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Articles & history page of the tweed and Kingscliff water and boating history.
This text contains factual information that we believe to be true
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Boating And Shiping
BOATING/SHIPPING:
Article The Ship Shook
At 4.10am on May 14th 1943, the hospital ship Centaur was hit by a torpedo on the port side, which ignited the ships bunkers, which as a result sent sheets of flames skyward and throughout the ship. Many of the unfortunate souls on the Centaur had no chance. The latest addition to Australias ships of mercy was gone in 3 minutes. All this took place within the vision of the light at Point Lookout on Moreton Bay, as the Centaur had left Point Danger astern on her proposed voyage north to Cairns and then onwards to New Guinea.
Those on board had felt safe as international laws protected hospital ships. This was not the case; a Japanese submarine 1-177 had fired on the mercy vessel and sank it taking 268 people to the bottom of the ocean. Sixty-four people survived and were rescued by the USS Magford. The startling facts about the battle at sea are contained in the book Three Minutes Of Time, which was written by A.E. Smith and illustrated by W. Keats. All profits from the sale of the book will go to erect a memorial at Point Danger to mark the 50th year since the loss of the Australian hospital ship and those who lost their loved one's while on a mercy mission. Copies of the book are presently in short supply, however, Don Johnstone will gladly supply one when the reprint is complete, his telephone number is (075) 343 188.
At this point in time a Centaur Commemoration Committee which, is associated with Mariners Chapter of the Tweed Maritime Museum has set up a fund to build a remembrance at Point Danger.
Centaur
Hospital ship. L/B/D: 315.7 - 48.2 - 21.5 (96.2m - 14.7m - 6.6m). Tons: 3,066 grt. Hull: steel. Comp.: 332. Mach.: steam turbines, 355 nhp, and 2 screws. Built: Scott's Shipbuilding & Engineering Co., Ltd., Greenock, Scotland; 1924.
The Blue Funnel Line's passenger-cargo ship Centaur was built for regular service between Fremantle and Singapore. Her first wartime experience came in November 1941 when she towed a lifeboat with 62 survivors from the German commerce raider Kormoran to Carnarvon. She last called at Singapore in December 1941 and sailed from there six weeks before the island fell to the Japanese. After brief service to Broome, she was moved to the safety of Australia's east coast. In January 1943, Centaur was converted to a hospital ship equipped to carry 200 patients. On May 12, she left Sydney on her second trip to Port Moresby with a total complement of 332, the majority of whom were members of the 2/12 Field Ambulance Corps. Against standing orders, Captain Murray followed an inshore route, and at 0410 on May 13 she was torpedoed about 28 miles south of Moreton Island; she broke in two and sank in two minutes. The destroyer USS Mugford rescued the 64 survivors two days later. The Japanese denied any involvement in the tragedy until publication of the official history of World War II in 1979. Centaur had been sunk by I-177, whos Captain Hajime Nakagawa served six years in prison for unrelated war crimes.
Plowman & Zammit, "Sinking of the Centaur."
Article Boating Disasters
It was on those reefs that the interstate steamer, Alberta, was lost on an October Sunday in 1890. At the time she was on a voyage southward bound for Melbourne. The night was fine, but there was some haze. She apparently narrowly missed going ashore on Cook Island. Shortly afterwards, she struck a reef off Cudgen Head.
Distress rickets were fired. These were seen from the Pilot Station at Tweed Heads. Owing to the darkness, the haze, and the strong ebb tide that was running at the time, it would have been imprudent for an attempt to be made to take a rescue vessel out over that bar.
Despite the expenditure of large sums of money on breakwaters and training walls to make the Tweeds entrance safer for vessels passing in and out, I read only the other day, nearly 90 years after Pilot McGregor dared not to go out to sea in darkness and haze when an ebb tides was running. I read this sentence in the latest issue of the Pilotage Manual regarding the Tweed entrance.
The bar is exposed to a heavy swell and can be extremely dangerous on ebb tides and heavy weather, and the entrance should not be attempted without local knowledge or assistance.
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Tweed Water Trade
KINGSCLIFF LOCAL
HISTORY
Tweeds Water Trade and Related Disasters.
After Captain Cook passed Sutherland Point on his journey northward in 1770 he was to be followed by many trepid explorers, surveyors and red cedar getters (timber cutters).
It was now a necessity to explore the waterways of the Tweed region for the ever-expanding white populace into the area. As this population grew, so did commerce, therefore, the river and sea system grew in importance.
It is said the first steamer to cross the Tweed sandbar was the Gneering in 1869. This is believed to be forty years after Captain Rous surveyed the Tweed River System.
