Bern Cuthbertson was a major figure in the development of th efishery. In1956 he moved to Dover and ran Dover Fisheries from 1958 to 1964.He had processed the first trial catches but was away when the real fishery began. In 1965 he sailed the yacht Astor to America: Ken Petith was the cook. They returned to Tasmania in 1967 sailing from England in a fishing boat Cuthbertson acquired there. The Kathleen del Mar sailed on her first abalone diving voyage in late May carrying four divers (Ken Petith, Rob, Way and David). Bern was keen to exploit the south coast and had a high volume circulating tank installed to ensure that all abalone arrived back to port alive. They arrived at the Duck Holes around lunch time and had time for an afternoon dive that yielded 785 abalone. The next day the four divers spent 23 hours in the water and caught 4125 abalone. By the end of the May the divers on the Kathleen had spent eight days diving on the southcoast and caught over 31 tonnes of abalone at 100 kg/diver hour. Eventually the Kathleen proved too small to carry the catches that were available and Bern bought the former steam ferry Sorrento. Refitted with big circulating tanks and accommodation for a team of seven divers the old ferry was renamed Takarri. She made her first trip to South West Cape on 10 June 1968. For almost four years the elderly timbers of the vessel carried very large loads. After one six day trip the old ferry gamely carried 25 tons of abalone back to port. In 1972 Bern very proudly launched a large purpose built steel vessel that incorporated all the lessons of five years fishing for abalone on the south and west coast. It was the first floating advertisement for the success of the new fishery. Among the divers who benefited from Bern’s knowledge ofthe Tasmanian coastwere Ken Petith, Robert Wilson, Leon Roberts, Greg Mason, Chris Campbell, Robbie Walker and Wayne Abel. They often bridled under the captain’squest for a disciplined diving team but caught a lot of abalone.

Bern had learnt fishing from his father, a pioneer of tuna fishing. His son Adrian pioneered the commercial culture of abalone by establishing a hatchery and grow out tanks just south of Swansea in the mid 1980s.

By 1967 the major processors were SAFCOL, A B Boxall and Gourmet Seafoods. The latter was established by a Californian, Michael O’Connor. Mike and hisbrothers had been divers at home and operated a factory producing abalone steaks in San Pedro. Mike had arrived for a visit in 1965 liked what he saw inthe new industry and went home to interest his brothers in establishing a processing factory in Tasmania. His objective was to export steaks back tothe US and built the first purpose designed abalone factory at Margate. A feature of the factory was a very large tank that drew water from Northwest Bay in order to keep abalone alive until they were processed. Towards the end on 1967 the first Tasmanian abalone steaks were produced. In August 1968 they began to market abalone patties and these found a ready local market.

Mike O’Connor and I became close friends. In part this was due to our professional links but these were strengthened by a mutual interest in sport and the fact that both our wives suffered from diabetes. In February 1967 the O’Connor’s were staying at the Freemason’s Hotel whilethe factory was being built.Karen and Lyn decided they would spend the next day walking on Mt Wellington.When the whole of south eastern Tasmania caught fire Mike and I searched for them. Towards evening they appeared at the Hotel, having decided it was too hot to walk and gone to the movies!

The petroleum company H.C.Sleigh took a partnership in Gourmet Seafoods and for a time boosted operations.

The third influential American arrived in my office one afternoon on leave from Vietnam. Tall and lithe with a lazy drawl, he told me he had just left the Marine Corps and asked if he could set up an abalone factory. While Neil Armstrong approached the moon for the historic landing we talked it over. My advice was to try and avoid direct contact with the existing processors, the one area that seemed to offer an opportunity was Smithton. The northern part of the West Coast was becoming popular with divers and the only other factory in the region was at Stanley where Stanley fish was more interested in the other fisheries. I did not see Allen Hansen again for sometime but when I went to Smithton some time later I was amazed to see a very large new factory nearly ready for operation! Like Mike O’Connor Alan was determined to do it right and not to ‘make do’ in the local manner. In his typical low key way Al steadily took advantage of all the growing fishery had to offer. His story is the archetypal example of what the patient pioneers were able to achieve through perceptive investment.

