Dugong Hunting

Apart from the traditional aboriginal hunters, it is difficult to place precisely when dugong hunting commenced in the waters of the Wide Bay. One of the first references we have of this activity was recorded in the Maryborough Chronicle in August 1861 when a report claimed that a man named Thomas Gees, who was employed in ‘dugong fishing’ in Hervey Bay, had obtained, a couple of beautiful pearls. Gees stated that pearls were plentiful in Hervey Bay.

 The dugong hunting industry, especially during the 1870s and 1880s, was primarily controlled by one person by the name of John Lionel Ching, who would harpoon the mammals in the Sandy Straits and sell the flesh and oil to a ready market in Maryborough and elsewhere. His production plant was based at Stewart Island, opposite Boonooroo. Prior to this, Ching had maintained much the same operation at Tin Can Bay until the dugong in that region had become scarce. Cured dugong flesh was said to be similar to bacon and was referred to as such.  The oil was reputed to have extraordinary medicinal qualities. However, Ching was so successful in hunting dugong that after several years few of the mammals could be found in the region and he was forced to travel north to a solitary island in Repulse Bay where he soon set up another dugong processing plant. His endeavours were so profitable that he was able to purchase a very fine yacht which was originally built for mission work; this was refitted to add a catching platform, processing plant and home for his large family.

Ching’s method of catching the mammals was to string a long net across the mouths of estuaries and creeks where the dugongs were grazing on sea grasses. The dugong could then be driven into the nets where they would become entangled and finally drown. The success of Ching’s endeavours in killing these remarkable creatures can be seen from the following newspaper report: M/C ibid.

         

All work is done in the dark and fishing is only carried on during the first and last quarters of the moon. Mr Lionel Ching’s experience since he arrived in November has not been as pleasant as he could have wished, though on the whole he has done very well. He has prepared no less than 350 gallons of dugong oil.

Ching sold his oil in Maryborough and elsewhere and would arrive at the Maryborough wharves with barrels of oil, flitches of bacon and substantial quantities of minced dugong meat. He even perfected an ointment which he advertised in his pamphlets as being capable of curing, ‘….rheumatism, bruises, sprains and other ills the flesh is heir to.’ The oil was used internally for a wide range of diseases and was highly recommended as a substitute for cooking lard. Another of Ching’s sidelines was to supply dugong calves to various museums, including the Melbourne Museum, and according to a news report of 1887, he held orders from other museums around the world. M/C.ibid.

Other dugong fisherman set up a small operation at Hervey Bay during the 1870s, building a crude hut where they carried out the boiling down of the mammals. Their work was only modestly successful and they later gave up the venture.

One of the industries earliest pioneers was Ebenezer Thorne, a sometime associate of Ching. Thorne later wrote: M/C. 15 November, 1893.

I carried on this industry in Wide and Tincan Bays years before Mr Ching ever saw the place, as Mr John Hamilton, M.L.A., who first accompanied me in my whaleboat in an ever-to-be remembered voyage from Noosa Bay, and who for some time had charge of the same, can testify, as could also any of the older residents of Maryborough of the years 1870-71. It was through my suggestions that Mr Ching, who accompanied me to England in 1871, subsequently returned and commenced the business which was at first intended to have been a partnership between us. A Mr Edwards was the first white man to catch dugong in Wide Bay. Mr Chings father, one of the most respected citizens in Launceston, was a chemist and wine and spirit merchant and Mr Ching’s brother, when I last met him, was a (naval) commander.

Prior to the banning of the trade in 1965, dugong oil was a popular Australian product. Brisbane chemists bought it in large quantities and it was also used in the production of cosmetics. Dugong bone, when turned into charcoal was said to be, ‘… the best charcoal for sugar refining! Orders for the valuable oil arrived from New Zealand and the United States.

Commercial netting began in 1924 where the dugong were netted, bought to the surface and then shot. When rendered down each animal yielded approximately four gallons of oil. During the First World War the oil came into its own and was said to relieve the suffering of soldiers who had been gassed in the trenches.

Other names associated with this industry include the Bellerts, operating from Toogoom, the Smith brothers in their boat the Comfort, and Mel Simpson and his associate Cliff Chew.

Aboriginal people are still allowed to hunt a small number of dugong, and poaching, especially in more northerly waters is still carried out – although the extent of this poaching is not known as the poachers are rarely caught. The practise of shark netting has had a detrimental affect on dugong habitats, the dugongs becoming enmeshed in the nets and drowning. This practice has been largely responsible for the decline in dugong numbers during the past thirty years.

Dugong being cut up to be boiled for oil at Traveston (Burrum Heads).

 

Dugong at Burrum Heads

Burrum District Museum

Fraser Coast Regional Council

Sources and Notes

1. M/C. 29 August, 1861, reproduced an M/C. 29 August, 1911

2. M/C. 25 June, 1887

3. M/C ibid.

4. M/C. ibid.

5. M/C. 15 November, 1893.

6. Bertram G.C.L. and Bertram C.K. The modern Sirenia: their Distribution and Status.

    Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, London, Volume 5, 1973, p324.

7. Unpublished paper by Bill Rendall, Maryborough, Wide Bay and Burnett Historical Society.

8. M/C. 20 June, 1964, p2.

9. Sirens of Tropical Australia, by George Heinsohn and Helene Marsh, reprinted from

   Australian Natural History, Volume 19, Number 4, October-December, 1977. Bertram G.C.L.

   And Bertram C.K. ibid, p312. For additional details on the dugong hunting industry –

    Particularly as it functioned at Burrum Heads, see N. ‘China’ Johnson’s book, Burrum heads

    Published in 1988, pp 76-81.

References

Matthews, Tony. (1995). River of Dreams: a history of Maryborough and District. Maryborough (QLD): Maryborough City Council.