The backbone of the fishing industry

Image-National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

If you enjoy the glamour and polish of the fleet featured in “The Tradition Lives On” then its a fascinating counterpoint to watch this little gem of a film. It’s another delight that the Australian Wooden Boat Festival has been granted access to by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia .

It shows a trip in 1929 by the Tasmanian Sea Fisheries' Board patrol boat ALLARA, and its skipper, Tom Challenger, from Hobart to Storm Bay where a barracouta fishing fleet are at work. These Tasmanian fishing boats are a very different looking fleet to their Victorian counterparts, perhaps reflecting the different nature of the waters in which they worked. Many boats were owned by several generations of the one family.