John Collier

[John F Collier]

Hi Neil, I think you've nailed it mate, I still can't recall the name Bowen But I can remember telling my Son about those doors
years ago, and it's reasonable to think the Kerosene ad belonged to that town . This might be old hat as these videos
have been going for a few years now, so you might have them (but no harm in saying), the Snowbow Productions Great Liners
series covers most companies that we knew and then some, they are all brilliant. I have most of their series and I've seen some things that I thought I'd never see again, the Huntingdon & Otaio feature very much in (part 3 Cargo Liners of the World)
in the Panama locks, treat yourself. Maritime history on film & limited edition prints | Snowbow Productions . thanks to all who helped on this quest. cheers, John.

[John F Collier]

So thats why we got the cold shoulder ?, I'm looking forward to reading that, thanks, Brian. Cheers. John.

[John F Collier]

Hi Brian, I've just read your account of life on board the SS Beechfield, what a great story I never realised there was ships
like that still in service in the 1950s. Respect to you sir, it would make a good film, everyone should read that.
Cheers, John.

[Colin Wood]

I stevedored a few ships in Port Alma in the late 80's early 90's. As the sun headed for the horizon a grey cloud would roll down the wharf, a mixture of sandflyes and mosquitoes. The first job on opening the office was to sweep all the dead sandfly's and mossies off of every thing before you put anything down. Magic place??

[John F Collier]

Hi Colin, WOW ! I wonder if the Aussie Government would be interested in using this story to help keep
the illegals away, as you say a magical place All the best, John.

[Captain Kong]

Hi Colin, I have been to Port Alma a few times in 1956 and 57, I wrote about it in the Dunedin Star and Adelaide Star in Seafaring Stories thread in Swinging the Lamp Forum,
I think it was the most godforsaken place on the planet. flies mosquitoes everywhere, only a canteen ashore where the girls fed the wharfies who came and stayed for the duration of loading frozen lamb off the train from Rockhampton.
In the evenings we would go to the Canteen and drink Sarsaparilla with the girls. Then end up in an abandoned rail carriage with them until the Big Mamasan came looking for them. When `John The Baptist` tried to break into the hut where the girls lived , all the wharfies were out with shot guns looking for him.
Brian

From The Story of the Dunedin Star.................................
We arrived in Port Alma after calling in at Gladstone, another one horse town for a couple of days. Nothing much there just a couple of pubs with batwing doors. Next stop was Port Alma. on 3rd.November, a godforsaken place up in Queensland.
It was up a crocodile infested creek, surrounded by salt flats, scrub and desert. a breading ground for millions of flies and mosquitoes. There was no electricity there only oil lamps when it got dark ashore.
There was just a small wood jetty and six wooden huts and a canteen that only sold Sarsaparilla pop, The Five huts were the accommodation for the wharfies and one for the girls who worked in the canteen, cooking meals for the wharfies. The girls were ruled by a huge Bosun type of a woman, a big forced draft job. We called her the Mamasan, who hated us Sailors cos she thought we were all sniffing round her girls and would have them locked up in the shack by 9.30 pm. The nearest town was 100 miles away where there was a meat works that sent the frozen beef down every day on a single track railroad. The wharfies and girls stayed there for the duration of loading a few thousand tons of beef.
Saturday night was 5th of November, bonfire night and a large fire was lit on the beach and beer and grog appeared and we were all having a great time snogging the girls in the shadows. Tom and I were having a go at two beautiful Polynesian twin sisters , Theresa and Thyra Hornung, when the Mamasan gave us a load of abuse and threats and took the girls back to the shack and then locked them all in for the night.
The party was over so we all went back aboard the ship and turned in.
About 1am the watchman woke us up and said the wharfies were running about with shotguns searching for a sailor who had been trying to break into the girls shack. We checked the cabins and found that John the Baptist was missing.
He was called John the Baptist cos he looked just like the man from the Bible and was always saying biblical phrases from the bible. He was from Liverpool.
Tom and I got a torch and went ashore to find him before the wharfies did and blew him apart with their shot guns.
By the shacks I spoke to a wharfie with a gun and he told us that they had heard the singing of hymns coming from the top of the water tower,
. John the Baptist had climbed up the tower to hide and fell into the water and the sides were to high and smooth for him to climb out and was just swimming around in ever decreasing circles. when the Wharfie and his mate climbed to the top of the tower they could see John singing `Abide with Me` and just as he was sinking for the last time he started singing `For Those In Peril On The Sea`. Just before he sank they grabbed him and pulled him out and got him onto the ladder, John just shot down and disappeared into the darkness and so they were still searching for him.
Tom and I searched under the shacks and then I saw him, I grabbed Tom and we crawled underneath the shack and there was John the Baptist. on his knees with his head on the ground throwing sand over his head shouting "You can`t see me I am an ostrich" Crazy, he was out of his head with the grog.
As we grabbed him he was shouting " The Lord Is my Shepherd, but He lead me astray tonght". We dodged our way back to the ship in the darkness and got him to his cabin and locked him in.
The shouting and screaming ashore slowly died down and the Mamasan locked up her girls again and the wharfies turned in and Port Alma went back to sleep after the most exciting night it had ever had.
Next morning the wharfies went on strike and refused to work until whoever it was apologised. So we got John to got out to meet the wharfies.
He looked like John the Baptist, he had a little round white skull cap on, a thin haggered face with a beard , a long white shirt that came past his knees and open sandals. He stood on top of the gangway looking down on the wharfies and the girls.
They were shouting abuse and kill the bastard, but when John appeared on the gangway platform, the light cluster was on the deck behind him, in the early morning light, he was glowing, he looked truly biblical. They were stunned and fell silent when they saw this apparition above them.
He raised his arms and said "The Lord was my shepherd but I was lead astray last night, I was suffering from the sins of the flesh but now I have seen the light and have found the paths of righteousness I have cast out the devil within me and I will sin no more and now I walk in the shadow of the Lord. God Bless you all. Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord, I will repay." and with that he turned and walked back to the mess room.
The wharfies stood there in a stunned silence for several minutes They could not believe what they had just seen and heard and so in their bemused state they went back to work and John became a legend..
We stayed in Port Alma for another few days loading beef. We spent the evenings in an old railway carriage with the two twin sisters, Thyra and Theresa, until the big Mamasan came along to chase them back to the shack and lock them up. When we sailed for Melbourne we said we would write to them until we returned the following trip on the Adelaide Star.

