario will be remembered by many islanders as the man who organised quadrathlons that involved kayaking to the Basin and cycling to Mona Vale.
Mario, who worked at the Davis base as a senior electrical technician, describes his time on Antarctica as a ‘great adventure’. Certainly it’s not for the faint-hearted. Mario was dropped off by ship in the summer, when temperatures at the base hover around freezing point. But by August Davis temperatures typically range between minus 14 and minus 20, and can drop as low as minus 42. Added to that, the station experiences virtually no sunshine in June and July. ‘They spend more time preparing you psychologically than they do physically: that tells you something about what it’s like’, says Mario. He was stationed with three women and 15 men. ‘Maintaining good relations in conditions like that can be a challenge’, he explains. Fortunately Mario, who has a great love for the outdoors, bonded with those with a similar taste for adventure. For instance, he and a colleague once set off across the sea ice to see how far they could go. But he couldn’t have made it to any of the neighbouring stations, the nearest being several hundred kilometres away.
But back at Davis, life was surprisingly comfortable. ‘We had a movie theatre, great food and plenty of good wine’, he recalls. ‘There wasn’t much suffering!’ These days Mario lives with his wife Marika in Mona Vale. Marika works in real estate and has recently handled the purchase of properties on the island, while Mario keeps in touch with a number of island friends. West
Pittwater Energy Reliability Project: Update
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The Online Local Contacts Guide
Click HERE to load
Pittwater Offshore Photo Gallery
Updated
June 2021
Festival of Making,
April 2021
The
views
expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily the
views of the Scotland Island Residents Association
(SIRA), or the Western Pittwater Community
Association (WPCA)
