Island Connections

[frigatebird]

Have been watching all 12 episodes of the second series of ‘The Onedin Line’ again. Lovely to see the Tall Ships with the story line of 150 years ago based out of Liverpool. Most enjoyable.

Which set me thinking that the schooners and sailing ships back then provided the Islands connections, that the Twin Otters, Dash 8s, ATRs, 737s, A320s, 767s, A330s, 777s, and 747s do today. An Australian film company should do what the BBC did for the Onedin Line series, and use old and new storyline material for an entertaining series about our Coral Seas transport links, set Downunder.

To kickstart, here are some connections from past and present.

This district was one of the first cane-growing areas in Queensland. The first cane grown was in the garden of Baddow House, by Edgar Aldridge. The first sugar manufactured in the district was in 1862 when John Buhot demonstrated sugar-making using cane grown on John Eaton’s plantation, Rose Hill Estate. A number of plantations and juice mills were then established. At one stage there were more than 300 growers and three dozen juice mills. A meat boiling-down works was converted in 1866 to a sugar refinery and rum distillery using raw juice from the small mills being established throughout the district. Following major flooding of the Island Plantation area in 1893, the decision was made to relocate the present Sugar Factory juice mill to a flood-free site and upgrade the mill to produce raw sugar. The tradition continues today, with local sugar being mixed as a component in Bundaberg Rum.

In 1863 Indentured Labour introduced to Queensland.
1867 - on 9th November, the first labour vessel, the ‘Mary Smith’ arrived at the port with 84 Kanakas.
Complaint about ill treatment and work conditions resulted in strikes as early as 1868.
Ongoing problems and high death rates led to a Royal Commission.
1875 - 378 Islanders die in a measles epidemic.
1880 - Colonial Secretary Inquiry and revision of Pacific Island Labourers Act.
1884 - Royal Commission into recruiting practices in New Guinea.
1901 - Federation of Australia and the abolition of indentured labour ( often called black-birding or slavery)
1903 – on 20th October, the last vessel ‘Sydney Belle’ arrived with 129 Kanakas.

Between 1867 – 1903, a total of 32 vessels carry a total of 12,073 South Sea Islanders, of which 686 were women.

1906 - Queensland Royal Commission into forced repatriation allows more Islanders to stay under special conditions. Many were deported, and approximately 1,600 were allowed to stay.

Today – South Sea Islander descendants continue to live and work in the region. Their culture remains strong and they continue to maintain links with their islands of origin.

The monument is in recognition of the hard work and the sacrifices the ancestors endured.

Kanakas landing here came from 3 South Pacific island groups, - New Caledonia, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu (New Hebrides).
Kanakas walking from the black-birding ships moored at the wharf on the river passed this place on their way to be registered at the Customs House.
These black marble boulders were taken from an ancient sea site at Chillagoe in North Queensland. The sea that eroded the boulders also lapped the shores of the islands from where the Kanakas came.
The boulders are split as were the lives and families of these people.
Symbols of their lands and culture were chosen by their descendants and cast in bronze.
Placed in the heart of the rocks, these important images celebrate the places from where they came, the cultures they left behind and the enrichment of the lives today.

Symbols on the Memorial

SOLOMON ISLANDS

NUZU NUZU A powerful spiritual messenger
A helper for paddling canoes
Provides safe travel over water
THE DOVE Represents peace


NEW CALEDONIA

FLECHE FAITIERE Home of Ancestral Spirits
CONCH SHELLS Voice of Ancestors
SPEAR POINTS Protection from Bad Spirits

VANUATU

The PIG TUSK and the NAMELE LEAF represent Prosperity and Peace

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/Maryborough%20Kanak%20Memorial/SolomonIslandsVanuauandNewCaledoniaKanakmemorial.jpg

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/Maryborough%20Kanak%20Memorial/KanakMemorialwithResidencyandCustomsHouse.jpg

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/Maryborough%20Kanak%20Memorial/VanuatuNewCaledoniaandSolomonsKanakMemorial.jpg

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/Maryborough%20Kanak%20Memorial/KanakMemorialandCourtHouse.jpg

Only 30 odd years ago, the KLARABORG in Honiara..

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/SI/SolomonIndependence78Bunting0001.jpg

Leaving Guadalcanal

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/SI/BalticTradersail6.jpg

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/SI/BalticTradersail1.jpg

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/SI/BalticTradersail5.jpg

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/SI/BalticTradersail3.jpg\

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/SI/BalticTradersail4.jpg

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/SI/BalticTradersail2.jpg

and coming back again..

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/SI/BalticTradersail7.jpg

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/SI/BalticTradersail8.jpg

A (SLIGHTLY) more modern way to travel..

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/SI/scan0005-2.jpg

[frigatebird]

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/Independence%20Anniversary/EvaAir.jpg

The Formosa Connection

An emmigration theory is that the original inhabitants came from aboriginal native inhabitants of Formosa. ( Lapita Pottery sites, distribution of pigs in the Islands, etc. )

[frigatebird]

Labour out on one vessel - Religion in on another..

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/Popes%20visit%20to%20Solomon%20Islands%209%20May%2084/scan0005.jpg

[Mach E Avelli]

Great boat pics, but before you cut straight to the jets, don't forget the Rapides, Drovers, Herons, DC3, Draggies etc etc that preceded them and really opened up the islands.

