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| In one of a series
of articles in The Referee preceding the 1939 Pacific Games in Honolulu,
Harry Hay wrote:
"What great strides this sport has made in Australia! A few years ago it was hardly known in this country. The Hawaiians introduced us to this exhilarating, thrilling pastime, and to these romantic tropical islanders is due our warmest thanks." - The Referee, 9 February 1939, page 15. In response, Manly
surfer, Tommy Walker wrote a letter to Hay that was published under the
heading
In a letter to Harry M. Hay, Australia's foremost swimmimg and surf coach.- Tommy Walker, one-time surfboard champion at Manly (N.S.W.), writes: "I saw an article
by you in 'The Referee' re surfboards, so enclose a photo of myself
and surfboard taken in 1909 at Manly (Image right).
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| Note that the claim
to be the first surfboard in Australia can only be attributed to the paper's
sub-editor, and not Tommy Walker.
This may, or may not, be the Hawaiian surfboard often claimed to be imported by Manly identity, C. D. Paterson, sometime between 1908 to 1912. Walker's clain to
winning a surfboard shooting contest no doubt refers to the boardriding
performance of a Mr. Walker at the second Freshwater Life Saving
Carnival as reported by The Daily Telegraph, 27 January
1912, page 21.
Image right:
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Tommy Walker was
a seaman and worked extensively on the SS Kyogle which travelled
between Yamba and Sydney regularly.
He would spend the
winter months in Yamba and in summer head back to Manly.
- Debra Novak: Is Yamba The Birthplace of Australian Surfing Photography?
O.B. Notley was a
professional photographer based at Maclean and served as a surf instructor
and treasurer at the Yamba where he took a number of photographs of
Walker surfing.
These were printed
as postcards.
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Tommy Walker, Yamba Beach circa 1911. Photograph by O.B. Notley. Image courtesy of Ray Moran, Manly Life Saving Club Australian Surfing Museum. |
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Annotation in handwriting reads: Tommy Walker Yamba Surf Life Saving Brigade Yamba 1911-1912 Photo O.B. Notley. Maclean. O.B. Notely was a
life member and
Image courtesy of
Ray Moran,
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Yamba Beach circa 1912. Photo O.B. Notley. Maclean. Image courtesy of
Ray Moran,
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He noted:
In your recording
the sad death of Mr. John Ralston (December 10) you referred to the first
surfboard
brought to
Australia in the 20's.
This is not
quite accurate.
I enclose
a photo of Tomy Walker in his favorite attitude on a 14ft. surf board at
Yamba in the 1912-1913, season.
D. B. NOTLEY,
Copacabana.
(sic, the initials
D.B.
were incorrectly transposed by the newspaper journalist).
Newspaper clipping
courtesy of Ray Moran, Manly Life Saving Club Australian Surfing Museum.
Note: The photograph
was printed Harvey: Queensland
Surfing (1983) page 8, captioned:
"Clarrie Englet
headstand , Queensland 1920's"
Walker incorrectly transcribed the spelling of the sailing vessel on which he visited Hawaii.
It was the Poltalloch,
a four masted barque, rigged with royal sails above double top and topgallant
sails.
1893
She was launched
in February 1893at the shipyard of Workman, Clark & Co., Belfast, for
Potter Bros of London under the command of Captain J. Connel.
In 1901 the Poltalloch
was stranded at the entrance to Willada, Shoalwater Harbor, Washington.
Sold to Eschen &
Minor, Victoria, British Colombia in 1909, she continued to ply her trade
in transporting cargo in the Pacific..
On January 2, 1916,
she was wrecked at St Patrick's Causeway, near Harlech, Wales, during towage
from Queenstown to Leith.
- http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica/Ships/Fourmast_ships/Catalogue.html
On my request, Lillian Simpson, Public Enquiries Librarian, Australian National Maritime Museum, searched the resources of the Museum's library and located two arrivals in Sydney only for this vessel:
13 June 1910
from Portland, Oregon (28 March 1910) with a cargo of timber.
16 April 1912
from Victoria, British Colombia (1 February 1912) with a cargo of timber.