Allen was raised in Wisconsin so settling in Smithton was a bit like returning to his boyhood environment. He had started diving in California whilst in the Marines and met an Australian barman called Rex Banks who said he had dived for abalone in Tasmania. His informant was a friend of Mike O’Connor’s brother Pat. Pat was a builder who lived right on the sand at Newport Beach in Los Angeles and had just returned from constructing the Gourmet Seafoods factory at Margate. When Allen finished his engagement with the Marines he came to Australia to investigate the abalone industry. After diving at Ulladulla he drove to Eden and then on to Malacoota, midway down the New South Wales Coast he stopped at a service station and met a man with a load of abalone. He had bumped into Jack Lucas quite by chance! He arrived in my office in mid July 1969 and the next day Barry Hall took him diving at Southport 

After a brief visit to California where he decided to make his life in Tasmania, Allen was back in September with $16,000 to start a business. Acting on my advice he set off for Smithton via the East Coast gathering whatever intelligence was available. By the time he had reached Marrawah he had met a number of divers including Wayne Abel, Clyde Owens and David and Pat Dennison. In Smithton the real estate agent could not provide any suitable waterfront land so he went to see the Harbour Trust: they agreed to lease him the land that he still occupies. Building the factory consumed all his life savings so he was ready to start business but had no money. A church friend provided a guarantee for a bank loan of $10,000, that in those days was enough to buy sufficient abalone to fill one shipping container.

Like Mike O’Connor the original intention was to make abalone steaks forthe Californian market and the big green lips from the Petrels were pretty good. Allen’s local workers could get a kilogram of steak from four and half kilos of greenlip whereas almost twice as much blacklip was needed. Makingsteaks lasted about six months but then the price in the US stagnated whilst that in Japan improved markedly. Around this time one Australian dollar wasworth US$1.10 and would buy well over 300 yen. Tasmanian Seafoods switched to exporting frozen blocks to Japan and except for a brief period the next year no more steaks were produced. In these early years Allen lived from hand to mouth and did all the work except for the help of casually employed women who cleaned and packed the abalone.

By 1979 the Company was well established, Allen could afford more paid help and was ready for further developments. Australia had just declared a 200-mile fishing zone and the Commonwealth Government was full of enthusiasm for a great new industry to displace foreign vessels and replace imports of frozen fish.  The first Fisheries Expo was organised at the Exhibition Building in Melbourne and many from the Tasmanian Industry attended. Allen, and I, were impressed by a presentation from the Safeway supermarket group on the prospects for locally caught fish. I went away with a few brochures but Allen struck a deal with the supermarket. He spent $60,000 on a fully integrated processing and packaging line to transform Tasmanian fish into supermarket packs. It was not a good move but the line still lies in a shed at the Smithton factory.

Allen was much more successful in building a stake in the abalone fishery. When entitlements became transferable processors would frequently underwrite the purchase of a place in the fishery for a new diver. This was by way of bank guarantee and this would ensure a supply of product to the factories. The processors had no ownership of the entitlement and when it was again transferredall the proceeds went to the retiring diver. But the value of entitlements continued to rise and when they reached $500,000 the banks would no longer finance them in the same way. A very well established Triabunna processor had recently gone bankrupt owing one bank a very large sum and a new policy came into play. Allen began to organise a syndicate to finance the entitlement this gave him an effective half share of fishing right and the diver gaveup a quarter of the value of his catch in lieu of interest. Under the current rules he can own quota in his own right and pay divers a few dollars a kilogram to catch it.

Allen continued to build his business  by acquiring other seafood processing factories in Margate and in Dandenong in Victoria. He has twelve vessels fishingin Northern Australia for prawns and sea cucumber.

Since arriving in Smithton more than 30 years ago Allen Hansen has not only built a thriving business that is a key factor in the local economy but also is a much admired philanthropist. He has substantial investments in the regional newspaper and the Tall Timbers Hotel/Motel complex. Supporting basketball has been a special passion he backs two major Tasmanian teams and pays all the fees for junior basketballers in the Circular Head Municipality. Allen has recently provided major support for tennis by sponsoring the State Championships.