Typical of the push ahead exploring mentality, the first of the shipping companies to watch their ships pass Sutherland Headland (Kingscliff) was the company called Clarence-Richmond and Macleay Rivers Steam Navigation Company. This company was to merge into a leading trading force, from August 13th 1831, through to 1954.
Produce passed from coastal runs to down river trading, as commerce and population grew, Murwillumbah with mail, dairy products and timber. The Piggery Wharf at South Tweed (Oxley Cove area), for livestock and the sea-going vessels at Coal and Crane Wharf at Tweed Heads.
Kingscliff residents were to profit by shoring off their whaleboats and dropping off their cargo to larger vessels with timber and personal mail. The ships would weigh anchor off the famous Bombora at Kingscliff. This Boy signified the commencement of a spattering of reefs known by their distances from which they laid from the headland. Namely being The Three, Nine and Twelve Mile reefs. It came as no surprise that the reefs claimed the odd ship or two.
Some of the vessels include:
-May 1849 the 35 ton cutter Jane Scott lost off Fingal Head.
-March 1878 Settlers Friend schooner towards the mouth of the Tweed River.
-July 29th 1887, P.S Collector 24 tons, broke moorings and passed out to
Sea from the Tweed River never to be seen again.
Tweeds Water Trade and Related Disasters(Cont.)
-July 21st 1888 , schooner Reliance foundered between Brunswick and Tweed Rivers. Crew safely arrived at Tweed Heads.
April 18th 1907, Norwegian steamer Fido carrying 2000 tonnes of phosphate strikes the Cudgen Headland Reefs (Bombora) and although stuck fast for several days the ship finally broke up and sank.
Represented above are just a few of the total losses for the Tweed area. Thankfully the ocean-going vessel of today is better prepared and serviced by a diligent crew at the Kingscliff Air Sea Rescue tower.
Small dockyards were a common sight on the Tweed and the dockyard built by Jim Stott between Tumbulgum and Chinderah supplied many small sailing vessels. It has long since gone with time, but the island reserve retains the name Stotts Island.
Now with modern navigational aids and the fully automated lighthouse at Fingal Head life is a lot easier for vessels that pass in the night via the Kingscliff Headland.
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Cudgen Creek
Cudgen Creek Kingscliff Foreshore
The sandy soils of the coastal flats held an attractiveness all of its own. It was classed no good for agricultural purposes but it held a fine abundance of native flora and fauna. This would have been recognized by the local Aboriginal tribe who concentrated on its foreshore gathering and fishing.
With an ever growing populace of whites to the area, tracks from the surrounding towns now became more worn and abundant. This foreshore thus attracted a large percentage of holidaymakers to the area.
Tents and caravans crowded the foreshore proper and though large shade trees were in short supply and the mouth of the creek constantly moved and changed, with constant temperatures, good fishing and great friendly social activities such as dances and movies, it off-set the ruggedness that holidaymakers took in their stride.
The wayward Cudgen Creek outlet to the sea was regularly dredged by the local community well before the sandmining operations arrived here. Locals would shovel and scrape the sand from the mouth when it closed up. At times it was up to Mr. Eric Costan to supply a tractor for dozing purposes. In those days there was an abundance of prawns, fish and mud crabs.
With the help of civic-minded residents, the Lions Club and the Kingscliff Progress Association, avenues of three year old Norfolk Island Pines and numerous coconut palms, were planted to provide shade at the foreshore caravan park, 1956. These plants stretched from Marine Parade at Kingscliff North (formerly Wommin Bay) to the bowling green and beyond. The fence was constructed along the top of the dunes during the reign of Gough Whitlam as Prime Minister, through the Red Scheme Workforce.
The years before the bridge was built, people would hire Charnock's Hire Boats to reach the South Beach for picnics or fishing. This was when there was no road to Pottsville, just bush tracks.
The walling of Cudgen Creek began in the Winter of 68 and was completed by the time the surf carnival of 1968 commenced
Wommin Bay Road construction was brought about by the lobbying to council for three years by dedicated residents and by the prominent Mr J.R.H Gaggin.
A most amusing and well known character to reside in Kingscliff was a man named John OGrady (1907-81) who rented a flat in Moss Street. He was well known as an author. He wrote such books as Theyre a Weird Mob,
No Kava for Johnny and Smokey Joe which was about a local couples cat. He had also written several other titles.
It was the beauty, peace and tranquility which led OGrady to this holiday haven. Surf, golden sand and a great mob of people.
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