Introduction
Controversial Issues
Everything Costed - Nothing Valued
Stress & Depression
Courage, Resilience & Innovation
Explorers Past & Present
Legends, Leaders & Larrikins
Bond - The Bold
Lang & Rose Hancock
Hazel Hawke
Janet Holmes a Court
Natural Wonders
Broome
WA Fossils
Perky Perth
Introduction to Western Australia
Magnitude and isolation have always loomed large in the Western Australian equation. This is a state with larger than life characters, ambitious visions and vast distances. Occupying the western third of the continent, it is three and a half times bigger in size than Texas and Australia's largest state. There are three broad climate divisions, with the north being dry tropical receiving a summer rainfall, the southwest corner a Mediterranean climate, with long hot summers and wet winters, and the remainder mostly arid land or deserts.
Western Australia is a vast state, isolated from much of the rest of Australia but blessed with people who are bold, brash, brilliant - and definitely never boring.
Everything Costed - Nothing Valued
Australia has embraced economic rationalism with vigour. Companies pride themselves on being leaner and meaner, their bottom lines all important. It seems irrelevant that an employee has been with the company for twenty or thirty years - they are expendable, the knowledge accrued over that time unimportant, their loyalty of little or no value.
As employees are sacked and go on the dole, their income is reduced and the spending for that family, on anything other than food and utilities, ends. If large numbers of workers are laid off, the effect is felt by local shops and suppliers who also put off workers or close their businesses. Towns die or lose their heart. Services close.
With no work in town people attempt to sell their houses and move on - but everyone is leaving, prices fall because of the glut on the market. Families are torn apart by failure to find work, failure to pay the mortgage, by bankruptcy, depression, alcoholism and despair.
But economic rationalists say this is okay because their bottom line is healthier. But are those remaining in work healthier? Those left at the coalface are working longer and longer, under more difficult circumstances. They are expected to cover for retrenched staff as well as do their own work. They are paid no more. They are expected to do overtime, frequently not paid. They are exhausted and stressed and often a danger in the workplace.
Extract from The Age 18 July 1999. Writer Martin Daly.
>> Killer on the job: our tired workers>>
>> Disaster is looming in the air, on land and at sea because key workers fall in and out of sleep on the job.
Research reveals that many workers on long shifts are so functionally impaired by fatigue they behave as if they have been drinking.
It is believed that, as a result, aircraft take off every day with faults missed by tired engineers.
Long distance hauliers and car drivers cause accidents, often fatal.
And marine pilots doze off on the bridge, threatening accidents in an industry where wholesale loss of life and environmental disaster are serious risks.
Fatigue is cited as a killer, or potential killer, and as a major threat to the environment, in submissions to a Federal Government inquiry that over the next few months will highlight the dangers of rest and sleep deprivation in key transport industries.
The standing committee on communications, transport and the arts wants to determine the level of human error caused by workplace fatigue, which each year costs close to $2 billion in accidents and injuries. The MP heading the committee, Mr Paul Neville, describes the inquiry as a "wake-up call" to governments, companies, employees and the community that will "bring fatigue out of the shadows".>>
It continues:
>> Submissions reviewed by The Sunday Age paint an alarming picture of sleep-deprived shift workers, burdened by staff cutbacks and increased workloads, who unwittingly put lives at risk because they cannot do their jobs properly and safely.
The maritime industry is one high-risk area in which fatigue affects performance and in which 80 percent of all accidents are caused by human error.
Two recent accidents on the Great Barrier Reef were caused when pilots in charge of vessels fell asleep on the bridge, according to a submission from the Australian Marine Pilots Association.
"Some pilots take drugs in order to go to sleep when the circadian rhythm is at a phase which is telling the body to stay awake, and others take drugs to stay awake when the body is trying to shut down", the association says.
One marine pilot, Captain Rob Lovell, draws parallels in a private submission between maritime and aviation pilots and tells the committee it is now time to legislate to curb the problem. "Another study is not needed," he says.
The Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association, which represents the vast majority of licensed aircraft maintenance engineers - most of them with Ansett and Qantas - tells the committee that engineers on duty for more than 24 hours have been so tired at times that they made "incorrect determination as to the airworthiness of the aircraft engines they have been working on."
Because of the dangers of fatigue, the association has limited heavy maintenance shifts to 9.5 hours and insists that engineers do not do heavy maintenance between 2am and 6am because research shows that workers at that time are psychologically at their lowest ebb.>>
It continues:
>>The Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators is also concerned, particularly about young pilots in small airlines who are willing to work long hours and who will put up with fatigue rather than complain and put at risk the chance of a career with a major airline. Work related fatigue is seen as the disease of the 90's and the new millennium, spread by downsizing, increased workloads, tighter deadlines, cost controls and competition.
But research shows that shift work costs employees heavily. A British study in April linked shift work to heart disease, diabetes and ulcers, as well as profound problems of fatigue.
Last month, two Australian medical unions threatened to target hospitals that were allowing junior doctors to work more than 80 hours a week - 16 hours a day - because the hours threatened to damage patient care and the health of the doctors.>>
Where Is The Bottom Line? :
But Managements continue to chase a healthier bottom line and pride themselves on their restructures. They celebrate their success by paying senior management more money. They knew all along they could operate on less staff and reduce operating overheads. And companies can.... for a few weeks, perhaps months, perhaps years until one day something big goes wrong. Then of course it's not the company's fault... its everybody else's..... the workers...... or as we saw in Victoria recently it was the public's fault!!! Strewth!!!!
Extract from Herald Sun 15 May 1999. Writer Norrie Ross Supreme Court Reporter.
>> Esso blames public>>
>>Gas chaos your fault, company tells Victorians>>
Victorian gas consumers are to blame for the chaos caused by the explosion at the Longford plant, energy giant Esso claimed yesterday.
In its legal defence to a $1 billion plus class action, Esso said that businesses and householders were aware there was not a secure gas supply in the state.
The company said every gas customer should have had an alternative supply of energy for cooking, heating, hot water and for industrial production.
But the claim brought an angry reaction from a lawyer representing thousands of Victorians who suffered as a result of (a) two week gas shutdown.
"This is the biggest handball in Victorian legal history," said Bernard Murphy, a partner in Maurice Blackburn.
"They are saying it is our fault. It's outrageous. Esso is a master at blaming everybody else and the company simply will not accept responsibility for its failures."
In its defence lodged in Federal Court late yesterday Esso also made a cross claim against the Victorian Government and a large number of other parties.
It is said that business, domestic users and employers purchased gas under a contract which stated the supply of gas was "not secure, reliable, necessarily adequate or continuous."
"Being aware that the supply of gas was not secure, reliable, necessarily adequate or continuous each gas user should have taken all reasonable steps to avoid the risk of the loss and damage alleged," the company said.
Mr Murphy said Esso started by blaming the operators of the plant for the explosion, then the government and the company had now turned on consumers.
He said consumers relied on the monopoly supplier for secure and safe supplies and the cause of the explosion was entirely in Esso's control.>>
Initially Esso, a division of International giant Exxon, unashamedly blamed it's workers for the fire at the plant. Management took no responsibility for equipment failure or staff who were untrained to read the danger signals on the day. Men died that day!! .... but then I suppose the bottom line had looked good before the accident.
It now seems that Esso will pay anything in legal costs, anything it takes, to place the blame elsewhere. I am sure that the families of the dead and their fellow workers are questioning the amount of money now spent on legal costs, versus the amount of money needed to prevent the disaster in the first place.
Disposable Society :
It seems today we are a society addicted to instant gratification. Everything we must have now... without delay. We no longer diet but have lipo-suction, don't like how we look, we have cosmetic surgery. Forget feeling sad or depressed we simply pop a Prozac, and sex, well, if that doesn't work we pop Viagra. Kids today see the sadness, hopelessness and stress that their parents suffer - they seek escape from what they believe will inevitably be their lives......they drink too much, smoke too much and even inject heroin to forget. We have taught them that you seek answers by popping something.......... so they do!!
When Human Beings Have Become Human Doings :
Extract from Good Week-end 10 July 1999. Writer Richard Neville.
>> To love, honour and throw away>>
>> It starts with disposable products and ends with disposable people: get a new phone, get a new partner - who's got time for commitment any more? Richard Neville counts the cost of our culture of impatience.
What if Socrates had been in a hurry? Instead of strolling about barefoot, chatting to layabouts while cooking up Western Civilisation, what if he had zoomed about on Nike Tailwinds, gulping Beroccas, a Nokia pressed to his ear, surfing a palmtop? Would he have uttered anything worthwhile?
People worry about heroin, but the most popular drug of addiction today is adrenalin, the enemy of leisure, the thief of time. As the information age gathers momentum, so do we. The quicker time disappears, the fiercer grows our impatience.
