Hawks Nest Probus swells with a dozen new members Myall Coast Myall Coast - popup ad Myall Coast News by News Of The Area - Modern Media - April 11, 2024 Twelve new Probus members joined the social club this month. PROBUS members of Hawks Nest and District Combined welcomed twelve new members to their Club, before receiving an enlightening historical presentation from NOTA’s own John ‘Stinker’ Clarke at the Hawks Nest Golf Club on Friday, 5 April. While the birds upon the Golf Course simply gave up trying to fly through the bucketing-down rainstorm outside, 72 members and six visitors braved the intense wet to witness the dozen new Probus inductions. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au Special ten-year badges were also presented to Keith and Lauralle Baker, recognising their decade of membership. Next, NOTA contributor, radio regular and well-known historian and author John ‘Stinker’ Clarke told the history of Broughton Island, ever present on the horizon. “Recent Aboriginal archaeological digs there have uncovered a lot of amazing stuff, but we also know that Broughton Island has hosted Italians, Frenchmen and Chinese over the years,” Stinker explained. “Seven privately-owned huts still exist within the National Park, upon Esmerelda Cove, which I believe is one of the best natural harbours on the east coast. “They even had a rabbit problem, which started when a group of French-led scientists used the island as a controlled area to release rabbits, working on a targeted virus to kill them on the mainland, where they were wiping out pastures. “In 1906, after limited success, they dismantled their research station on the plateau, and left… but the rabbits remained, and they thrived. “Broughton’s north side’s pearly white sands are blocked from the southerlies, but if a nor’easter starts, just go to the other side again.” Upon the northern sands, a Greek group set up a small lobster fleet, led by ‘Kerosene Tin Jim’, a Greek resident of 49 years on the island, and even the subject of one of Stinker’s five children’s books. Many more anecdotes were mentioned, including the story of Clarabelle the cow, a temporary bovine resident on Broughton that was washed out to sea after a flood, a Cold War spy who laid low there, and the extraordinarily large lobster hauls, including the metre-long ‘spider lobsters’ fished out of the waters there. His favourite image was that of a breaching whale; the cetaceans apparently get overly friendly and like to ‘nudge’ the dinghies and tinnies, too. By Thomas O’KEEFE Keith and Lauralle Baker were presented with ten-year badges by President Peter Nealon. Old photos of the fishermen’s shacks on Broughton Island’s Esmeralda Cove formed part of Stinker’s historical presentation. Metre-long ‘spider lobsters’ could be found around Broughton Island. John ‘Stinker’ Clarke, with a photo of one of his ‘nudging’ whales breaching near Broughton Island.
