"a sort of mongrel socialism" - Senator Thomas Givens, 4th Sept 1906

Five years after federation the Commonwealth took its first overt action in fisheries. Sir John Forrest announced in the House of Representatives on 31 July 1906 that the Government would offer a bounty of 1/2d a pound (approx. $.01/kg) on canned fish and would purchase a trawler "to explore the fishing grounds along the coast."

Earlier in 1906 Federal Cabinet appointed a sub-committee to report upon "the practicability of assisting many of the natural industries of Australia" . The sub-committee reviewed the development work done by State Fisheries Departments (including a long section by Saville-Kent on Queensland resources) and trawling in Europe, United States of America, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. The sub-committee concluded that:

Cabinet made inquiries and found that the principal countries of Europe, the United States, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand had all been doing trawling work.

The Government was impressed by the success of the South African Government which, by purchasing a modern steam trawler the "Pieter Fuare" in 1897, had not only made a profit of £300 a month but 8 years later had four larger private trawlers working profitably. The Prime Minister also received advice from the New Zealand Premier that trawling should be encouraged. As a consequence the Cabinet decided to set aside £8000 for the purchase and operation of a trawler. The amount was based on H.C. Dannevig's estimates of what was needed to repeat the South African experiment.

Commercial fishing began with the settlement of Australia and hooking mesh netting and seining materially helped feed the first Europeans struggling for existence beside Port Jackson, the Derwent and at Port Phillip. Sealing and whaling can lay claim to being this nation's first industries and the need to protect them was part of Governor King's justification for attempting to settle the southern coast of Australia. Although State Governments began to legislate from around 1830 to regulate whaling and later to protect the exploited resources such as oysters, it was not until the final thirty years of the nineteenth century that any formal administrative structure arose.

Royal Commissions in New South Wales and Tasmania in the early 1880s examined the state of fisheries and found whilst some of them were already very heavily exploited others were untouched. The Tasmanian Royal Commission of 1882 reported that the stocks of seals, coastal whales, native oysters and some native freshwater fish were at least well below those which would support commercial industries and perhaps so low as to threaten their extinction. On the other hand pelagic species and those in deeper water had great development potential. At this time English fisheries were expanding rapidly and if the new fishing technology used there could be applied in the extensive coastal waters around this continent a very big Australian fishery was possible.

The Royal Commission in Tasmania led to the appointment of the English biologist William Saville-Kent as that State's first Inspector of Fisheries. Saville-Kent established a Department of Fisheries in Tasmania in 1884 and later served the Governments of Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia in a similar capacity. He established the traditional dual role of the State fisheries of both managing fish stocks and fostering the development of new fisheries. Saville-Kent established the first true fisheries laboratory in Australia in 1885 on the foreshore of the Derwent off Battery Point. The site is a stone's throw from the new national Marine Laboratories operated by CSIRO. After it closed, when Saville-Kent left, the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science established a committee in 1889 to consider an Australasian Biological Station. The committee met in conjunction with the 1889 Congress of the Association, in Sydney and recommended Port Jackson as the site for such a station. The committee's justification for that decision was that it was close to a capital city with its libraries, it had a sheltered water and a rich marine fauna. In addition, a small station had operated near Watsons Bay between 1881 and 1886. The station had been founded by M.N. Maclay with finance from private subscriptions, a subsidy from the New South Wales Government and funds from the Royal Societies of New South Wales and Victoria. However it seemed to be inconvenient and little used, except by Maclay himself.

The State Governments maintained a continuous, if uneven, programme of conserving fish stocks and regulating fishing and fisheries development; but developmental work is expensive, and after federation they looked to the greater financial resources of the Commonwealth Government to fund such programmes.

The Commonwealth initiative in fisheries demanded not only finance but the support of the States. From August 19th to 22nd 1907 representatives of all States met in Melbourne to consider "uniform fisheries laws and other questions". The question of uniform laws was quickly put in the impractical category, as it has been at the many similar meetings since, but a number of well intentioned moves to stimulate development were planned.

The meeting resolved that there should be a National Fisheries Commissioner who should investigate biological and physical problems, determine the history of all species of economic value, collect statistics, investigate artificial propagation and employ fisheries research officers. The State fisheries departments should co-operate with the Commissioner and there should be annual meetings on a national basis. The meeting agreed that the Commonwealth acquire a trawler to stimulate development and made specific statements on the

development of two other new fisheries: there should be a recognition of the value of sponges and an attempt made to develop the fishery, and the Commonwealth should encourage the culture of pearl shell. Both these proposals stemmed directly from the work of William Saville Kent. To provide a formal basis for the Australian industry a descriptive work on Australian fisheries should be prepared. Another Saville Kent hobby horse "the States should act against pollution" was also endorsed. The meeting discussed freshwater fisheries and recommended that a central hatchery for the artificial propagation of indigenous fish should be established with costs to be shared by the States on a population basis. This marked a decided rejection of the programme of exotic introductions so favoured in the previous century. The meeting agreed that there should be no further introduction of exotic species. Students of national fisheries conferences over the next 80 years would find many familiar topics in the agenda of this first meeting. Some of the resolutions passed are equally familiar and some proposals have proved stubbornly difficult to implement despite regular re-endorsement.