"We are enslaved by speed," thunders the Web site of the slow food movement, "and have all succumbed to the same insidious virus: Fast Life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to eat Fast Foods." Ever faster. The office "lunch hour" has shrunk to 36 minutes, according to a US study, and nearly 40 per cent of workers do not sit down to eat at all. Instead, they use the time to shop, run errands or - of course! - to jog. >>
It continues:
>>But now, instead of a counterculture, we have created a hyperculture. Its hallmark is " a pathological, self-justifying speed inimical to humane values", according to Canadian academic Stephen Bertman, who believes that in such a culture, deviant behaviour, including violent and criminal acts, "is not an anomaly, but is in fact consistent with society's highest goal: get as much as you can as fast as you can."
On an everyday level, the products we buy - or rather, the brands we are manipulated to consume - conceal their social consequences. Fast food serves a time-poor society of workaholics in which social relationships are expendable. The Discman reduces the listening of music from a shared joy to a solitary buzz and promotes the consumption of interlinked goodies such as batteries, jogging shoes, tracksuits and Star Wars soundtracks.
Years ago, Scottish political economist Adam Smith foresaw the impact of the untrammelled market on our mentality. About 1770, in his Lectures on Justice, the doyen of free traders noted, "Another bad effect of commerce is that it sinks the courage of mankind........everyone's thoughts are employed about one particular thing. The heroic spirit is almost utterly extinguished." Even so, we desperately cling to archetypes of heroism, whether they be in the movies, sport or corporate jargon. Yesterday's sales rep is today's "road warrior", buffeted by schedules and the rigours of hyper-mobility.
At Brisbane airport recently, a group of corporate reps chewed the fat about the side-effects of incessant travel. It was not uncommon, apparently, as I gleaned by eavesdropping, to "blank out" while careening to departure gates, to misremember destinations and current whereabouts. What city is this? An IBM itinerant said she was so afflicted by spasms of existential forgetfulness that her therapist told her to write a note to herself each night, recording her current location and the next destination, so she could refresh her memory in the morning.
At dawn in five star hotels, besuited hotshots can be seen juggling tropical fruits, Bircher muesli, the newspapers and a brace of insistent mobiles. This culture of impatience insinuates itself into the deepest recesses of our being. A Brazilian medical journalist year carried the report of a surgical operation on a man with an unusual obstruction in his rectum, a Nokia 2000 - the result, allegedly, of having "slipped while under the shower". During its extraction, the phone rang several times.
What are the social costs of time's vanishing? Rising stress, depression, road rage and the three second sound bite. But are there other, less obvious costs? Does the culture of impatience distort the nature of relationships, making them ever more nasty, brutish and short?
I believe so, for reasons outlined below. But this is only part of the picture. Just as we have learnt that the future itself is fragile and needs to be rescued, so too we are reminded that relationships lie at the core of the human condition, and need to be negotiated with a refined expertise.
The new economy, for instance, requires unprecedented co-operation and collaboration between a diverse range of people over vast distances. Are our interpersonal skills up to the task? If not, can we enhance them?
Most future thinking is based on technology. How about our psychology?
In an accelerated age, how can we cultivate a meaningful one-to-one relationship? If we're in such a coupling and it gets murky, do we succumb to the norms of the consumer society: chuck it out and get a new one? How often have you seen two people of goodwill fall into a relationship, share a house, kids, cats and plenty of laughs and then, when the emotional weather is turbulent, jump ship?
You've seen it a thousand times. So much so that it's a non-event. What was once the shock-horror, musical-chair version of marriage, played out in the private lives of Hollywood heart-throbs, has now become the marriage next door.>>
It continues:
>> In Australia, in the decade from 1987 to 1997, the number of people who embarked on marriage slumped dramatically: down 25 per cent for men and 27 per cent for women. In the same period, the number of registered divorces jumped from 39,725 to 51,300. Four out of ten marriages end in divorce, and one of each four, according to a radio newsflash, founders on the mighty issue of who does the dishes.
No-one expects relationships to last, least of all the couple themselves.>>
It continues:
>> We have created a culture in which dads are prone to drop out when it suits them, leaving single mothers to do a job that was designed for both sexes plus an extended family. A school girl friend of my teenage daughter recently remarked, " Anyone's parents who still live together must have something wrong with them".
As a fledgling social commentator, I once railed against the horrors of marriage and the bleak suffocation of family life. In a "50's Australia which seemed stagnant and straitjacketed, I saw the sexual revolution as a stupendous liberation. And it was.
Thirty years down the track, the speed and scope of change is dizzying. At the World Economic Forum in February in Davos, Switzerland, according to a Sydney Morning Herald report, "alarmed" world leaders admitted that the pace of change was outstripping the ability of governments to manage it. And what of individuals? As currencies and share markets become increasingly volatile, so do the hearts of humans: our capacity for commitment is ever more erratic. In such a world, the long-term partnership is a radical act.
Not that couples should endure lifelong misery for the sake of appearances or even their offspring. As the product of incompatible parents, I am aware of the pain of growing up in a combat zone. The incredible legacy of the sexual revolution has widened the choice of lifestyles for both sexes and raised the level of erotic candour, as well as created an industry of marital therapists.
But as the idealism of that era faded, supplanted by a tougher, more businesslike focus, the journey towards deeper intimacy stalled. We were back at the shopping trolley, alone and angst-ridden, dressed for success - a success that came to be defined by external goals: wealth, glory, power, beauty and brand names.
In this climate, it was cooler to network than to befriend; business cards were exchanged instead of messy emotions and bodily fluids.
Now we may be entering another phase, the gradual revival of community. Perhaps it's a response to globalisation, Y2K or the short attention spans of politicians. Neighbourhood centres are starting to buzz, housefuls of bring-a-plate dissidents throb with plots against the government, the nuclear industry, the local council.
The glue of community is relationships, whether with friends, lovers. neighbours - or the old codger who lives near the town dump with a pack of Rottweilers. At the heart of most relationships, for better or worse, is coupledom, often considered a dirty word. It evokes exclusion, a retreat to the suburban fortress, an oppressive mortgage, a timid politics. But if a sense of community is to be reinvigorated, then we need to take a closer look at coupledom and its discontents, perhaps giving it a makeover for the millennium.
There has never been a golden age when the family functioned in an ideal way. Those periods when marriage and family structures appeared totally virtuous were usually times of hypocrisy, with nasty things happening in the woodshed.
On the other hand, there is a certain stability and security provided by a "good enough", workable partnership and family. We are entering a new era, an intoxicated global economy marked by an ominous disparity of wealth, when the most widespread ailment among the middle class will be depression, exacerbated by a workplace of insecure casuals and where the consumption pattern of the individual rather than the wellbeing of the group will be a major focus. We may need the rock of relationship, even with its sharp occasionally uncomfortable edges, more than ever.
And yet this rock is being eroded. Why? What is it that shrinks the capacity of post modern lovers to spend a large chunk of their lives with each other? And, just as importantly, what's to be gained by sticking it out.
Some of the things that have disrupted our relationships are the evolution of gender roles, easy divorce and the biological fruits of abundance and antibiotics. That is to say, we are living longer and possibly boring each other to death. Maybe biological bonding was never meant to last this long and to withstand so many tempting alternatives. The average ancient Roman died about age 45, leaving 25 years for marriage and plenty of time for orgies. In grating contrast to this elongation of our physical lifespan, our attention span gets shorter and shorter.
This applies to people and products, both of which are now supremely disposable. Our culture of impatience - driven by the consumer society - elevates disposability into a lifestyle.
For many young people, the consumer society seems as if it's been around since Adam and Eve. In fact, it wasn't until after World War II that it really took off. Its progress is usually monitored in terms of economics and its psychological impact is rarely discussed. Yet this impact was both foreseen and welcomed by sales analyst Victor Lebow, an unconscious futurist who, in a mid-1950s edition of the New York Journal of Retailing, issued this rallying cry:
"Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction and ego satisfaction in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever-increasing rate." Lebow got his wish, and now the rest of us are stuck with it. It is a religion of hyper-consumption that has crept up on us by stealth, seeping up from the corner store.
The threefold personality of this Divine Spirit - its Holy Trinity - can be expressed as obsolescence, disposability and the never-ending upgrade. It is a religion that has shaped our buying patterns, disrupted the weather and degraded our environment. These impacts are recognised. Now it's time to enlarge our concerns from the external landscape to the internal mindscape, from the change in our climate to the change in our consciousness.
We are what we buy. The more we buy, the grander we are, and the healthier the economy. (It says so on the news). The more we own the smarter we seem and the more our colleagues are prepared to bestow on us, whether it be a gold Rolex, a chauffeured Merc or a parcel of share options. We become valued through our objects, and so we start, unconsciously at first, to value other people by the same insidious standard, including our friends and lovers - all to accurately referring to them as the objects of our affections.
