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    Outback Australia: True Stories - Vol. 1
    Outback Australia: True Stories - Vol. 1
    Outback Australia: True Stories - Vol. 1
    Ebook92 pages51 minutes

    Outback Australia: True Stories - Vol. 1

    By Matt Flynn, Col Mellon, Gary Harper and

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Encounters with crocodiles, tussles with criminals, losing ships in cyclones ... these marvellous stories were originally published in the North Australian Fishing and Outdoors Magazine.

    These are true stories told by law enforcers, fishermen, scientists, historians and others.

    This book was compiled by Matt Flynn, a former Northern Territory of Australia journalist who now publishes outdoors magazines from his farm in southern Tasmania.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMatt Flynn
    Release dateMay 1, 2012
    ISBN9780987079299
    Outback Australia: True Stories - Vol. 1
    Author

    Matt Flynn

    A former resident of the remote and searing Northern Territory of Australia, now living in the remote and freezing far south of Tasmania. A bewildered thylacine enthusiast, and father of two.

    Read more from Matt Flynn

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      Book preview

      Outback Australia - Matt Flynn

      Outback Australia: True Stories - Volume 1

      Fifteen stories originally published in North Australian Fishing and Outdoors Magazine.

      Copyright 2012, The Editor's Office PL, Darwin, NT, Australia.

      ISBN 978-0-9870792-9-9

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes: Please respect the hard work of the authors, editors and compilers. This ebook is licensed for your personal use. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, then please purchase your own copy at http://www.smashwords.com.

      Front Cover: We admit it, the stories inside are true, but the front cover might not be. The helicopter is taking off from Mitchell Plateau in the remote Kimberley, Western Australia. The croc must have been quick because we didn't see it when we took the photo.

      **********

      The Stories

      1 - Making Friends with an M1 Carbine

      2 - Stung

      3 - Fysh and Crabbes

      4 - The Sinking of the Booya

      5 - Honour Among Thieves

      6 - A Very Fishy Place

      7 - The One that Got Away

      8 - Goodbye Roy

      10 - Today’s Dinosaur

      11 - What We Caught in Timor

      12 - My Territory Baptism

      13 - Dunny Trouble

      14 - Territory Teacher’s Fishing Competition

      15 - Jump Seat

      **********

      Chapter 1 – Making Friends with an M1 Carbine

      By COL MELLON

      Col is a retired fisheries inspector living in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. He spent much of his life enforcing fisheries law in Territory and Queensland waters.

      No one likes to be called a dobber, which conflicts with the fact that public information is helpful in law enforcement.

      Much good fisheries policing information comes from the public.

      With our respective spouses away from home, my work partner Ralph, and myself, were enjoying a meal at the local tavern.

      The town in which we were resident was just big enough to lose ourselves in.

      We were sitting quietly in a corner of the bar, casually discussing our coming fisheries patrol to some of the more remote ramparts of our district, when a familiar face approached.

      It was John K, a barramundi net fisherman, who was one of the straight-up-and-down operators in our area. Barramundi are an iconic sportfish of northern Australia, and they also taste good. There is a ready market for barra fillets.

      John K was the president of the local net fisherman’s association, and sat on a couple of the advisory committees, which determined policy for their industry.

      He greeted us and said it was fortunate we were here, because it would save him a trip in the morning.

      Over a drink, he got down to the purpose of his visit.

      He asked us what we would be doing in the following days, and we advised him we would be leaving on an extended patrol later in the week.

      His immediate response was: Why don’t you go now?

      I asked him: Why the urgency?

      All he would say was that now would be a good time and that we should go directly to one of the closer creek systems.

      With that, he finished his drink, excused himself and continued on his way.

      Ralph and I discussed John’s comments. We decided we would return to the boatshed, and load up for an early morning departure for the area described by John.

      The bush telegraph works both ways, and the operator of the 24-hour service station on the northern side of the town was a known provider of information on our movements.

      The conventional way to get to the area of interest was to drive straight through the next town, but because of the nature of John’s information, and with the knowledge that there were cockatoos in there, who would alert local fishermen of our presence, we drove the Toyota to a point half way between home and that town.

      We then took a track, which would bypass the town in a loop, and eventually to the creek, the focus of our attention.

      After launching the 3m dinghy, attaching the motor, in this case a 9.5hp Evinrude, loading our safety equipment, cameras and other associated and necessary paraphernalia, we set off on a leg which would take an hour to complete, and would place us downstream of our target.

      With the morning sun at our backs, as we made our way upstream, we could see the evidence of a fishing operation.

      Numerous barramundi carcasses were floating, together with others on the half exposed mud banks.

      We photographed many of these, because the making tide and scavengers of the sea would quickly hide the evidence.

      We were talking between ourselves, trying to guess who was responsible, when we rounded a corner and before us was the mothership, a 45ft timber ex-trawler which had been modified for gill net fishing.

      It was Frank, our target, a person well known to us.

      Frank had a history of minor offences, nothing really serious, but on each occasion we had dealings with him, there appeared to be something we were not able to get a good handle on, something missing, as if there was a deeper and more sinister aura about him.

      Little did we know, we were

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