-Many thanks to Lillian Simpson and the Australian National Maritime Museum.
A search of the shipping
records for these arrivals do not record any of the crew or a passenger
as Walker.
While these arrivals
to not fit with Walker's recollections, there is a distinct possibility
that Walker boarded and disembarked from the vessel at another port or
ports.
- Gibbs, Jim: Pacific Square Riggers
- Pictorial History of the Great Windships of Yesterday.
Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 1469 Morstein
Road, West Chester, Pennsylvania, 1980, 1987, page 36.
Although his article
is essentially a tourist promotion for Australian ski resorts, in comparing
the sport with surfboard riding, Hunter provides significant information
on Australian surfing.
Notably "we
now have a board or two at Manly beach" (page 12).
It is highly probable
that these boards were those ridden by Tommy Walker and his relatives at
Manly, circa 1909.
The current Director
N.S.W. Govenment Tourist Bureau and an enthusiastic skier, he indicates
a knowledge surfboard riding acquired when visiting Hawaiia as a tourist
sometime before 1911.
Clearly he was not
the only Australian visitor to be exposed to the thrills of Hawaiian surfboard
riding.
Riding is in the
standing position for both sports:
"as the surfrider
balances on a single board or runner, while coming down the side of Kosciusko
we balance on a pair of runners or skis"(page 11).
In a comparision with snow skis, the article implies the surfboard dimensions are substantial, " 7 feet 6 inches to 9 feet in length" and "five times ... 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 inches wide" (approximately 20 inches, page 11)
The report is one of the few independent sources not directly from the surf life saving movement.
Hunter, Percy:
July
Skiing in Australia
Mid Pacific Magazine,
January 1911, pages 11-15.
This article kindly
provided by Craig Baird (Surfworld, Torquay) in August 2009, who
noted it "came to me via Dr. Garry Osmond (University of Queensland)
after
I had forwarded a Surfers Journal Article about Alexander Hume Ford (that)
mentioned Percy Hunter's articles."
Confirming Tommy Walker's recollections and his surfing prowess, in a report of the Freshwater club’s second annual carnival on the 26th January 1912, the Telegraph noted:
"A clever exhibition
of surf board shooting was given by Mr. Walker, of the Manly Seagulls Surf
Club.
With his Hawaiian
surf board he drew much applause for his clever feats, coming in on the
breaker standing balanced on his feet or his head."
- Telegraph, 27th January 1912, page 21.
The Seagulls Club was one of several at Manly Beach at the time and the membership was later incorporated into the Manly Life Saving Club.
No doubt Walker had
a significant impact on the Northern beaches and a number of other surfers
took to board riding.
In the summer of
1912-1913, reporting on the potential danger to surf swimmers, the Sydney
Morning Herald noted there were:
"... no fewer than ten surfboards in the thick of bathers."
- Sydney Morning Herald, 24 January 1913, page 7.
The enthusiasm for
board riding was given huge boost with the tour of the Hawaiian Olympic
swimmer, Duke Kahanamoku, to
Australia in the summer of 1914-1915.
At one of his surfing
demonstrations at South Steyne Beach, the press reported:
The breakers
were favorable for the pastime, and the Honolulu champion made some magnificent
returns to
the shore standing on his big surfboard.
He was however,
greatly impeded on this occasion by local surfers, who wished to give exhibitions
of their own
at the same time.
- The Sun, 11th January 1915, page 6.
Tommy Walker was
a member of the Walker family who had an indelible impact on Australian
surfriding.
Following Duke Kahanamoku's
Australian tour in the summer of 1914-1915, his Freshwater board was handed
over to George and Monty Walker of Manly who, “because of the fine work
Claude West had done in popularising surfboard riding, eventually gave
it to Claude West, and he still has it, a prized possession.”
- Curlewis, Adrian:
Notes
on surfboard riding prepared by S.L.S.A., circa 1948, page 3.
Papers pertaining
to C. Bede Maxwell’s Surf: Australians Against the Sea, 1949.
