by Gill Attersall
PANCAKE CREEK
I think we all have to agree that Kingsley Forbes-Smith gave a most informative and entertaining talk on the weather at the March meeting. The only comment I had an issue with was his saying there was nothing to do in Pancake Creek, and I’m afraid I said as much.
We have taken ‘Simply Irresistible’ into this lovely, sheltered bay a couple of times, when Glynne was trying to calm down my hysteria having been told that the weather didn’t permit us taking ‘S.I.’ into Lady Musgrave.
After a few weeks on board its great to stretch the legs with the walk up to Bustard Head Lighthouse, make sure you take water and a bit of money to gain access to the Lighthouse Keepers Museum. The museum is usually manned by volunteers, one year we even got coffee and biscuits as well as the tour of the lighthouse and museum which we found was just fascinating. On the way up to the lighthouse you pass the timber sleepers retained by chains to stabilise the steep sandy hill to the lighthouse. This is where they bought ashore the lighthouse in prefabricated cast iron segments to be bolted together. Probably pulled up the ramp by horses. Next is a lovely view over Airplane Beach, where a light plane sometimes lands bringing tourists or backpackers to this isolated area. We have seen two landings and take offs from the lookout. Then you pass the very interesting small cemetery which holds victims of murder, suicide, shipwrecks, drownings. More later.
Bustard Head was named by Captain Cook in 1770 in honour of a bustard which was shot and eaten by his landing party. The Town of 1770 can just be seen from the lighthouse looking south 15 km away. We have had “S.I’ inside the inner harbour between 1770 and a large sandbank about 3 times. Your boat doesn’t need to draw much more than 1.5m but if you can go in its a lovely spot with water available in the very attractive park and you can get delicious meals at the pub. It is an easy walk to Agnes Waters where there is a good supermarket, doctors surgery and a great cup of coffee! as well as Agnes Water’s Museum which was worth the short extra walk.
A LARC operates out of 1770 taking tourists along the beach to see the Lighthouse at Bustard Head. It motors passed you when you are anchored at 1770 and is interesting to see it climb the sandbank on its way north. The headland behind 1770 is Round Hill, when we were there, it was where two ladies manned the Marine Rescue Base, kilometres from the creek so they couldn’t give us a report on the state of the bar. Captain Cook personally stepped ashore on Australian soil for the first time at 1770. A cairn memorial now marks the spot on what is now called Monument Point.
From Bustard Head Lighthouse there is a breathtaking view looking towards 1770 over a sweeping beach and Jenny Lind Creek. Jenny Lind, the Opera Singer, was referred to as the love interest, not true, in the film ‘The Greatest Showman’ and was the name of an Australian Schooner which was wrecked in 1857 just off the Creek.
The Lighthouse Keeper’s wife Kate Gibson (who had 4 daughters and one son) went missing in 1887 and was found dead many days later by one of her daughters with her throat cut from ‘ear to ear’ and with her arms crossed across her chest. It’s just about impossible to accomplish slitting your throat then thinking to cross your arms! But her death was put down as suicide. Her alcoholic husband had been away and when he returned, he found one of his cut-throat razors was missing. Had he returned early?
One daughter was abducted by a local Aboriginal stud, think she would have been happy to leave with him.
The cottages were rebuilt from a fire and later trashed completely by ‘some persons’ however we were told the local hospital nurses were amused that some time later two lads who used to be trouble ended up in the hospital with mesothelioma, which is bought on by asbestos of which the cottages had plenty.
There is a book giving the full history of Bustard Head Lighthouse, not sure how accurate my memory is of the facts. Go yourself and please correct my maybe unreliable memories.
Gill Attersall.
SV Simply Irresistible
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