For nearly eight decades the name POLLYANNA has been inextricably linked to Rotnest Island. The initial catalyst to this strong and enduring bond between three classic motor launches bearing the name POLLYANNA and Western Australia’s much loved holiday island was Roland Smith – affectionately known to generations of the state’s business and boating sectors as Roly.

Entering a maze of muddy islands, the mouth of the Victoria is a vast delta within the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf that does not easily explain itself to mariners. We are in the 65-foot Island Explorer, decked out for group fishing tours but now temporarily repurposed in an attempt to locate two anchors that were cut free from the Beagle at a point on the river named Holdfast Reach 180 years earlier.

The Abrolhos are phenomenal! Clusters of islands and reefs hover just a few metres above sea level and are interspersed with fishermen’s dwellings that are occupied during the high season.

After years of building a dinghy collection, Tony now wants to develop a place to celebrate these boats, the people who built and sailed them and the Swan River environment itself.