Mitchell Library,
Sydney, ML MSS 196.
During the 1920's Russell Henry 'Busty' Walker used a canoe to act as a judge at the buoys at Manly Surf Carnivals, one of the precedents to the adoption of the Harry Mclaren's surfski by Sydney surfers in the early 1930s.
-Maxwell: Surf (1949) page 237.
Circa 1925 Sydney
rider Anslie 'Sprint' Walker, a relative of Tommy Walker, was transfered
by his employer to Melbourne where he surfed his board at Portsea, and
later at Torquay.
Transport problems
were overcome by leaving the board at the beach, buried in the sand.
The board was eventually
donated to the Torquay Surf Live Saving Club, but was destroyed when the
club house burnt down in 1970.
Subequently 'Sprint'
Walker built a replica from Canadian redwood with an adze - the original
method.
- Wells:
Sunny
Memories(1982) page 153.
Also see Snow
McAlister : Sprint
Walker, Solid Wood Boards and Victorian Surfing- Tracks
Magazine circa 1972. Reprinted 1973 in The
Best of Tracks, page 191.
At the end of the1930s
the surf ski made its first excursion outside Australian waters.
Reciprocating the
gift of the board left with them by Duke Kahanamoku in 1915:
“The Walker Brothers sent a surf ski to Duke Kahanamoku at Honolulu and members of the Australian Pacific Games Team which visited Honolulu in 1939 say Duke was often seen paddling around on his ‘ski from Australia’.”
- Curlewis, Adrian:
Notes
on surfboard riding prepared by S.L.S.A., circa 1948 pages 3-4.
| In a letter to
Harry M. Hay, Australia's foremost swimmimg and surf coach.- Tommy Walker,
one-time surfboard champion at Manly (N.S.W.), writes:
"I saw an article
by you in 'The Referee' re surfboards, so enclose a photo of myself
and surfboard taken in 1909 at Manly.
Editor's Notes:
|
|
Walker was a well
known figure at Manly at the time he writes about.
He figured in
a couple of unusual, if not remarkable, incidents.
* * *
Time came when Tommy decided to catch a shark for the purpose of exhibiting it to the public at three-pence a head.
He brought three other lads into the enterprise and between them they raised the necessary capital to buy a hook and line and to hire a tent in which to install the monster of the depth.
But first they
had lo catch their fish.
They selected
Fairy Bower beach as their base and set a watch on the hill overlooking
it.
On the second
day of their vigil, the required shark was sighted.
Like a policeman
on his beat, he came leisurely from the direction of South Steyne.
And he was a
whopper, a tiger, 14ft 2in in length, as was proved later.
He was duly landed
struggling on to the beach and a curious public had paid £12/10/-
to view him when the Council's inspector of nuisances intervened to the
manifest relief of the residents in the vicinity.
But one may ask,
"Where does the hero stuff come in?"
Well, it was
this way.
When the shark
was sited, the watchers on the hill signalled to Tommy (who was waiting
on the beach) and he immediately set out in a small dinghy to drop the
bait at the spot it was anticipated the shark would cross.
The craft capsized.
So Tommy swam
with the bait, a 7lb salmon, and lilerally spilt it into Ihe shark's mouth.
The shark grabbed
it - and the rest was easy.
Someone said,
"I wouldn't have done that for £10,000."
Tommy replied
simply, "There was no danger - when salmon are about, a shark has no time
for anything else,"
Miss Schilling had crossed a deep channel and was resting on a sandbank, and was watching Walker shooting.
He could swim
like a fish.
This was at it
time when large surfboards were unknown in Australian waters.
However, Walker
did not need any adventitious (sic) aids when shooting, at which he was
one of the recognised adepts.
II was impracticable, however, to shoot right into the sand because of the channel, which banked the surf up.
Afler his third
shoot, Walker appeared to be in sore trouble in the channel.
His scream for
help galvanised the dancing star into action.
With powerful
strokes, swimming trudgeon style, she quickly covered the necessary 30
yards to reach the youth who was sinking for the third time.
He appeared to
be in a fit and struggled violently as the gallant lady swam with him to
the shore.