However, objects date, even precious items of jewellery, and experts are required to restore them to former glory. This is true of humans too, much to the delight of cosmetic surgeons.
The shopping religion shapes national accounts, as well as the contours of our loved ones. Its revenues are a measure of prosperity, its products a measure of progress. For many, shopping is why we get out of bed in the morning. According to Australian economist Clive Hamilton, an emerging body of psychological research "strongly suggests that the more our media, advertisers and opinion makers emphasise financial success as the chief means to happiness, the more they promote social pathologies".
A range of studies in leading journals look at two sets of beliefs about sources of happiness. The first set revolved around the external goals: wealth, attractiveness and fame. The second set of beliefs favoured "intrinsic rewards", such as deeper relationships, personal growth and contributing to the community.
Adherents of the first set of beliefs, according to the new research, were more likely to experience a "lower quality of life" than those who pursued intrinsic goals. Also, they had "shorter, more conflictual and more competitive relationships with others." In other words, not only were they miserable bastards, they made everyone around them miserable, too.
Other studies show that the most important determinant of happiness is social relationships, including those with family and friends. It is just such relationships that are under threat from the continuing escalation of the consumer society. It starts with throwaway products (look in your shed, your attic) and ends with throwaway people (look at the Family Court, nursing homes, shelters.) It's like the line in Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi about putting up a parking lot, about not realising what you've got 'til it's gone. Like social capital.
In the most recent Anzac media flurry of wartime reminiscences, I was struck by the observations of a British officer - a prisoner of Singapore's Changi jail, if I recall - who found that the character traits of a nation were magnified under duress. British POW's concentrated on keeping up the divisions of class. The Australians banded together in a spirit of mutual aid. The Americans used their entrepreneurial skills to fleece each other.
In a related anecdote, a Briton whose ship had been sunk recounted his desperate floundering in the ocean, freezing and terrified. As death beckoned, he drifted towards a floating archipelago of shipwrecked Anzacs; some clinging to wreckage, others in lifeboats, all of them bound together with rope and makeshift cords. "Join us, mate, " came an Aussie twang as a line was disentangled from the watery web and hurled his way.
Such an affirmation of community has no place on Wall Street or in the global market economy, and has everything to do with extended human relationships. Pollster Rod Cameron has lately reported an ascent of selfishness, that "across sexes and occupational groupings " the credo of looking after number one is becoming dominant. While mateship fell into disrepute because of its sexism and incipient xenophobia, a revised version could move beyond coded blokeyness to honour both sexes and a multitude of cultures. A kind of mateship lies at the core of good relationships, which in turn provides the mortar of community.
Instead, we are heading in a direction where families are as transient as a video clip and a community is little more than a marketing target.
Ironically, at a time when personal relationships are collapsing all around us, guess what the would-be fast companies are discovering? Relationships. There's a flurry of corporate seminars on relationship
marketing, the new buzz word.>>
It continues:
>> "You want your partner to merge with you, be you............. but never to bore you." Of course not. Boredom has grown into our greatest taboo. The fear of boredom drives the multimedia tourist entertainment theme park industry, and much else besides, while no-one has ever got rich by defending the right to be bored.
But, actually, boredom is the wellspring of creativity, in art, in life and in relationships, the equivalent of a free pick and shovel with note attached:
Don't run away, dig a bit deeper. Boredom is God's gift to the middle class, who are not actually required to slog around the clock, but they squander it on ride-on mowers, focaccia and Net porn, instead of enriching relationships.
In bumper-sticker lingo, a relationship is a journey, not a destination, and the time this takes is immaterial. The antidote to a culture of impatience is an alternative sense of time, a sense of time that honours what's left of life beyond shopping. Holistic time. In the drama of relationships, holistic times means an occasional drift in the slow lane and to accept periods of mutual antipathy are inevitable, even therapeutic.
The reclaiming of time is part of a wider goal of rescuing the future, and transcending the rituals of consumerism. Restructuring the rhythm of relationships will play a role in revitalising the kind of partnerships many people seem to have given up for dead. The beneficiaries of this will be children and the wider communities.>>
Stress & Depression Hold Us In Their Vice
Extract from the Herald Sun 03 August 1999. Writer Kim Sweetman.
>> Record bill for stress>>
Australians spent a record amount on drugs for depression and mental illness last year to cope with unprecedented pressures.
Medical experts believe life is harder than ever before, driving people to find new ways of coping with stress.
Almost $4 billion went on drugs last year, with $251 million of that on drugs for problems once treated by counsellors or not treated at all.
Drugs to fight obesity are another booming product. They have recorded a growth in sales of 648 per cent, raising speculation that body image is another cause of stress.
According to figures from health research firms and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, sales figures of anti-depressants are growing by almost 20 per cent a year.
About $186 million was spent on anti-depressants between March last year and March this year - $60 million more than in the previous year.
Drugs for more serious mental illnesses or illnesses long recognised as treatable with drugs, are now worth $65 million a year - 93 per cent more than at the beginning of last year.
About $3.7 million worth of ant-obesity drugs were sold in the year to March, up $3.3 million on the year before.
Clinical pharmacologist professor Peter Carroll said even experts couldn't pin down a single reason for the trend.
"No one really knows why. But if you look at the divorce rate, the rate of retrenchments, all those factors, there can be no doubt that there are far more trigger factors for depression," he said.
It has been estimated one in five Australians suffers clinical depression at some time.
Prof. Carroll said growing pressures on the health system probably also contributed.
"Once upon a time someone might have been sat down and talked to for half an hour about their problems or they might have been sent to counselling," he said.
"The pressures that now exist on the medical system mean that can't happen. The new drugs are much more sophisticated than the two previous generations of drugs which existed for depression, which means doctors are much more confident about them.">>
The Facts On Prescription Drugs
Sales figures for 1998:
Anti-depressant sales up 17.36 per cent to $186 million.
Anti-psychotic sales up 93 per cent to $65 million.
Anti-obesity sales up 648 per cent to $3.7 million.
Overall prescription drug use up by 10 per cent.
Total consumption of prescription drugs cost $3.7 billion.
In a country with such a high standard of living why IS our mental health so chaotic? Should we perhaps start to redraw the boundaries that define our standard of living? We have spent some much time, money and effort focusing on the physical... perhaps it's time to address the spiritual?
Courage, Resilience & Innovation
Historical Fremantle and The Duyfken 1606 Replica Foundation :
Fremantle has always taken it's maritime history seriously. After the successful completion and the farewelling of the Endeavour replica (Captain Cook's ship), many who had worked on her felt a palpable sense of loss. The Endeavour's long-term home was always going to be the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney, but many wanted a vessel for Western Australian.
There were various proposals for a new replica project that would be wholly Western Australian, but it was Duyfken, a ship with national significance that became the popular choice.
A committee was formed with historian Michael Young and maritime historians James Henderson and Kees de Heer. Corporate backing was sought and Michael Kailis from the M G Kailis Group became Chairman. The Duyfken 1606 Replica Foundation was incorporated on 22 February, 1995 when planning and fund raising began in earnest.
The Western Australian Maritime Museum were approached and were keen to be involved. It was decided that the replica would be built in a specially designed shipyard within the grounds of the Museum, as a display of "living history, and that the ship would be built with maximum possible authenticity as a program of experimental archaeology.
Nick Burningham from the Museum was appointed as project nautical archaeologist and, with another enthusiast Adriaan de Jong, and much assistance from experts in the Netherlands, began researching and drawing plans for the ship.
No original plans of any ship from the Age of Discovery exist because ship-wrights did not use plans drawn on paper or parchment. The only plans were in the master-shipwright's head and ships were built by eye.
Replicas and reconstructions of several Age of Discovery ships have been built in recent times. They look fine and romantic, but very few of them can sail anything like as well as the original ships did. From the outset, one of the stated objectives of the Duyfken Replica Project has been to produce a reconstruction that sails well enough to emulate the achievements of the original Duyfken.
The keel was laid by the Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of Orange on 12 January 1997. The lower hull of Duyfken was built plank-first as the original ship would have been in the late 16th century. Planks are pre-bent to shape over an open fire. The planks are northern European Oak (Quercus robur) imported from Latvia. The timber was fairly green to start with but the drying effect of the heat bending process was significant. Planks that felt distinctly wet before bending work more like mature timber a couple of hours later.
After many hours of work by Bill Leonard and his team the Duyfken was ready for the fit-out. The Duyfken sailed for the first time on 10 July 1999.
Sadly, Michael G Kailis died after a long struggle with cancer a couple of weeks before. All at the Duyfken Foundation felt that he sailed with them in spirit.
Re-enactment Voyage :
In November 1999, the Duyfken sailed from Fremantle to Singapore and Malacca, once the busiest port in the world and the distribution centre of the spice trade.