Richard Doedens

Richard Doedens discovered a love of diving at just ten when he was given a mask, snorkel and flippers. He was still very young when he began commercial abalone diving in 1975 and approached his new profession with the commitment and endeavour that has characterised his life.
Richard’s father was one of the pioneers that established the Dutch community in Kingston in 1950. Recently married he collected all his savings to join a small group of builders sent to build houses for what became a steady stream of Dutch migrants. Arriving with virtually nothing in a very different environment and very basic English the new settlers had a tough time. But their ready acceptance of local ways and an appetite for hard work soon established friendships with neighbours. By the time Richard was born the Australian Building Corporation was a very successful business and the Doedens family was well established. When they arrived they lived in a primitive shack at Howden but now had a shack of their own at Dennes Point where Richard developed his diving skills
Although he wanted to be a sound engineer when he left school he ended up an electrical apprentice in his father’s business. His first purchase was a old 28 ft. fishing boat that he began restoring and converting to a launch. While working on his boat at the Margate wharf he often saw a man setting off in a Haines Hunter runabout wearing a wet suit and wondered if he did it for a living. He soon discovered that Geoff Valentine was an abalone diver and lived nearby. Richard had soon discovered that crawling through houses laying wires was not for him but could scarcely believe that Geoff made a handsome living from diving!
One or two trial dives with Geoff quickly convinced Richard that this was the life for him. His father was less enthusiastic but soon agreed that his son should buy an abalone licence. Geoff Valentine had heard that Terry Munday wanted to sell his entitlement for $6,000. By the time Richard began negotiations the price had gone to $8,000 and before the deal was sealed Terry wanted $10,000. Richard began commercial diving with Geoff off north Bruny with few if any skills but believed he ‘was in heaven’. But despite this heavenly pursuit Richard began to put money aside because he ‘did not want to be diving when he was forty years old’.
Initially diving took up about three days a week and there was still time to work as an electrical apprentice. After completing his apprenticeship he left Geoff Valentine and branched out alone. This allowed him to fish more intensely but still left him with far too much spare time. Fishing at the Acteons and the Pineapples and staying at the Dover Hotel gave him time for reading. One evening he came across an article about Piers Ranicar and his eel farm; this kind of venture seemed a worthwhile way in which to spend his non diving days, invest his earnings and provide a vocation for when he gave up diving. A visit to Trevor Dix at the Taroona laboratory convinced the prospective eel farmer that trout were a better bet than eels. That discussion put Richard Doeden’s feet on a path to (a) another career.
Having made up his mind Richard immediately advertised for a fish farm manager even though he had no site in mind. The initial plan was establish a trout farm on the Lune River near his preferred abalone fishing grounds but neither the Lune nor any other of the rivers in the area had sufficient flow. The Rivers and Water Supply Commission advised that the nearest river with enough water all year round was the Tyenna at National Park: a nasty shock to a man who had spent his whole life by the sea. Nevertheless he decided to move inland and establish a new business and put up with the added travel to go diving. Negotiations with the local publican eventually acquired the site for the Russell Falls trout farm and Richard finally had enough work to fully occupy him in his non-diving days.
The physical labour of establishing ponds (and laying pipes was second nature for when he was still a schoolboy Richard and his brother decided they wanted a swimming pool at home. Although their father’s building expertise was needed to complete the project the boys did the excavation by hand. Now with another all consuming new interest the ‘heavenly job’ of abalone diving began to lose its attraction after more than eight years. The need to build a weir to guarantee a water supply to the trout farm tipped the balance in favour of a full time commitment to fish farming and end his time as an abalone diver. By August 1984 Richard decided to sell his boat and the entitlement to dive and use the money to build his weir. In 1986 he formed Nortas and was able to return to the sea with a marine farm site at Bruny Island where he could again link up with Trevor Dix and pioneer Atlantic Salmon farming. While the first salmon were being hatched and reared at the Taroona laboratory Nortas and Safcol used Russel Falls rainbow trout to practice the techniques of saltwater salmonid farming.
Nortas, initially with joint venture partners, proved to be one of the most successful of the salmon farmers. Richard’s appetite for hard work and meticulous planning played a major role in the prospering of Nortas where others stumbled. Despite his commercial success since retiring from commercial diving and background in the fishery, Richard has not invested in the modern abalone fishery. ‘Been there and done that’ — sums up his attitude. Now that he has sold Nortas he has not yet cut all ties with his second career but one suspects that this will occur when a new interest catches his eye.
Richard Doedens is the exemplar par excellence of that group of divers who entered the fishery after licences became transferrable, worked hard and invested their earnings in the development of the Tasmanian economy. He is probably unique in eschewing the good life and single mindedly using diving to build up capital in order to establish a major seafood company. Nortas grew from being a single person enterprise to employ over 200 employees in 2003. In 1986 it had 12 employees and produced 300 tonnes of trout. By 2003 it produced more than 2,500 tonnes of mostly Salmon (plus some trout) with over 200. It was included three times in Business Review Weekly annual list of the 100 fastest growing companies.