Following the favourable report of the Cabinet sub-committee, and the support of the States, the Government confidently expected support for the budget item to finance the vessel. In the House of Representatives the debate was perfunctory. Only five members contributed to the debate all made only brief statements - Forrest, Joseph Cook, Johnston, Spence, Fysh.

Cook supported the proposal, and assumed that as it was a proposal of the Treasurer, Forrest, the vessel would operate in Western Australia. Johnston and Spence debated the degree of socialism involved.

Johnston labelled it

Sir Phillip Fysh maintained the same attitude as he had shown almost 20 years before when, as Premier of Tasmania, he terminated Tasmania's fishing development effort.

Sir John Forrest was not impressed.

The debate in the Senate extended for several hours and canvassed the full details of the proposal. Opposition senators were difficult to convince partly because of the Government's tactic of providing no justification of the proposal until all the opposition senators had spoken. During the debate senators asked-

Had not the Government assured them many times that the Constitution prevented the Commonwealth from operating a business? This wasn't really a business more a stimulation of business despite the fact that the vessel will sell its catch . "This sort of mongrel socialism is enough to make the so-called logic of anti-socialists stink in the nostrils of intelligent men."

The Commonwealth can only operate outside 3 miles. Yes but the States will be keen to have us survey their resources.

The parish pump was tended by Senator Pearce (W.A.) who worried that his State might not get a fair share of the vessel and Senator Dobson (TAS.) also wanted to know where it would work. Senator Staniforth Smith(WA)

At times the debate in the Senate was colourful and wide ranging as the representatives of the new nation discussed fisheries for the first time. One highlight was this exchange on the virtues of one of Australia's lesser known marine animals.

The debate was vigorous but not well informed - Senators, including Senator Keating, had a great deal of trouble discriminating between the otter trawl - the method planned to be tested - and other forms of nets. Likewise they were not at all sure of the species of fish that are vulnerable to otter trawling and others, like the schooling pelagics, which are not.

The item was agreed to 14-5. (No votes by H. Dobson (Tas),J.G. Drake (Q'ld),T. Givens (Q'ld),E. Mulcahy,H. Turley (Q'ld))

Captain Dannevig who had advised the Commonwealth on the proposal was appointed Commonwealth Director of Fisheries and took charge of the acquisition of the vessel which was later named "Endeavour". The "Endeavour" was equipped to survey the potential of the continental shelf for trawl fish. The vessel made 29 cruises during the 6 years it operated, including two fish surveys off Tasmania. In 1914 the vessel and the crew, including Dannevig and his biologist C T Harrison, disappeared whilst returning from Macquarie Island where it had been sent to pick up a seriously ill radio operator. Dannevig's work formed the base from which all demersal fishing in southern Australia developed; not until the 1980s have significant new trawl grounds been found.

The high cost of the project, the failure of the the venture to repeat the quick success seen in South Africa, and the Great War, all played a part in the non-replacement of the "Endeavour". The Commonwealth Government had completed its first course in fisheries development and learnt that it is neither easy, quick, or cheap.

When the "Endeavour" sank the New South Wales fisheries development programme, which had begun in 1898, assumed national dominance. In June 1914 David Stead, who had worked with Dannevig at Cronulla, was promoted from Naturalist to Fishery Inquiry Commissioner and sent to England to investigate fisheries and obtain trawlers for the New South Wales Government. He also visited Europe and the United States. As a result three modern trawlers were purchased and brought to Sydney fully crewed with experienced skippers and crews. Stead was appointed General Manager of the State Trawling Company in 1915 and held the position until 1920. As well as fishing the NSW Government opened a modern fish shop in August 1915 which was reported to be the first air conditioned retail shop in Australia. In 1920 four more trawlers were built by the government dockyard but despite making good catches and meeting a strong demand for the fish the venture lost £300,000 between 1915 and 1923. The government then sold the fleet to private enterprise. Stead was a vocal advocate for fisheries development and an increased Commonwealth role. The sale of the NSW State Trawling venture also marked the end of Stead's career in fisheries. Stead was a colourful and controversial figure and an understanding of his role is better understood from the some of the works of his author-daughter Christina.

During the early 1920s fisheries had few advocates in the Federal Parliament. Senator Kingsmill of Western Australia was the exception but even his urging could not lift the Commonwealth expenditure on fisheries above the £415 allocated to the Department of Trade and Customs. Fisheries development faded.