With the northwest monsoon behind her, Duyfken sailed eastwards through the islands of Indonesia visiting historic sites connected with the original ship's voyages and population centres.
From the Spice Island of Banda, Duyfken recreated the historic voyage of exploration, making the commemorative landfall at Queensland's Cape York Peninsula at Pennefather River on 6th May 2000.
In the future Duyfken will take paying passengers. For more details contact:
Duyfken 1606 Replica Foundation
PO Box 1085
Fremantle WA 6959
Tel: 61 (0) 8 9336 1606
Fax: 61 (0) 8 9336 4688
Email: duyfken@vianet.au
Web: http://www.duyfken.org.au
By the way for those who are concerned that the ship is a good reconstruction but can't sail - relax!! With the fresh south-west winds puffing life into the ancient looking sails, the Duyfken has passed all ocean test with flying colours.
Emergence Of A New Empire-The Dutch East India Company :
At the beginning of the 17th century Protestant Holland had fought its way clear of Spanish domination and was beginning to build its own empire. Their captains, navigators, ship-builders and map-makers surpassed those of other nations and the Dutch East India Company led the way in trade of spices, tea, gold and Chinese porcelain. The company grew to be the largest in the world and had the power to make war and negotiate treaties with sovereigns of other countries.
First European On Australian Soil :
Having successfully established themselves throughout the East Indies, the Dutch were eager to explore the area to the south. In 1605, William Jansz set sail in his three masted pinnace, Duyfken (Little Dove), on a voyage of exploration to discover land to the east and to the south.
By February 1606 he had sighted the coast of Nova Guinea but was then forced southward by shoal water into the Gulf of Carpentaria, named after Pieter de Carpentier, Governor General of the Dutch East Indies.
In March 1606, Jansz made the first confirmed sighting of mainland Australia by a European, at the mouth of the Pennefather River on the Gulf's eastern coast. He travelled by ship's boat a few miles up the river where his party encountered some Aborigines and one of his men was speared to death. Jansz continued along the coast and passed by today's Duyfken Point, near Weipa, before heading north for Java.
The Importance Of The Roaring Forties :
To reach the East Indies the Dutch had always followed the Portuguese sea routes along the coast of Africa, past Mauritius and on to Sri Lanka or the East Indies. In 1610 the Dutch Mariner Hendrik Brouwer suggested sailing south to use the force of the vigorous westerly winds (the Roaring Forties) to move them along quickly, before turning north when they reached the longitude of the East Indies. In 1611, Brouwer successfully pioneered this route, taking several months off the usual sailing time. This greatly increased company profits and the reduced sailing time lowered the incidences of scurvy amongst crew.
The First Recorded Landing On The West Coast :
The first Dutch ship to sight the west coast was the Eendracht, captained by Dirk Hartog. On 25 October 1616, he entered Shark Bay, the current site of Carnarvon and the NASA space tracking station. He landed at Cape Inscription, the northern point of Dirk Hartog Island where he fixed a pewter plate to a post, inscribed with details of his discovery. This was removed in 1697 by Vlamingh and lost until 1902. It is now in the Rijkmusuem in Amsterdam. The following years saw many more Dutch landings. It was Vlamingh who made the discovery of black swans, in the Swan River in 1697. He took two back to Batavia to prove this supposed zoological impossibility.
During this era it was difficult for navigators to accurately calculate their longitude. Miscalculation resulted in ships being carried onto the west coast of Australia, some with disastrous results. The lucky ones avoided shipwreck and by the 1640's the Dutch had charted the west coast of Australia with great accuracy.
Take time to visit the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle, and see the internationally important collection of shipwreck relics, believed to be from the 17thC Dutch ships that fell prey to Western Australia's coastline.
Big Wide Land And People To Match :
Perhaps the geographical isolation of Perth creates a fertile ground for the emergence of personalities that are bold, brash, brilliant and definitely larger than life.
Alan Bond and the Australia I team took the America's Cup away from the USA for the first time in 132 years. But who is this Australian hero and why was Bond imprisoned for three years?
In 1949, Frank and Kathleen Bond and son, Alan, became "ten pound Poms" and emigrated to Australia. When they arrived Alan was not yet twelve and few would have recognised in him the future millionaire and America's Cup winner. The Bond family lived in Fremantle, not the "Freo" of today, but a much tougher town that prospered when busy and starved when quiet.
Bond's school years were unexceptional. His early days as a signwriter and later as a property developer show Bond had little respect for authority. Bond's father had serious doubts as to how his son would turn out, and more than once he was heard to say,>> "There's only two ways he can go, either he will end up in Fremantle jail, or he will become the richest man in Australia".<< Both predictions held elements of truth.
In 1955, Bond married Eileen Hughes, the daughter of a well respected Catholic family. Eileen was well liked, with a fun personality and considered a good catch, whereas Bond had left school at fourteen and was rather wild.
Less than a year after the marriage Bond was put on a good behaviour bond for being unlawfully on premises. He admitted to Police that he was planning to commit robbery. Bond seemed to like living on the edge, both in his personal and business life. He loved flashy cars and seemed impervious to criticism of his behaviour, rules were for others - not Bond. Debt pursued him, but this seemed merely an inconvenience, not a restriction.
The following excerpt from "The Rise And Fall of Alan Bond" by Paul Barry highlights the philosophy behind Bond and his future business pursuits.
>>"In 1962, Nu Sign's creditors became so fed up with never getting their money that they took Alan to court and brought him to within a whisker of being made bankrupt. But Bond escaped, and his reaction was typical. One plumber to whom he owed money, Tom Tate Snr, remembers how the young entrepreneur was saved because a couple of elderly gents from the Fremantle business community reckoned that the boy should be given a chance - after all he was only young, and just starting out in business. The creditors came to an arrangement with Nu-Signs and bankruptcy was staved off. But what happened then could surely have happened to no one else. According to the Tates there was a land auction the very next day, and Alan was there. Unperturbed by the fact that he had narrowly escaped bankruptcy, the irrepressible Bond put his hand up for a block that cost 45,000 pounds. Some of Bond's creditors, who had seen him in court the day before, could scarcely contain themselves. "All these blokes couldn't believe it," says the younger Tom Tate. "They had just given him a reprieve and he lines up at this auction and spends a sum of money, and they'd had it in their grasp to bankrupt him". To which Tom Snr adds: "Yes they'd thought he would slow down for a while, but not Bondy."
As his old right hand man Lindsay McCreddin so aptly puts it, "Alan always was a dangerous man at a sale." But there was more logic to it than met the eye. In fact, the auction response formed the basis of Bond's financial philosophy. According to Cam McNab:" Very often we couldn't afford to pay the wages, so he would go out and buy something. People didn't believe it, but that's exactly true. When we got into strife and couldn't pay the blokes, we would go and buy something. I remember once having to get 20,000 pounds in an extreme hurry, and I mean extreme. We had to get it by the next day just to exist - to pay wages and bills. Alan went and bought something and I renegotiated the value so we could borrow against it. The local bloke had a limit of 10,000 pounds, so he gave us two lots of 9999 pounds. That was from Custom Credit. We were very friendly with them.">>
Once Bond discovered the property market he refined his business philosophy and the economic climate gave him the boost he needed.
An Exciting Business Venture-The America's Cup :
Bond had been seeking respectability and popular recognition and he calculated the America's Cup would give him all this and more. As he said in 1974>> "Anyone who thinks racing for the America's Cup isn't a business proposition is a bloody fool.">>
Bond employed Ben Lexcen, a brilliant marine designer, to find that winning edge.
Extract from the Herald Sun 22 July 1999. Writer Kim Lockwood.
>> Wonder from Down Under>>
>> Designer Ben Lexcen's winged keel helped make Australia II the most competitive 12-metre to challenge for the America's Cup in seven bids from 1962 to 1983.
It was the key factor that allowed the yacht to out manoeuvre the others in pre-start duels, gave it remarkable speed in tacking, and the lift in light air that allowed it to point higher to windward.
Much of a boat's performance derives from the design of its keel. Australia II's advantage lay in a design that kept weight very low in a relatively light boat (it was two and a half tonnes lighter than Liberty). It kept the keel deep in the water when the boat listed.
The fins on Australia II's keel gave the yacht the advantage of less overall weight and larger sail area without loss of stability, and a big advantage in turning, tacking and accelerating out of a tack.>>
It continues:
>> For the first time in its history, Australia stopped for what would once have been unthinkable: to watch and listen to a yacht race.
The sports-mad country had often downed tools - it still does- for a football match in September or a horse race in November.
But a yacht race? Twelve metre sailing? It's not even sport is it? It's a millionaires pastime, a game played by rich men with expensive toys.
It happened in September 1983. People stayed up all night. People glued transistor radios to their ears on the train to work.