[Captain Kong]

Here is the story of Bowen and Port Alma from the voyage of the Adelaide Star...........................
Happy Days then....................

M.V. ADELAIDE STAR, BOWEN, QUEENSLAND, 1957.

On Saturday the 22nd of June, we arrived in Bowen, a sleepy little town by the Great Barrier Reef.
Just a few wooden buildings, a couple of pubs with batwing doors and in the dock two wooden piers
for the ships to moor along side.
We moored alongside the North pier and as we were making fast a Haine`s boat, the `Trevethoe`,
arrived to berth alongside the South pier.
After topping derricks and stripping hatches for the Wharfies that morning I finished work and turned
in for a couple of hours as it was my turn to be night watchman whilst we were alongside in Bowen.
At 3pm I got up, shaved, showered and shampooed and went ashore to have a look around town and
maybe have a couple of cool beers before going on watch at 6pm. Tom said he would catch up with
me later when they had finished working.
I called in the pub and ordered a beer and looking around I noticed that the crowd off the `Trevethoe`
were in there gulping ale down. I recognised one sailor from Liverpool who I had sailed with on the
old `Franconia` the year before and soon we were knocking them back, swapping yarns. Tom turned
up at about 4pm with the rest of our crowd off our ship they filled the bar and were attempting to drink
it dry.
At 6pm I told Tom that I was going back to the ship just as the lethal mix of Scousers, Glaswegians,
Cockneys, Aussies and ale began to ferment and suddenly the pub exploded into a big battle.
Men were thrown through windows; the doors were ripped off as the battle poured into the street
sweeping everyone before it. Just at that moment a Salvation Army band were marching past playing
“Come and join us “. If `John the Baptist` off the Dunedin Star had been there he would have been
marching with them.
As the fight crashed through them they screamed and dropped their instruments and fled in terror.
Some of the lunatics picked up the drums and bugles and were marching up and down the main street
making a terrible noise. The battle, which must have had thirty or forty men involved, carried on down
the street, some cars were turned over, windows were smashed and the local people were terrorised.
Tom and I came out of the pub and couldn’t believe the mayhem that was going on.
We tried to get down the street towards the dock to get back aboard the ship to safety and so that I could
go on watch, when a policeman ran around the corner jumped on me, knocked me to the ground and
handcuffed me. Tom who was ahead of me didn’t see what was happening and carried on running back
to the ship. The policeman dragged me round the corner and into the police station and threw me into
a cell.
I shouted that I had nothing to do with the fighting so he came back into the cell and thumped me again.
There was only one cell, which soon began to fill up as the only two or three police in town pulled the
men in from of the street. I could hear the cop phoning for the state troopers in Townsville and Mackay
to fly in to help sort out the rest of the lunatics.
By this time the only cell was bursting and as the door opened again to squeeze another one in everyone
rushed out knocking down one policeman and as we ran through the office to get to the street the other
cop was swinging into us with his truncheon. As I got past him he hit me in the face just under my right
eye cutting my cheek. I kept on running down to the pier and the ship. It was about 7pm when I arrived
back and I walked along the pier casually to all the bollards where our mooring lines were as if I was
inspecting the moorings, which was part of my job as watchman, just in case the Mate was watching to
see were I was.
As I walked along the pier I came across a big Abbo who was sat on the end of the pier fishing. I spoke
to him for a few minutes and looked at the fish that he had caught. I bade him good night and went back
on board.
I staggered down to our cabin, Tom said “ Kinnell, what happened to you” so I told him what had
happened and how I escaped from gaol. I hadn’t been missed so I went and had a shower and bathed
my cut cheek, changed into my working gear then had a coffee in the mess room with Tom