[skywagondriver]

Interesting the other day to see a mate's father's logbook which included 6 years in Fiji flying Rapides and Drovers in the '50s...

As for island traders ..Up to the mid '70s [and possibly longer] there were gnarled old skippers plying their trade around PNG coastal areas - albeit without sail then. A quick glance at an old copy of PIM [Pacific Islands Monthly] with the 'sailings' gives an idea of the amount that still went on.

[frigatebird]

Whoever has them could post them..

A couple from Vanuatu

The Melanesian - European Connection

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/Vanuatu/scan0001.jpg

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/Fiji/scan0019.jpg

[frigatebird]

Port Vila harbour

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/Vanuatu/scan0002.jpg

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/Vanuatu/PortVilaHobie.jpg

[frigatebird]

Didn't know this was about to happen, when I took the photos last week and posted them here, or I would have wrangled an invitation.
Must have sensed a Disturbance in the Force...

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/Vanuatu/KanakaMemorialCeremony1.jpg
http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/Vanuatu/KanakaMemorialCeremony2.jpg

[frigatebird]

Port Vila Harbour Sunset

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/de-stessing/scan0014.jpg

[troppo]

I made a melanesian - european connection at o'riellys last night :}

[propelled]

nice pics and story @ frigatebird..

you are too funny@ Troppo! hahaha... u still going to that place? will be there in 2 wks, suva street party still good for new years or best i stay in the west? cheers!

[troppo]

Propelled, send me a PM. Was thinking of a change of diet and going to beachcomber.

[chimbu warrior]

Frigatebird, nice shots of the B767 at Fua'amotu and F28 at Honiara. Presume that was the Pope's visit in about 84?

Bongo flew him to Hagen in the F28, and after running over the chocks at POM (twice, because all the managers insisted in working on the tarmac, and forgot to remove chocks) the F28 APU failed on arrival in Hagen.

With one (or was it both?) Speys screaming away, the assembled masses had to lipread to get the Pope's message. I guess they must not have heard the message........

[frigatebird]

Chimbu W
The Pope's visit was in May '84. After Farrington deposited him at Henderson, - he kissed the ground.., - then as a visiting Head Of (Vatican) State, he got a State welcome..

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/Popes%20visit%20to%20Solomon%20Islands%209%20May%2084/scan0003.jpg

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/Popes%20visit%20to%20Solomon%20Islands%209%20May%2084/scan0001.jpg

The EVA AIR aircraft brought the Chinese Acrobats and Dancers (and Government Hangers-On) for the 10 th. Anniversary of Independance Celebrations in Honiara in July '88. The new terminal may have been partly funded by them - for their support in the U.N. and fishing rights (not sure about that , - may have been the E.C. came to the party for the terminal, think they gave most of the money to get the runway up to 767 standard)

[frigatebird]

French - Melanesian Connections

La Tontouta


http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/New%20Caledonia/scan0011.jpg

Magenta

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/New%20Caledonia/scan0001.jpg



Noumea Harbour

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/New%20Caledonia/scan0005.jpg

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/New%20Caledonia/scan0006.jpg

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/New%20Caledonia/scan0007.jpg

[frigatebird]

North - South
Micronesian - Melanesian -Polynesian Island Connections

From about Guam to N.Z. with connections locally in between

(Air Pacific's 747 went to Japan)

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/yy129/bird__photo/Fiji/scan0002.jpg

Magellan reached the Marianas and Guam in March 1521 after sailing from Cape Horn for three months (a journey he thought would take three days initially) This was less than 30 years after Columbus had discovered America. When he was killed near Cebu in the Philippines, near the end of April, the voyage around the world in the remaining ship 'Victoria' was completed by the forgiven mutineer captain Juan Sebastian Elcano with a cargo loaded in the Spice Islands of the Moluccas (now north eastern Indonesia)

During Australia's Bi-Centenary celebrations in January 1988, the lead ship of the 'Armada' was a brilliant Spanish four-masted barque named 'Juan Sebastian d'Elcano'. Any one have a photo? Will post a photo when I find one.


Surface Ships - Armada Española (http://www.armada.mde.es/ArmadaPortal/page/Portal/ArmadaEspannola/buques_superficie/15)

Go to Surface ships - Buque Escuela

The Juan Sebastián de Elcano is a training ship (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Training_ship) for the Royal Spanish Navy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Navy). She is a four-masted topsail, steel-hulled schooner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schooner). At 113 metres (370 feet) long, she is the third-largest Tall Ship (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_Ships) in the world.
She is named after Spanish explorer Juan Sebastián Elcano (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Sebasti%C3%A1n_Elcano), captain of Ferdinand Magellan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan)'s last exploratory fleet. The ship also carries the de Elcano coat of arms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms), which was granted to the family by Emperor Charles I following Elcano's return in 1522 from Magellan's global expedition. The coat of arms is a terraqueous globe with the motto "Primus Circumdedisti Me" (meaning: "First to circumnavigate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumnavigate) me").
The Juan Sebastián de Elcano was built in 1927 in Cadiz, Spain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadiz,_Spain), and her hull was designed by the Echevarrieta y Larriñaga shipyard in Cadiz. Her plans were also used twenty-five years later to construct her Chilean (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile) sail training vessel sister ship Esmeralda (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esmeralda_(BE-43)) in 1952-1954.