People already at work stopped and listened as one rich man's toy sailed faster than another rich man's toy and ensured this cheeky nation a place in yachting history.>>
It continues:
>> But for Australia II skipper John Bertrand and defending skipper Dennis Connor in Liberty, it was a race for national pride, for international glory.
It was seen as the ultimate prize in the yachting world. For the two experienced sailors it was also a race within a race.
It was the first time they had competed against each other as skippers, though they had sailed in the same boat in another regatta.>>
It continues:
>> No challenger had been 3-3 in a cup contest. Four hours later Liberty was towed out of Newport to a builder's yard, where it was modified to improve its performance in the light wind forecast for the deciding "sail of the century" next day. Almost a tonne was stripped from it.
Next day was beautiful at Newport. The sky was cloudless, and a spectator fleet of 2000 assembled to watch. Then the wind shifted and dropped. The race was postponed.
A lay day followed and the race finally started three days later in a 10-knot wind. Liberty crossed the starting line eight seconds ahead. The two boats separated, the Australians tacking left and the Americans right.
No one knew who was leading until they crossed after 30 minutes, Australia II was just in front.
When they crossed at the first mark Liberty had pulled away and was ahead by 29 sec. The Americans increased their lead, and were 46 sec. ahead at the second mark.
Australia II slowly pegged them back and was 23 sec down at the third mark. Liberty got a good puff of wind on the fourth leg, and at the mark was up by 56 sec.
It looked all over, with only two legs to sail. But the American yacht hit a windless hole on the fifth leg, which cut its lead to a couple of boat lengths. Two thirds of the way down the leg, Australia II was ahead by the same margin.
The Australians were 21 sec ahead around the fifth mark. On the final leg Bertrand followed every move the Americans made, tacking with them, back, forth, back, forth, 45 times.
Australia II finished 41 sec in front. Dennis Connor was in tears. After 132 years, the US had lost the America's Cup.>>
The Australian public were ecstatic and Bond received the acclaim he had sought for so long. In Australia he became a household name and even in America he won admiration. Doors began to open for Bond and deals were done that he had only dreamed about pre-America's Cup. Within five years of the Cup his empire had exploded to twenty times the 1983 size.
The 1980's -Decade Of Excess :
In 1984 the Labour Government of Paul Keating deregulated the banking industry allowing international banks to enter Australia. This removed the strict limits on lending and freed up the importing and exporting of money.
Australian banks faced new competition for both depositors but especially borrowers. Money flowed and fed the debt that would later consume the likes of Bond Corporation, Rothwell's, Quintex and others. The greed of the 80's was voracious.
Surprisingly Bond survived the stock market crash of October 1987, which set the stage for a series of corporate failures that rocked the foundations of Australian business. Angry shareholders and a disillusioned public demanded answers and the resultant Royal Commissions returned the market to a more cautious focus and eventually sanity returned.
By 1988 the banks had loaned Bond and his companies the equivalent of $700-00 for every man woman and child in Australia. Still Bond kept borrowing, but more incredibly the Banks kept lending, fears lulled no doubt by his continued willingness to pay big interest on borrowed money.
Collapse Of An Empire :
By 1991 the Bond empire was rapidly unravelling; his business dealings were being questioned and he faced criminal charges. An assessment was made that he had lost over $5000 million of other people's money.
Today, Bond and wife Eileen have divorced. Bond has remarried. The Bond family continue to lead an affluent lifestyle and there is every reason to believe that the family fortune is still intact.
In February 1997 bond was jailed for four years for the $1 billion Bell Resources fraud, Australia's largest corporate crime. Already serving three years for fraud over a Manet's painting, Bond pleaded guilty to two charges and admitted stripping $1 billion of assets from the former Robert Holmes a Court company Bell Resources, including diverting $55 million into his family company.
Bond has again picked up a paint brush when last year he completed a two year art diploma inside Perth's Casuarina Prison. His oil painting of West Coast football star Peter Matera was auctioned for $25,000 and this year the Eagles are expecting big things from Bond's first still-life.
Extract from Herald Sun Sunday 30 January 2000. Writer Mark Russell.
>> Bond gambles on walking free>>
>> The name Alan Bond stirs up mixed emotions. To some, Bond is a hero who won the America's Cup for Australia and united the nation. To others, he is a liar and a crook who stole $1.2 billion.
A brothel madam who owns one of his paintings recently dubbed him the Ned Kelly of Western Australia. Bond, 61, might have spent the past three years in jail, but he remains a figure of fascination in Australia and overseas.
US Media magnate Ted Turner suggested Bond be freed during the Sydney Olympics year because "he did win the America's Cup, after all', while New York property tycoon Donald Trump called Bond a "real swashbuckler who will bounce back one day".
Bond is serving a seven-year jail term for fraud in minimum security Karnet prison farm, 70km south-east of Perth, and is not due for parole until April next year. (2001)
But Bond wants out. He has taken his case to the High Court where his appeal will be heard on Thursday. If successful, Bond could walk free on the same day.
The appeal follows a recent High Court decision involving two South Australian company directors convicted of companies code breaches.
The court found the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions office acted outside its jurisdiction in appealing for prison terms to replace fines handed out to the pair.
Bond claims the Commonwealth DPP did the same in his case when it successfully appealed against his original four-year jail term for taking $1.2 billion from Bell Resources in Australia's biggest corporate crime.
The Court of Criminal Appeal increased Bond's sentence to seven years.
Bond would have been entitled to parole early last year if the sentence had not been increased.>>
It continues:
>> Bond spent his time playing tennis, going to the gym, painting, writing his autobiography, and holding business classes for other inmates.
But his time behind bars had not been without controversy. In May, 1997, he was caught enjoying lunch at a West Perth cafe with his prison guard.
Bond had been let out of prison for a doctor's appointment. And on Christmas Day last year, he dined on a feast of crayfish after apparently saving his weekly prison pay packet.>>
It continues:
>>If Bond loses his appeal, he hopes to be out on work release in October.
His wife of four years, Diana Bliss, has vowed to be waiting for him at the prison gates when he does walk free.
Ms Bliss, 45, a former flight attendant turned theatre producer, married Bond in Sydney in 1995, after he divorced his first wife of 37 years, Eileen.
Ms Bliss has stood by Bond since he was jailed for three years on August 20, 1996, for art fraud involving the sale of Edouard Manet's 19th century French Impressionist painting, La Promenade.
She complained bitterly when Bond was later transferred from Karnet to the Casuarina maximum security prison on August 22, 1997, after his four-year jail term for the Bell Resources fraud was increased to seven years.
Ms Bliss claimed Bond was being made a scapegoat for the 1980's excesses. She has refused to comment about the possibility of his early release.
Bond is known to have clashed with one inmate in Casuarina over his use of the prison telephone. The inmate wrapped the phone cord around Bond's throat before guards separated them.
Bond surprisingly delayed his return to Karnet in December, 1998, for several weeks so he could complete a TAFE certificate of art and design course.
He has since completed more than 50 paintings, including one of West Coast Eagles footballer Peter Matera, which hangs in a Perth brothel.
The painting is said to be worth up to $100,000 after being sold at auction for $25,000 in 1997.
But Bond is expected to return to his first love - wheeling and dealing in the corporate world - as soon as he is released.
No longer a bankrupt after paying $3.25 million in 1995 to settle debts of $625 million, there seems to be no stopping Bond returning to entrepreneurial life.
The one cloud on his horizon was lifted in late 1998 when the Australian Federal Police abandoned its five-year investigation into allegations Bond had hidden millions of dollars in foreign bank accounts.>>
The High Court decision decided in favour of Bond. He was released on the 09 of March, 2000.
The following in "The Rise And Fall Of Alan Bond" by Paul Barry perfectly captures the feeling of the eighties. This book is excellent reading and well worth tracking down to help understand the excesses of that time.
We have quoted from this source throughout the section on Alan Bond. The publisher's, Transworld Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd, have given full permission for sections of the book to be reproduced. We thank them.
>>There are times in the life of every nation when the financial system goes crazy: Britain in the property boom of the early 1970's was a notorious example, New Zealand was another ten years later. But Australia in the 1980's was probably in a class of its own. We were persuaded for a time that the boring trappings of accumulating wealth - like having to grow wheat, or dig coal, or manufacture things that people wanted to buy - could be bypassed or forgotten. We were told we could all make money instead.
Entrepreneurs like Bond, Connell and Skase became Australia's heroes - it's movers and shakers, tripping twixt limo and ballroom under the adoring glare of the TV lights. They were the idols whom so many looked up to and wanted to be like, role models for young Australians starting their working lives. And their collective insanity became our new religion. The worship of serious money. We saw them glorified in the weekend glossy supplements. We flew with them on their Falcon jets, swam with them in their palm-fringed pools, listened as they talked about their vintage cars, racehorses, paintings and ocean racers. We scrutinised their brilliantly clever deals, which none of us could understand, and we believed in what we thought we saw: here was an answer for Australia and for all of us. The dull and the lacklustre past was over: in the future which these men were creating, we could all get rich.
