3. 1925-1934

My father moved to Dunalley where he became part of what was to become a truly cooperative fishing community. William Spaulding became Secretary of the Tasmanian Fisherman's Co. Pty. Ltd in 1915; it was the first of its kind in Australia, a fishermen's cooperative. In 1916 the Spaulding Bros started a small company at Dunalley - £20 a share. Two boats, the Blanche and Sea Croft, began the business catching crays and exporting to Sydney market. This little business was registered, they had the boat brand stamped on the boxes of crays and it was called the Tasmanian Fishermen's Association. (T.F.A. and boat stamped on each box or container.) Eventually more boats joined when it was open to any one who wished to join. But the Hobart fishmongers, Casimaty Bros Fish, had most of the fishermen tied up by buying them boats and so on.

The Tasmanian Fish Co. Pty. Ltd. shareholders had their own boats and worked them, mainly for crayfish. The crayfish were cooked and packed for export to Sydney and Melbourne. The operating sheds were at Dunalley were most of the members lived. Through marketing our own product we would make a profit approximately 100 to 150% to what the fisherman would receive from Casimaty Bros. and so on. The Fish Canneries supplied the bait. Couta heads, shark heads and so on would be put away for them in their freezers and their money would be available every week. Before Canneries fishermen had to rely on catching their own. No freezers, no ice boxes, all you had to do was to rely on fresh bait.

The crays were cooked beautifully. All were cooked in sea water in two 200 gallon tanks with each tank added one and a half bags of coarse salt and a little saltpetre besides. After the crays came to the boil they would boil 10 minutes. Large ones a little longer. Eight to fourteen score would be cooked - taking about half an hour each cooking. The fish taken out of each cooking container washed separately and scrubbed - then stacked on tables to drain - when, after several hours, they were packed in boxes - each box weighing approximately 80 lb. The boxes were sawn hardwood from the local mills.

Fully drained and packed for export the boxes of fish then would be taken to Hobart and consigned in the steamer's freezers or, if no steamer were available, put in Jones and Co. IXL Freezer until exported. All fish went by boat (refrigerated) such as Zealandia, Talune, Riverina. We had to book space ahead - therefore we had to do weekly trips to fulfil same or pay for it. I had 400 cases of crays lost when Riverina wrecked at Gabo Island; he only loss we encountered. Many occasions we had to wait up to three months for our cheques from the mainland. Now its all changed, fishermen want their money straight away before the fish are marketed. The buyers have to pay interest on the major part of the money and all this makes the article dearer.

Our crayfish were getting well known. Letters from all parts of the world we received wanting a trial sample. All the years it operated we never had any condemned. Our fish was regularly measured by a local police inspector. When we cooked he would be there to measure all fish put through alive. No way would undersize be marketed. This proved good to the industry and the fishermen knew where they stood. This was a well known business - known nearly all over the world - letters would come wanting a sample of the product.

When I started my fishing career in 1924 there were no fishing boats at Triabunna, Bicheno or St. Helens. When I say no fishing boats, one little one at Bicheno belonging to Tom Potter and several 18ft ones at St. Helens. We in Dauntless took the first load of crays into St. Helens in 1927. The reason for this was we could not get across the Straits to Port Welshpool or Stoney Point, WNW gales for weeks so we went in there and sold them to Launceston at 4 shillings per lb. With the Casilda our fishing area would be mainly from St. Helens Point to Tasman Is. sometimes we would get big catches of crays; 80 doz (average size 2 to 3 lbs) from St. Helens Point would be a load back to take back to Dunalley.

Several of the Dunalley boats would work down the coastline towards Tasman's and Cape Raoul. I will name several of them. Elsie Jago - later named Daphne, the Parappa, Lula Belle, White Wings. The Bridge brothers of Nubeena had several boats including the Inez and Storm Bay. After they finished doing the barracouta they went scale fishing with both boats. The reason for this was they kept a regular supply of live scale fish for the general public of Hobart and elsewhere. These would be kept in caufs in Victoria Dock and took fish out of them when they were wanted. They also occupied part of the old fish market. With all they had an excellent business, the main thing being they and the sons worked hard.

Outside Tasman Island, on the southern end, called the Monkeys crayfishing was excellent - a lot of crays. The Hippolites was very good too, big coral spiny leg crays, a pleasure to haul cray pots. It was reasonably good fishing right down the coastline from Marion Bay to Wedge Island off Nubeena.

In the early years of crayfishing at Tasman Is very few crays had to be measured they were of very good size and hungry.  As years passed by and continual work I don't know where all the smaller females came from, but they set in more and more the pots were loaded with fish well undersize, a very small percentage were even measured. Even now you can go well out to sea to the SSE in 60-70 fathoms and get well sized crays all males and no females. I must mention the females all deep water coloured crays that live on coral bottom. In my opinion they have migrated from some other destination. Whether they have come there to be fertilized by the male there own nationality or species I cannot say. They keep on the coral and there they stay. Pots and pots full of them.