Then some of the lads who had escaped were arriving onboard. They said some of the lunatics were still rampaging around town and fighting all comers. They were all turning in and locking their doors in case the police or the crowd off the `Trevethoe` came on board. I finished my coffee and then patrolled the deck to make sure everything was ship shape for the night.
When I got to number 4 hatch amidships, I noticed that the derrick preventer wire was hanging over the side.[This is a wire rope from the derrick head down to the deck and made fast for extra security when the derrick is being used for cargo work] I fed the end through the panama lead and intended to heave it tight and then make it fast to the bitts, but the wire was badly kinked and it was like a coiled spring.
As I heaved on it the kinks got fast on the lead and then suddenly sprang out and the wire hit me in the
face right on the cut where the cop had hit me. I staggered back and clutched my face with my oily hands, the pain was terrible. By this time I was feeling really bad, my face and head were hurting so as everything was quiet I went down aft to my cabin and lay down to have a little rest.
I must have fallen asleep, the next thing that I knew was the Mate was dragging me off my bunk and
hurling abuse at me and accusing me of sleeping on watch.
I explained that I had been hit in the face by the preventer wire and nearly knocked unconscious. There
was blood and grease on my right cheek and my right eye was swelling up and nearly closed, so he
reluctantly accepted this.
The reason why he was shouting was that I had not seen a big Abbo come on board who was now in the
Mate`s cabin and wrecking the joint.
I went amidships with him and from the outside alleyway we looked through the window and saw that it
was the same Abbo that I had spoken to earlier in the evening who was fishing.
The Mate said go in there and throw him out and put him ashore. I said, “ No way, that guy is three times bigger than me, he’ll kill me, anyway it’s your cabin that he’s smashing up not mine.”
The Mate then threatened to report me to the Captain for sleeping on watch and have me logged and fined. Reluctantly I went inside and knocked on the door and opened it slowly, the big Abbo turned round and looked at me. “G`day mate” I said “I saw you fishing on the pier earlier this evening,
Can I help you?” I notice a bottle of whisky on the Mate’s desk and a carton of ciggies, “Sit down we’ll
have a glass of scotch and have a ciggy as well”.
We sat down and I poured two glasses of whisky and lit two ciggies, I noticed that he was dripping wet.
I also noticed the Mate at the window mouthing obscenities at me for pouring out the whisky.
As we drank the whisky he told me that when he was fishing some one had come up behind him and had
hit him from behind in the darkness and he had fallen into the water. It had taken him more than half an
hour to climb up the wooden struts of the pier to get out, he had also lost all his fishing rods and tackle. He knew that the guy who did it was off our ship so came up the gangway amidships and as the Mate`s
cabin was the only one open he tried to wreck it to get some revenge.
“The bastard “ I said, “Have another whisky” and poured another two large glasses. The Mate was
jumping up and down outside the window, ”Put him ashore” he was shouting “and leave my whisky alone”.
As we finished our second glass of scotch I said “Come on mate it’s time to go home, you can take the rest of the whisky and this carton of cigarettes there are nearly 200 of them”.
I put my arm round his shoulders and led him out of the cabin, down to the gangway and then down to the end of the pier. I said good night to him there. The town sounded quiet, the State Troopers must have sorted out all the lunatics. I walked back to the gangway and the Mate was waiting. “You bastard,” he screamed, ” why did you give him my whisky and cigarettes?” “It was the only way I could pacify him, he could have killed us both if he had gone berserk, You didn’t do anything to help hiding outside like a coward”.
I turned and walked away from him, I strolled up the fore deck to inspect the for`ard moorings.
Looking at my watch I saw that it was 3am. “Jeeze, “ I thought “I have only been in Bowen for twelve
hours and in that time I have been ashore, had a drink, ended up in the biggest fight that Queensland has
ever seen, been thrown in gaol, beaten up by the cops, escaped from gaol, worked half the night and got
injured doing it and sorted out the big Abbo. I hope we are not staying here too long, I can`t stand the pace.”