And then came the stock market crash. Not only did their empires fall apart, but we saw for the first time how their money machines worked: it was ours and the bank's money they had been playing with to make their fortunes; ours and the banks money they had now lost. And as the investigators moved in among the wreckage, lighting up the dark corners as they went, it became clear that these entrepreneurial heroes had never been magicians or Messiahs: they had been tricksters, jugglers and gamblers, riding their luck on a rising market - and taking us for fools. When their party ended there was nothing left but broken glass and the stale smell of revelry: it was hard to believe we could have loved them so much.>>
Strangely it seems that many, still do revere them. The question I ask myself is why?
Extract from the Herald Sun Friday 17 December, 1999. Writer Jill Singer.
>> To be a fraudster, you need a touch of class - upper class>>
If Ned Kelly were up to his shenanigans today, popular opinion would rate him a loser rather than legend. These days, criminal heroes come from the ranks of the rich, not the poor.
Rather than expunge them from the plonker's hall of fame, the latest edition of Who's Who casually lists the convictions of jailed businessman Alan Bond and the recently released former Coles Myer chief Brian Quinn as though being nicked is a mere occupational hazard.
This relaxed attitude to white collar crime reflects that found in countries such as Dominica which recently awarded citizenship to one Senor Skase.
"As far as we know, he hasn't killed anybody," Dominica's insouciant Finance Minister Julius Timothy was reported as saying some time ago. Just the attitude from someone holding a nation's purse-strings.
Meanwhile, Australia continues the good fight against the most dangerous perceived threat to the fabric of our society, working class people who rip off social security.
This week 74-year-old Francis Anthony Cleary was thrown in the slammer for a year for claiming the pension in his own name as well as that of an old bloke who died in 1978. Admittedly he had done a similar thing before.
Frank's scam netted him $40,897 over 4 and a half years. Ten grand a year. Off with his head.
Unrepentant to the end, Frank declared he just wanted to live a little bit better and said: "I don't think it's a crime, not when you look at what goes on in the world today or in Australian politics".
While I don't condone any type of fraud, something inside me warms to Frank's defiant up-yours to the system. How many Franks must there be out there who struggle to make ends meet and then see people like former politician Bob Woods simply slapped over the wrists for "lying to gain a benefit" - that is, taxpayer's money?
Or see up-market crims like Brian Quinn sentenced to just 2 and a half years' jail for rorting $4.5 million?
Our criminal justice system systematically operates a double standard when it comes to punishing the types of crime preferred by rich and poor fraudsters.
No matter how hard-up someone is, jail seems to be deemed the first resort for punishing those who abuse the welfare system and the last for those who engage in tax fraud or corporate crime.
This inequity has been noted by the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal's Justice Simpson who has stated there are ample precedents for much more lenient sentences being imposed on tax offenders than on social security frauds, even when the sums involved are vastly larger.
It's a class thing. Battlers are considered to have nothing to lose but their freedom, whereas nobs have their precious reputations to lose.
Brian Quinn's sentencing judge for example, referred to the "particular poignancy" of Quinn's public shame.
But in these modern times, when white collar crims can make it into Who's Who, perhaps shame should be dumped as a mitigating factor in sentencing.
Certainly, shame is not considered in any way a punishment for welfare cheats.
The legal precedent which ensures our jails are housing so many scamming pensioners says that even if the fraud is based upon a perceived need " a custodial sentence must be expected except in very special circumstances".
"If the fraud is based on greed, the custodial sentence will be longer," the law says.
Imagine if this precedent were applied to politicians who engage in travel rorts or wealthy businessmen who are overly creative when it comes to avoiding tax.
Denying someone their liberty is a matter of grave importance. Poor people miss their families, friends and freedom every bit as much as rich ones do. Sure, we need to protect our revenue base, but the problem of social security fraud should be seen in perspective.
Last year more than 3000 Australians were convicted for welfare fraud offences involving the total theft of $30 million.
That sounds appalling until you consider that the Australian Institute of Criminology estimates that corporate fraud cost Australian corporations $16 billion a year. That's three per cent of our gross domestic product.
Throw that lot of thieves in the slammer and poor old Frank Cleary would have himself a lot of very fancy company.>>
Lang & Rose Hancock or Hollywood Comes to WA!
In the 50's, the Hancock family owned a property called Mulga Downs Station in the Pilbara. It was here that a young Lang Hancock uncovered a rock while out shooting dingoes. The discovery proved to be asbestos which underpinned the Hancock mining fortune. Despite enormous wealth the Hancock Family maintained a modest existence out of the public eye.
But all that changed in 1983, when Rose Lacson become housekeeper for the recently widowed Lang Hancock. Hancock's daughter, Gina Rinehart, quickly grew to dislike the new housekeeper. When Lang Hancock married her it became open warfare.
On Lang's death on 27 March 1992, the family feud turned into a public slanging match. The funeral was turned into a two ringed circus with Rose Hancock holding a Mass for her husband at St Mary's Church, and Gina holding a wake at her Dalkeith mansion. To add to the controversy, Rose Hancock's daughter Johanna, attended the Gina Rinehart wake. Sadly, the clashing events did little to honour the memory of the man they all supposedly held dear.
Extract from the Herald Sun 20 March 1999. Writer Mark Russell.
>> Bitter battle of the Rose>>
In Cinderella, the wicked stepmother loses out at the end. Gina Rinehart will be hoping fantasy becomes reality in the feud with her own stepmother, Rose Porteous.
She swept into the room like some famous movie star.
There was a melodramatic bow to the judge and a hint of a smile before she headed for the microphone.
Rosemarie Lacson Porteous, the former housekeeper turned wealthy socialite, made herself comfortable in the witness box and reached for her gold-rimmed glasses.
A diamond-encrusted watch dangled from her wrist.
Her unmistakable voice with its heavy Filipina accent descended like a fog on the packed courtroom as she read a statement detailing her extraordinary life with mining magnate Lang Hancock.
It was in April 1983 that she started working for Mr Hancock only days after his wife, Hope, died of breast cancer.
She was being paid $180 a week for what she says were 16-hour days.
An intimate relationship soon developed and they were married two years later when he was 75 and she was 36.
Mr Hancock would spend millions on his new wife.
There was a business trip to the Middle East in 1988 where he rode in a luxury Bentley with his hosts. Rose had to travel in the car behind, an old cadillac.
Jealous, she told Mr Hancock she had ordered a Bentley. He said he would pay for it if she had.
She was on the phone the next day to a car dealer and a $372,000 Bentley Turbo was hers.
But despite enjoying an increasingly lavish lifestyle, Rose always feared Mr Hancock's daughter, Gina Rinehart, would try to take it from her.>>
It continues:
>> Ms Porteous admitted Mr Hancock gave her more than $30 million before his death in March 1992. Ms Rinehart said at least $20 million of this money was taken from company funds.
A court battle was in the wind.
Ms Rinehart's companies, Mr Hancock Prospecting and the Mr Hancock Family Memorial Foundation, have sued Ms Porteous in the West Australian Supreme Court for the return of the Bentley as well as the Gone With The Wind-style mansion Prix D'Amour, a similar mansion in Orlando, Florida, two office blocks in Sydney, a commercial property in Perth, and the proceeds of a Perth property deal.
When Ms Porteous finished reading her statement this week, leading Sydney barrister Tom Hughes, QC, stood up to cross-examine her.
The distinguished lawyer pitted against the brash, outrageous socialite promised to be a memorable encounter.
" In your anxiety to shout me down, you have interrupted me," an exasperated Mr Hughes told Ms Porteous at one stage. "Would you please keep quiet while I ask the question."
Ms Porteous laughed at Mr Hughes during one exchange, telling him to calm down as he was losing his cool.
She told him there was no need to scream, she had sensitive ears and he could burst her eardrum.
"Maybe your sensitivity stops there, madam," Mr Hughes shot back.
Ms Porteous agreed with Mr Hughes that she was deeply in love with Mr Hancock two months after going to work for him and would never have thought of marrying anyone else.
Mr Hughes then dramatically produced a copy of a Notice of Intended Marriage signed by Ms Porteous on June 29, 1983, revealing how she had planned to marry an electrician she had never met, Louis Andres Michielsen.
Ms Porteous hardly missed a beat, dismissing the document as a mistake.
Yes, she had signed the document but only because Ms Rinehart's late husband Frank, had asked her to so she could stay in Australia.
She did not go ahead with the sham marriage because she feared going to jail. And yes, when she signed the document she was already married to another man, Julian Teodora. They had married in 1971 before being officially divorced in 1984.
Ms Porteous said she had been allowed, under Philippine law, to marry Patrick Kuan in 1980 after having been separated from Mr Teodora for more than seven years. She divorced Mr Kuan in Malaysia, so what was all the fuss about?
