Honouring Days of Old

Bowser restored and unveiled at General Meeting

A gravity-feed fuel bowser, typical of those used during the area’s pioneering 1920-1930’s, was unveiled by Don Burton at a Special General meeting of the Walpole Nornalup and District Historical Society Inc on 19 June 2021.

Don said the gravity fed fuel bowser was used at his father’s (Pat Burton’s) farm from the sixties through to the eighties.  It originally came from Mobil oil company in Albany. The agent at the time (Frank Sherwood) did a lot of truck work for the Burton’s as well as delivering fuel; so, it came to the farm to feed fuel through to vehicles and other farm machinery.

The bowser, which is more than 2 metres high, was missing for a while but was found and in 2013 entrusted to Ian Pumphrey on permanent loan; complementing his collection of old machinery. Ian sold his farm in 2019 and the Historical Society took on the job of restoring it for its own permanent collection.

The Walpole Op shop provided $300 for paint, stickers and parts and the Walpole Work Camp undertook the meticulous restoration project under the guidance and direction of Officer Terry Baker.

The bowser is a great acquisition by the Society:  it is typical of those used widely in the district in its pioneering days of old.

110 years since Mandalay Shipwreck (15 May 1911)

On 15 May 1911, the three-masted iron Norwegian barque Mandalay was driven onshore by prolonged south-west gales. Clearing Chatham Island with difficulty, the vessel was beached in huge seas at what is now known as Mandalay Beach. Captain Emil Tonnessen and crew of 11 all survived and, after five days cast ashore in isolation, they were rescued after the second mate, Fred Finchi (who had left the beach to seek help), hailed Frank Skinner Thompson and family who were then in boats ferrying stores across the Nornalup Inlet from the bar (the provisions were shipped by the Silver Star from Albany) to their new block on the Deep River (ref: In Praise of a National Park, Lee and Geoff Fernie, 1989, p22). Subsequently Bow Bridge settler Charles Benson employed some of the Mandalay's crew and helped them return to Norway.

At the General Meeting on 19 June, the Society displayed a collection of artefacts of the wreck of Mandalay including the exhibit left, discovered in ? year under the sand at Mandalay Beach and believed to be from the Mandalay.

Newly awarded Life Member Thomas Gerner (who now lives with Elizabeth on the Deep River farm settled by Frank Skinner Thompson in 1910: just a year before he and his family helped rescue the crew of Mandalay) told the meeting there was a door from Mandalay stored on his property for the Society's collection.

Local Gary Muir often entertains his  WOW Cruise guests with stories from his book (co-authored by Geoff Fernie) Tolstoy to Tinglewood: The Case of Frank Skinner Thompson (2011) including the rescue of the crew of Mandalay. On the right is an extract from Society Member Colin Story's video of Gary involving his cruise guests with the Mandalay Rescue history. (Thanks to Colin for the video).

The Society's journal  The Walpolian (December 2009, page 7) notes that the Society has made contact with great grand children (particularly Arne Kolbjornsen) of Captain Emile Tonnessen the captain of the Mandalay.

The story of the Mandalay and more particularly the rescue of her crew is an indispensable part of our history and the efforts the district will go to to help seafarers in distress. The Society is delighted to be a bearer of that piece of days gone by and to honour it in this way and with the photo gallery below.

Mandalay Data table with links to references:

The "Spiccy Log" (Hopea sangal) Journey

The Great Conspicuous Log Mystery:

How an exotic log (evidently originating in South East Asia) got to Conspicuous Cliff Beach? 
is investigated in a different page on this site.

There are other possibilities, but it is believed the most likely is: the buoyant log was carried from Indonesia by the powerful Leeuwin Current to end up on Conspicuous Beach. Since this story broke, local anecdotes assert it has been seen on different parts of the beach over years gone by; but, as this is written, it is now buried in the sand dunes beside a creek and the boardwalk entrance to the beach. Perhaps not even noticed by most passers-by!

With permission, the Society extracted a segment of the log for analysis and also a portion for posterity. There has been a lot of interest in the story and the Society was happy to be able to reveal the portion at the General Meeting on 19 June 2021 and now, in effect, on this website. Thanks to Committee member Ivan Woodhams (and his brother) and Don Burton for extracting and preserving the sample.

New book launched: Tracks in the Sand by Mark Channer

The author, Mark Channer, (then 37) and his Nornalup mate Ed Brams (then 61) went fishing in Mark's 17 foot Pacemaker runabout on 17 June 1998.

Mark writes that a little after 2 pm they were out near Saddle Island when a gigantic rogue wave that had “risen out of nothing” hit the boat side on: “Effortlessly it flipped us over. And that was it.” They were in the sea!

He then tells of a crushing and heart-breaking three hours of dogged determination to reach land. Exhausted they managed to get to the rocky shore but Ed was overcome by the whirling ebb and flow of the sea amidst rocks and seaweed.

The book goes on to describe Mark’s fortitude in harsh and inclement conditions to leave Ed as high as he could manage and to trudge across the inlet mouth and along the shore to Blue Holes where he was found by one of the rescuers.

There begins a tail of compassionate action, involving many identities from Walpole and Nornalup, for Mark’s survival and the retrieval of Ed. Ed’s body was found three days later on Circus Beach. Mark was in the group that found him.

Jenny Willcox said she was delighted to launch the book. Ed was Ray Willcox’s workmate in Perth and they came to Walpole the same year: the families keeping in close contact.

The book is published by the Historical Society, printed by the Walpole Community Resource Centre and can be pre-ordered   here.