The rest of the night was quiet and peaceful and at 5,30am I called all hands to start work at 6am.
We had a laugh when I told Tom what had happened to the Mate and his whisky. I then had a shower and turned in, I was knackered.
At 0800 the Bosun was hammering on the cabin door, “Get up you bastard, the police are on board and want all hands for an identification parade.”
I fell out of bed pulled on my shorts and flip-flops and staggered up on deck. All the Sailors, Firemen and Stewards were lined up in front of three policemen and the Mate and Captain. They were sorting out the ones who they could recognise as being in the fight and also who had escaped from gaol.
As I came out on deck one of the cops said he recognised me as being in gaol and my right eye, which was now all swollen, and black around the cut was where he had hit me with his club. I denied it and said that I was on watch on the ship. The Mate asked the cop what time was I supposed to be in gaol, and he replied that every one had busted out at 7pm. “Then it couldn’t have been himas he was on watch here at 6pm and he injured his eye with the backlash of a wire rope.” I couldn’t believe it. The Mate had got me off the hook. Reluctantly the cop had to let me go. I don’t think the Mate was being kind to me, it was that he didn’t want too many of his men in gaol or he wouldn’t get much work done.
“ I am going back to my bunk now, I am knackered I have been working all night. “ the cops didn’t like it.
A few of the Sailors and Firemen including the two Glaswegian bastards, were taken ashore and taken to the Magistrates court where they were remanded until the following day with some of the crowd off the
`Trevethoe`. Next morning, Monday, the Magistrates had assessed how much damage had been done to
the town, which was quite a lot, so they were all fined and shared the costs of the damages between them.
The ships agents paid the fines and then it was deducted out of their wages. They were going home skint after a 5 months voyage.
Shore leave was stopped in Bowen after that which was just as well as it would not have been safe as some of the locals would have been waiting to get their revenge.
We stayed in Bowen until the following Friday, 28 June, then we sailed at 8pm for Port Alma, one day sail down the coast, near Rockhampton.
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PORT ALMA, QUEENSLAND 1957.
.
On Saturday 29th of June, Tom and I returned to Port Alma, we had been here just a few months ago on the Dunedin Star. The place hadn’t changed, the crocodiles were still lurking in the creek, the mosquitoes were still biting, and the girls were still serving Sarsaparilla in the Wharfies canteen. The girls were very pleased to see us again and I suppose the crocs and skeetas were too.
Tom and I had been writing to Theresa and Thyra, two identical twins since our last visit seven months earlier so they were expecting us.
We were staying until Friday so we spent as much time as we could in the old railway carriages kissing and cuddling until the Mamasan was heard screaming for them to go to their shack.
Jerry, another , Liverpool lad also had a girl friend there called Mary.
When we were sailing on Friday the Girls said they would come down to Gladstone for the week end to see us. They had a long journey, they had to go up to Rockhampton to get the train down to Gladstone,
On Saturday afternoon the girls turned up in Gladstone and checked into a boarding house for the night, In those days Gladstone was a sleepy one horse town with wooden buildings and just a couple of pubs with batwing doors.
The girls arrived, Thyra my girl hadn’t been able to come so another girl from the Canteen came with Theres and Mary. She was Betty, who was a stunning blue eyed blonde but she was a slate short, she was a bit daft but was good fun to be with.
On Saturday evening Tom and I took our guitars and Jerry carried the grog, we went down to the beach by the Lagoon.
It was a beautiful night, we were sat under the palms drinking and laughing with the girls . A big august moon was rising out of the Pacific and sparkling on the ripples in the lagoon, a lovely evening with the smell of frangipani in the air, fantastic.
With our guitars Tom and I were doing our Tab Hunter act, singing `Red Sails in The Sunset`, his record was popular at the time.
It was a most romantic evening, we were kissing and cuddling the girls, Betty was really good.
We eventually left the beach and waked back to the Boarding House with them.