Mr Hughes handed Ms Porteous a copy of her book, A Rose By Any Other Name. She thanked him for buying a copy.
Ms Porteous admitted writing about how she had attended a few company meetings but never knew what was going on.
She said if Mr Hancock asked her to sign a document, she signed it.
"I would not dare dispute Mr Hancock, " Ms Porteous said." I was only his wife. I was totally dependent on him. He was the cake, I was the icing".
Ms Rinehart said she felt sympathy for Ms Porteous at first because of her poor background, but her feelings changed, especially when she failed to clean the kitchen properly and there was a risk her father would get food poisoning.
Then Ms Porteous, according to Ms Rinehart, started talking about her close friends the ruling Marcos family in the Philippines, and how her daughter, Johanna, had $4 million in a Swiss bank.
Ms Rinehart said Mr Hancock told her he had never met anyone who told as many lies as Ms Porteous.
Ms Rinehart said in June 1987, Mr Hancock told her he wanted to leave Ms Porteous because he was stressed and had had enough of her demands. She said Ms Porteous had kept Mr Hancock up for seven nights in a row until he agreed to build Prix D'Amour.
"He was a very unhappy man. He looked absolutely exhausted," Ms Rinehart said. >>
The War of The Rose :
The legal battle over the Hancock empire continues to rage with no end in sight. In June, 1999, Rose won a West Australian Supreme Court judgement that allowed her to keep $20 million worth of properties. At that time she publicly called for a halt in hostilities, but Gina, despite a rumoured million dollar legal bill has confirmed she will appeal the decision.
In August 1999 Gina Rinehart spoke of her concerns on the Australian "Sixty Minutes" program. She said because there were many unanswered questions surrounding her fathers death she had written to the Western Australian Attorney-General seeking permission to go to the Supreme Court. Her ultimate wish is to have a coronial inquiry into Mr Hancock's death.
Rose and The Poodles :
Meanwhile controversy has broken out over Rose and her poodles, Lulu and Dennis. On 09 August, Rose announced that she had lost faith in humans and was leaving $1 million in her will for each of her poodles.
Now, what is she telling us, has she lost faith in Willie, her current husband !! Anyway back to the poodles. Now these poodles live well, Lulu's favourite perfume is Chanel's Crystal, they are bathed daily in scented bath gel and eat cooked fillet steak. Well what can you say... if you've got it spend it!...... but there's more!
Extract from the Herald Sun 10 August 1999. Writer Simon Pristel.
>> Rose Cooks Up Another Storm>>
>> Doctors who saved the life of Rose Porteous's mother are furious that millions of dollars they say they were promised to them will be left to her pet poodles.
The Australian Cancer Prevention Directory says Mrs Porteous had begged for their help to save her elderly mother who was dying of cancer.
The Melbourne-based group says she promised to fund special programs worth millions of dollars if they organised top surgeons to fly to the Philippines.
Instead, all the group received from the millionaire was a small sponsorships and two signed cookbooks, Rose's Way To a Man's Heart.>>
It seems that Rose is addicted to talking to the press about Rose.... perhaps she feels "all press is good press". Not so Rose!!!
Lang's legacy has been a welter of controversy. Today it is recommended that you do not travel to Wittenoom because of the asbestos dust contamination; but that's another chapter in this amazing saga.
Hazel Hawke -Dignity Under Fire
Hazel Hawke was born in Mount Hawthorn, Western Australia, in 1929. After her marriage to Robert Hawke in 1956, she went to live in Canberra and later Melbourne. For fifteen odd years Hazel devoted herself to her four children and home-making. In the mid-seventies, she started work with the Brotherhood of St Lawrence, first as a volunteer and later as an employee. In 1980 she began full-time study for a Diploma of Welfare studies - fulfilling a long held dream of a tertiary education after leaving school at fifteen.
In 1983, her husband became Prime Minister of Australia and for nearly ten years Hazel was one of the most popular and effective wives ever to inhabit the Lodge. On becoming Prime Minister, Hawke kept a promise to give up drinking. Bob Hawke was the only Labour leader in Australia to win four elections in a row.
In 1989, during a television interview Bob Hawke admitted to being unfaithful to his wife. In 1991, when the party replaced him with Paul Keating, Hawke reacted by resigning from Parliament and divorcing Hazel. In 1995 he married his biographer. Bob, and new wife Blanche have become a pair of perpetual party-goers. Hazel maintained, and continues to maintain, a dignified silence. As before, her life centres around her family and the many causes she supports.
Moving Out Of The Shadows :
Times are changing, and more and more talented women are moving into the business arena. Women bring to the workplace a more holistic approach with an emphasis on negotiation and win/win for all. This is distinct from the masculine approach which is much more focused on winning and losing.
Janet Holmes a Court - From Wife to Corporate Head
Robert Holmes a Court was renowned for his business acumen in assessing takeover opportunities. Originally from Rhodesia, Holmes a Court arrived in Perth in his 20's and proceeded to skilfully build his fortune. Holmes a Court operated within legal guidelines and although his rather reserved, aloof personality did not win him friends, his business skills earned him respect. Like all entrepreneurs, Holmes a Court was deeply affected by the stock market crash and it was his sale of Bell Industries to the Bond Corporation that helped bring about the eventual demise of Alan Bond.
Holmes a Court's sudden death in 1990 presented an opportunity for his widow, Janet, to step forward and take over the running of the family business. That she would think of doing this stunned corporate Australia. Janet readily admits that she was devoted to her husband, but the extent of this devotion surprised many people.
Basically she picked up, packed up and carried for her husband. She was his right hand person, not in the business sense but in the nurturing sense. That they shared ideals is not in doubt; but many of the philanthropic gestures that the Holmes a Court's made can be traced to interests that Janet supported. She brought a human face to the couple, countering the aggressive entrepreneurial style of her husband.
Extract from the Herald Sun 07 April 1999. Writer Rachel Rodda.
>>Life with tycoon>>
>> I was obsessed - Holmes a Court>>
>> Janet Homes a Court was obsessed with her late husband Robert and sacrificed herself and their children for his dreams.
At the launch of her biography in Sydney yesterday, Mrs Holmes a Court said she and her friend Hazel Hawke, had shared similar driven, passionate marriages - at a great personal cost.
"I was obsessed with him," Mrs Holmes a Court said of her late husband. "I loved him. If you think about Hazel and some of the things she put up with in her marriage, it's a similar sort of thing.
There are women all over the place who have been obsessed by, been infatuated by, loved, worshipped, adored - whatever - men, and they have put up with behaviour from these people that they would not put up with from anybody else."
Launching the biography, Mrs Hawke said there was much in Mrs Holmes a Court's life that she recognised in her own.
Though their marriage was a "partnership", Mrs Holmes a Court was largely shut out of her tycoon husband's decision-making, sometimes reading details of his latest exploits in the newspapers.
Another drawback was that their children, friends and family came second to building the Heytesbury empire. Mrs Holmes a Court, 55, said taking control of her husband's debt-laden businesses when he died in 1990 was "something that had to be done. I've got on and done what needed to be done without much introspection or agonising."
Melbourne-based biographer Dr Patricia Edgar said Mrs Holmes a Court had chosen to co-operate on the book, knowing an unauthorised version of her life would be written. "It's an amazing story," Dr Edgar said. >>
As we look back at the 90's we see that this charismatic woman has not only strengthened her company but has tempered commercial success with cultural and social justice. Inspiring loyalty, productivity and admiration from her employees, she has shown that economic rationalism is not the only way to do business.
"Janet Holmes a Court" author Patricia Edgar and published by Harper Collins.
Where To From Here? :
Extract from the Herald Sun 03 August 1999. Writer Sean Smith.
>> Heytesbury Curtain Call>>
>>Janet Holmes a Court yesterday denied the sale of her family's beloved British theatre chain was a fund-raising exercise.
Mrs Holmes a Court confirmed the family company, Perth-based Heytesbury, had appointed British Investment Bank SG Hambros to find a buyer for Stoll Moss Theatres.
The 71-year old Stoll Moss, one of Heytesbury's core businesses, is Britain's biggest theatre chain.
Its 10 venues in London's famous West End theatre district include some of the industry's best known names: Her Majesty's - home of the long running Phantom Of The Opera - the London Palladium, the Lyric, the Garrick, the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and the Gielgud.
The sale will reportedly fetch up to 100 million pounds ($A250 million).
Mrs Holmes a Court, who has run Heytesbury since the death of her tycoon husband Robert in 1990, said the divestment was triggered by approaches from potential buyers.
It was not, she said, about raising cash, as suggested in the British media.
"SH Hambros, was appointed because of the increasing interest being shown in Stoll Moss," Mrs Holmes a Court said in a statement.