* * *
Just at this moment the professional lifesaver, the late 'Appy Eyre, arrived, and he worked on the unconscious form of Walker, who, when he came to his senses, ejaculated, "Well this is the last time I'll go surfing immediately after a heavy breakfast."
The evening papers
rang with the story, and the performance at the Royal was held up that
night when Miss Schilling appeared on the stage.
Members of the
audience from all parts of the theatre rose and cheered, and cheered, and
cheered again.
And Tommy - what
of him?
Just about that
time, a week beforehand, in fact, Claude Eric Ferguson McKay had been appointed
to the position as Williamson's publicity man.
Walker, if unwittingly, had brought one of Williamson's stars into the limelight - had given her the opportunity of appearing as a heroine in a drama off the stage.
McKay was delighted.
He presented
Walker with a brand new £5 note.
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Source: State Records Authority of New South Wales: Shipping Master's Office; Passengers Arriving 1855 - 1922; NRS13278, [X94] reel 403. Transcribed by Joyce Pickup, 2004.
1912 Apr 16 POLTALLOCH
BARQUE Page 295 1901_1926
1910 Jun 13 POLTALLOCH
BARQUE Page 291 1901_1926
Source:
Pacific square-riggers
Reference ID:
888810068
Title:
[Images of vessels from 'Pacific square-riggers.']
Author:
Gibbs, Jim
Abstract:
Illustrations of named vessels only indexed. Images are black and white
unless stated otherwise.
Descripton 1:
Biographies
Poltalloch
A four-masted
steel barque built in 1893 by Workman, Clark & Co., Belfast.
Dimensions: 86,66×12,80×7,41
meters [284'4"×42'0"×24'4"] and 2254 GRT and 2139 NRT.
Rigged with royal
sails above double top and topgallant sails.
1893 February
Launched at the shipyard of Workman, Clark & Co., Belfast, for Potter
Bros., London. Captain J. Connel.
1901
Stranded at the entrance to Willada, Shoalwater Harbor, WA.
1909
Sold to Eschen & Minor, Victoria, BC.
1916 January
2
Wrecked at St Patrick's Causeway, near Harlech, Wales, during towage from
Queenstown to Leith.
Collection: 551
Shipwrecks, by name
Title: Poltalloch
Date/circa: November
26, 1900
Photographer:
unknown
Ship Stats: tonnage:
2250 tons; type: bark
Subjects: Poltalloch
(bark); Shipwrecks
ID#: CRMM 551-17380
Notes: The Poltalloch
was en route to Puget Sound to load grain for the United Kingdom when a
heavy fog shrouded the coastline of the Washington shore. She went on the
sands north of the entrance to Shoalwater Bay, opposite North Cove, and
the outgoing tide left her high and dry. The crew dropped the Jacob's ladder
and walked ashore. In 1902, disaster was averted when the crew of the Professor
Koch used the grounded Poltalloch to set course, but was warned they would
run aground by the captain of the steamer Fulton if they did not change
course.
Ship POLTALLOCH
official number 102822 date of voyage 14 July 1900 - 18 January 1902.
Poltalloch Burial Chamber (Dolmen) at map reference NR823976
County: Argyll
Country: Scotland
Nearest village:
Kilmartin
Nearest town:
Lochgilphead
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"Sea of sand - British bark POLTALLOCH imprisioned on the sands on the outer fringes of Willapa bay entrance yearns for her freedom. She grounded in the fall of 1900 and spent nearly a year and a half on the shoals before being refloated. Her master, Captain Young, stood by her to conduct salvage operations." page 198 |
| home | catalogue | history | references | appendix |
1 John Bach, A Maritime History of Australia, Melbourne, Pan Books, 1982, p. 70
Stuart Lee, Riverboats of the Clarence, Yamba NSW, Port of Yamba Historical Society, 2003
4 Mary Shelley Clark, Ships and Shores and Trading Ports: the social and working life of coastal harbour and river towns in New South Wales, Sydney, Waterways Authority of New South Wales, 2001, p 93.