WITH the recent announcement of a $1,200,000 makeover of the Lemon Tree Passage waterfront, few people will be able to recognize anything left from the early days once this has been added to the previous redevelopment of Henderson Park.

The old photo featured is from around the 1950s and includes the Doyle children and friends on the beach where the tidal pool now stands.

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The only old structure left standing today is the takeaway food shop where Margaret Henderson and local ladies did a roaring trade selling locally caught fish and homemade hamburgers.

The Henderson family lived above the shop.

Between the shop and Koala Reserve was a boat hire business which had clinker built fishing boats with inboard motors for hire for three pounds ($6) per day.

There were also narrow fishing shacks built hard against one another and out over the water where the police station now stands.

Bernie Henderson built the first single finger marina walkway and over the years some very interesting boats and sailors came to visit.

‘Winston Churchill’ was one such craft which came to a tragic end after being lost in the 1998 Hobart yacht race.
The ‘Bintang Siang’ was another which foundered off Trial Bay.

It achieved fame as a replica Macassan Prau during WW2, infiltrating Japanese waters as part of the legendary ‘Z’ force.

Caught out in rough seas, David Lewis, the solo Antarctic yachtsman and renowned navigator, sought shelter at the marina until the seas abated.

Across The Passage itself is Bull Island which is now a National Park but years ago cattle were swum over to graze there.

It even had a windmill installed to draw up fresh water.