"SH Hambros will evaluate that interest, then the Heytesbury board will consider any offers and make a decision, she said.
She also denied another British newspaper report that she was planning a political career.
"I am not considering a political career in Australia, apart from my well known support for the Australian Republican Movement and the appointment of an Australian as our head of state".
Stoll Moss was acquired by Mr Holmes a Court during an acrimonious takeover of British entrepreneur Lew Grade's Associated Communications Corporation in 1982.
Mrs Holmes a Court, a renowned patron of the arts, has never made any secret of her fondness for the business, which has been considerably strengthened under her stewardship.
She said yesterday that with Stoll Moss sold, Heytesbury would focus on its other interests, all in Australia.
They comprise the group's beef business, the Melbourne based engineering and construction company John Holland, and the Vasse Felix winery in West Australia's south-west.
Potential bidders for Stoll Moss include the American group SFX Entertainment, British Theatre Magnet Cameron Mackintosh and even Mrs Holmes a Court's son Peter, who runs a theatre company in New York.
SG Hambros is expected to issue an information memorandum to interested parties this month and report back in two months.>>
Janet Holmes a Court has overcome enormous odds to become not only a commercial success, but a woman to admire and respect. We will watch her next career move with interest.
"It's A Pearler" :
Broome is located 2200km north of Perth and is one of the most popular destination for travellers in Western Australia. Broome has had a colourful history but it was wealthy British peer Lord Alistair McAlpine who first saw the tourist potential. Stranded in Broome by accident he fell in love with the place. Perhaps it was the colourful pearling history, the stunningly beautiful Cable Beach or the relaxed layback style of the place, whatever, he became a convert.
McAlpine built the magnificent Cable Beach Club, with its distinctive architectural style, and its superb location on the 22km long beach. Many people were drawn to the five star hotel with it's stunning setting and as a consequence Broome as a tourist destination took off. With temperatures averaging 29oC throughout winter you can understand why this small town draws 120,000 visitors each year. But there's more.
Broome is the centre of the Australian pearling industry and has attracted a multicultural mix of Malays, Chinese and Japanese, who have all played a major role in the industry development. Pearling boomed when it was found that Broome's cultured pearls matured in two years, while in Japan, the same maturing took four years. Broome now supplies over 50 percent of the world's large cultured pearls.
Downtown Broome still retains the look of a country town. There is a delightful mix of jewellery shops, pubs, old fashioned stores and a small, but interesting Chinatown. Enjoy the movies at Sun Pictures, an open air cinema which has been showing films since 1916. Hundreds of palms and other tropical trees have been planted along the roadsides and a sunset over Cable Beach is not to be missed.
Staircase To The Moon :
Eight times a year between April and October, visitors to Broome are witness to one of nature's magical moments. Just after a full moon and providing the sky is cloudless, the reflection of the moonlight on exposed mudflats at Roebuck Bay, create the illusion of a wide, golden staircase leading into the sky. Not to be missed; so check those full moon dates carefully.
Nature's Sense Of Humour :
Over millions of years the combined forces of the elements have transformed the Western Australian landscape, leaving behind remarkable creations of rock, deep gorges and sculptured stone. Travel through the gorge country from Broome to Kununurra and see nature at it's most creative. Closer to Perth see Wave Rock (yes honestly it looks like a wave) and Pinnacle Valley, both challenging to the imagination.
Old Is Old But Ancient Is Really Old :
Most visitors think Australia is a young, vibrant land but a visit to Western Australia quickly dispels that myth for here are some of the oldest of earth's rocks can be found.
Extract from the Herald Sun 27 March 1999. Writer unknown.
>>Life in WA fossils>>
>>Australian scientists say they have discovered the world's earliest life forms in 3.5 billion-year old rocks near Marble Bar in Western Australia's Pilbara region.
A team of Australian, Brazilian, and Swiss researchers led by Sydney University's Jock Keene unearthed fossilised microbes, about 100km from slightly younger rocks containing microbes similar to modern bacteria.
Most rocks more than three billion years old have become altered beyond recognition, destroying any fossils entombed within them.
But the Pilbara region has remained geologically stable, so the fossils remained essentially unchanged.>>
Western Australian has proved amazingly rich in bauxite, gold, ilmenite, iron ore, nickel, oil and salt.
(Reprinted from an article by Leanne Walker The Age 1999).
"About 2.8 billions years ago, the oldest and at that time, only living form, a single celled cyanobacteria, proliferated in the planet's shallow seas releasing large amounts of oxygen. As oxygen levels rose, soluble iron present in the seawater was turned to rust that rained down on the ocean beds. Uplifted tens of millions of years later, that iron-rich ocean floor is the great wealth of Western Australia's Pilbara region today."
Perth flanks the broad reaches of the Swan River, edged to the west by the Indian Ocean and in the east by the Darling Ranges. Behind the eastern states by two hours, Perth is blessed with theatre, restaurants, beaches, sailing and an abundance of wine. This capital city is the perfect gateway to the west.
Public transport is an efficient and modern system but for those who want to drive themselves it is a well signed city with easy access and the cheapest hire cars in Australia.
Fun "Freo" :
In 1987, Fremantle paid host to the America's Cup. Sadly the "cup" returned to the USA but Fremantle has never looked back. It is now
one of the best preserved 19thC seaports in the world with over 150 buildings classified by the National Trust. But "Freo " is more than an architectural delight, it is a lively maritime environment rich in character, culture and cappuccinos.
Dine along cosmopolitan South Terrace or in one of the alfresco restaurants on the pier. Enjoy the pavement sideshow of buskers or wander through the many shops to find that unique gift. Pop into one of the old gold boom pubs and try a boutique beer with names like Redback and Dogbolter. There is so much to see, do and experience in this historically and culturally inspiring seaport.
Getting from Perth to Fremantle and back is a decision between a fast train or a slow cruise along the Swan River passing by the exclusive yacht clubs and riverfront mansions of Dalkeith and Peppermint Grove.
Perth 25 years On - What Changes? :
Extract from The Age 31 July 1999. Writer Brian Courtis.
>> Go West>>
>> As we drive around Fremantle and Perth for the first time in a quarter-century, trilling and cheeping at memories, the unremembered and the changes, we pass the Dingo flour silo, painted by the young Alan Bond as a signwriter in humbler, pre-America's Cup times.
Bondy's big yacht race is far from forgotten. The West's tourist-lure money may have been on Elle Macpherson in the late '90s, but the boutique belles and cappuccino-crowd drifters along Fremantle's South Terrace are dressed for the return of the big boats and, frankly, they have more chance of spotting those super yachts than the state's expensively adopted supermodel.
Or for that matter, Bondy. But Her Majesty's guest houses notwithstanding, the big-spending, risk-taking and global dreaming of Australia's most isolated achievers in those heady years has left its mark.
The financial Hanrahan's, dooming and glooming about the ruination of the hotel and property markets when the Cup was lost, were wrong. South African, south-east Asian or European money has filled every vacuum.
Take a look around the magnificently-restored limestone treasures of Freo. Let the jaw drop as you cruise past the Beverley Hills and faux-Tuscan mansions of Nedlands, Dalkeith, and that evocatively titled enclave Peppermint Grove, and you know that a trip up the Swan River can only take you to the heart of lightness.
From the heady heights of the Hyatt in St George's Terrace, the island continent at your back, the city's beauty and riches roll smoothly towards the Indian Ocean, the botanical splendour of Kings Park in the distance and the salt-stung, Fremantle Doctor-blessed beaches of North Cottlesloe and Scarborough just a deep breath away.>>
It continues:
>>Only a few days in which to play, so, after cycling around King's Park, that 400 hectares of gums-and-kangaroo-paw parklands on top of Mount Eliza, which still elbow the city skyscrapers back to true significance, we drive down to the Mediterranean architecture of the University of Western Australia (when we were last here, Kim Beazley was a slim and vocal arts graduate and Charlie Court was king of the castle).
Then, it's up Stirling Highway and back to Fremantle. The yachting world came to the port in '87 and Freo was given its facelift. Old jails and asylums here mock the horrid realities of the past with arty restoration and eye-catching presentation.
The practical fish markets, pubs and everyday shops and cottages keep it just one step from becoming a yuppies' theme park.
Nevertheless, we join the trickle of Cliff Street visitors into the cool splendour of the Western Australian Maritime Museum. And no disappointments. Some Dutch friends here had a dream job: diving and searching the north west coastline for all sorts of treasure from 17th century wrecks like that of the Batavia and returning to put it into an historical perspective. Their work is on display.
Fremantle is relaxing. No more so than down at the harbour: the clink-clink-clink of masts and stays, the bobbing fishing boats, and the drifting parade at the cooling Esplanade park, where local Juliet's in school gear pitch camp over a bag of chips with over-gelled, over-heated Romeos. Blissfully unchanged.>>
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