Not very often would we set our pots at night. The reason for this is the sea lice would take over and eat our bait quickly and therefore would not catch many crays. It would take too long to haul and bait our pots next morning whereas we would be all clear to set pots at daybreak for our early day shot saving more bait and catching more crays. Specially Tasman Is sea lice as large as small prawns. How we proved this on many occasion we would leave some pots as they were down with the current until next morning. When we hauled them some crays would be eaten out with lice so early daylight until dark was our time.

Dragging the pots up by hand made us tired and hands sore. No gloves those days only what you made yourself. Making the pot pulling easier would be we would two man each pot otherwise no hope of catching the quantity. Sometimes we were very tired and so pleased to get to anchor have a meal and get to bed. On some occasions we would be just as tired next morning! Fortesque Bay or Safety Cove would be our anchorages. Back to the early days our boats were equipped with wood stoves. In most of our spare moments when getting wood was convenient we would stock up our wood supplies about half to one ton at a time. On many occasions we had to bake our own bread. Most of the larger boats would carry a cook, his job would be to help weigh the anchor and several hours at the wheel at night when travelling. The average crewman's wage would be in 1933 £6-8 per month and their keep, food and wet weather gear provided. Sometimes the skipper would give a little more.

All our skill would be to find suitable cray grounds by using a lead line. This was a line with a lead sinker attached dropped over board to the bottom to get the depth and with hard dripping(fat) on the bottom of the sinker attached smoothed over by hand. Whether you were on coral sand or rock this would show on the fat: the coral would be stuck on the fat, if not, sand, if neither the bottom would be rock. (The Echo Sounder saved a lot of work although we enjoyed the old method, I think if I was put to the test at certain times of the fishing season using the old method would outclass the sounder.) The cray has to have, more so after he or she shells her coat, certain shell grit. They are like fowls they need this grit to harden the new shells of the female and the eggs. I cannot pick up the different types of shell on the sounder where as the lead line would. Whether the new colour one that's out will I don't know.

We made most of pots aboard our boats in spare time. The Straits pots were much larger than the Tasmanian ones because the fish were larger and sometimes with the weather you may not get them for 2 or 3 days and sometimes more. The Straits pot would not catch as well on the East Coast because of smaller fish and they liked a smaller pot. The smaller pot would not catch in the Straits like the larger ones because the big crays preferred the larger ones. We made all our cray pots mainly out of tea tree, very thin, and Manuka tea tree, very tough, seemed to catch better than the Tasmanian pearwood, dogwood and pinkwood.

To catch our bait in those days was tough, we had to rely on nets, shark lines, traps and hook and sinker, and penguins, shags, sting rays etc. The fish trap was of most advantage to us. I invented it for Tasmania although the idea came from Peter Johnson of Port Welshpool, fishing boat Alecia. He had several ones, made small out of canary wire, fishing to take specimens for the Melbourne Aquarium. I got the message from him. I built several and they proved very successful.

One particular time I had been fishing Three Hummock Island in September approximately 20 years ago, we could not get a full load of crays, males about 3/4 load. Finished catching 15 dozen females spawn attached - put them in available corner of the well - made a large cage out of tea tree poles from Three Hummock Island and new wire netting - a cage to hold them. I left the Island bound for Dunalley nonstop, unloaded the container inside Maria Island - fish attached in a quiet corner 23rd September and did not go near again until 23rd December - pulled aboard Rockaway - never lost one cray and all the spawn had been shed. The strange thing about this was the majority of fish were all colours through the sun being on them and no where to shelter out of the light. They also grew sea growth, weed of all descriptions, coral and so on. I also have brought females with spawn and released them at Schouten Island from Clarke Island.

Taking catches directly to Victoria was a critical feature of the industry, here Rattenbury recalls his first trip to Port Welshpool in July 1927.

It was very interesting to see new country especially the fishing boats and marketing etc. Had to store our crays in caufs, each cauf would hold about 16-20 doz. The caufs were sharp pointed because of the current that runs in the channel and the rough winds and slop they had to encounter. Each cauf was numbered and when filled, it was tied to the long mooring line, we noted our numbers, and then let the caufs go. They would hang there in the water until each morning, or at least afternoon, when some were bagged in time to catch the train to the Melbourne market. All the caufs would be hauled out of water by crane on to the wharf, the crays packed and then the caufs would be stacked on end for the next boat to use. The Auctioneers such as Hill and Sons, V.E.A., Borrett, Frank Hill etc. would ring up for so many bags. At each place, Port Welshpool and Stony Point, the agents would have a person employed to look after the fish and bag them. Jack Miller was the one employed at Port Welshpool and Dick Smith, Stony Point, Western Port.