Seeing no one around the girls said we could come in and spend the rest of the night there.
It was just a very sparse room with a double bed and a single bed in it. A couple of King size cockroaches galloping around the floor when we switched on the light.
Soon we ended up in bed, Jerry and Mary got the single bed first, so Tom and I had to share the double bed with Theresa and Betty. Great , lets get down to some serious business. Before long, Jerry was humping Mary, Tom was humping Theresa and I was struggling with Betty. “What yer troying to do “
She says, in her strong Australian accent. I don’t believe this, I thought, what does she think I am trying to do .”I am trying to get it in, that’s what I am trying to do” I grunted. “what have you done with it”
“Now one has ever been in there before” she said, “You mean you’re a virgin?”
“Yers, I have never had it before.” She said. Great , fantastic, I cant believe my luck, I have finally found one.
Well we pushed, we shoved, we heaved, we thrutched, Nothing. “What have you got in there Betty? Its blocked up”. “Noffin,” she said, ”I told you noffins been in there before.”
We tried and tried, “The bloody thing has healed up “ I said to Betty. “You can keep on troying if you want but now one else ever got in there.” Betty, she was so innocent, so simple and so bloody daft.!
By this time Tom and Jerry had finished their performance, and all four were listening and laughing at me and Betty. We all ended up laughing and rolling about at all this when the door burst open, and stood in the doorway was an ugly middle aged woman in a tatty dressing gown and curlers in her hair. She was screaming in an eastern European accent,”Vot is this in mein house, you turn it into a brothel already”, I hadn’t I didn’t do anything. “All the mens in mein house and not paying der rent”.
Jerry climbed out of bed naked with all his tackle dangling, “Mein Gott” she screamed, “Vot is dat, don’t come near me with dat”,
Jerry got his dungarees and pulled out two pounds and said, ”Here you are girl, here`s the rent”.
She snatched the money from his hands and stuffed it down her grubby bra,
“Now all you mens get out of mein house, the girls can stay until morning.”
Tom and I climbed out of bed, both naked. “Mein Gott,” she screamed again, “Such things I have never before seen, get on der clothes and get out of mein house.” I think she was getting a bit excited I don’t think she had seen a naked man before, now she had three stood in front of her.
She never turned away, she just stood there staring as we got dressed. I was wondering if her box was healed up, I didn’t fancy trying to find out.
When we were dressed we kissed the girls good bye and told them we would see them before they got the train back to Rockhampton.
As we walked away the old bitch was screaming after us, “Don’t you come back , next time I call the Police.”
“Do you think we should go back and give her one” said Tom” “Go away “ said Jerry.” I wouldn’t touch her with yours”, I said, “I bet its either healed up or its got teeth in it.”
We walked down the hill towards the Jetty just as dawn was breaking over the Pacific, beautiful. We were laughing at the nights events and we had had a good night out and really enjoyed it.
On Sunday morning we met the girls in a café and bought them some lunch and had a good laugh at last nights events. All to soon it was time for them to leave for the train. We took them to the station and kissed them good bye. A few tears were shed and that was just the Sailors, we waved to them until the train went out of sight then walked to the pub and had a few bevies.
We wrote to them for a while then it faded away. I wonder if Betty is still a virgin 55 years later. I hope so.
.We stayed in Gladstone until Thursday 11th of July loading frozen beef, We had been working on the wharfs on shore pay most of the time on the coast assisting the Wharfies, we were getting shore pay for that, it was big money at the time. And they were saving it up for us until we had completed loading the full cargo.

[John Albert Evans]

John,

I found this photo of a white house on stilts taken in Rockhampton,early 1950's, does it ring bell ?..rockhampton.jpg

John

[John F Collier]

Hi John, thats exactly the type of house I can remember it was the first time Id seen anything like that so it stuck with me,
thats great to see again it's even got the tropical plants around it, thank you for your interest, all the best. John.