I MENTIONED in this week’s fishing article that we visited the prawning village of Tamboi in the Myall Lakes.

Recorded history of the Tamboi site goes back to 1827 when the Australian Agricultural Company was granted one million acres around the Myall.

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Part of that portion, including Tamboi, was returned to the Government during 1831.

In 1877 it was reported that Mr Dalton, owner of the steamboat ‘Waratah’, was working at Tamboi supervising dredging a channel designed to open up communication along the Myall River.

A 1911 Government booklet stated that “immense catches of fish are made on the lake by fishermen located at Tamboi…”.

It can be assumed that unregulated settlement was likely to have begun by 1910.

The fishermen were not only concerned with the mullet, bream, flathead and luderick – they were very interested in the prawns that were bred there.

It was not until about 1920 that the fishermen began to unravel the peculiar habits of the prawns.

As prawns had emerged as a lucrative resource a system had to be devised that would give all fishermen a fair chance to catch their share.

The Tamboi ‘Prawn Sale’ was developed and became an institution.

It was conducted in the palm shaded setting of the ‘Tamboi Town Hall’ – an old fishing hut that was slightly larger than a country outhouse.

By John ‘Stinker’ CLARKE