Byron Bay Whaling Station
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The Byron Bay Whaling Station (German: Byron Bay Whaling Station ) was the main beach of the southern end of Byron Bay , a seaside resort in the Australian state of New South Wales . The whaling station operated from 1954 to 1962.
founding
The legal requirements for whaling were given in the International Whaling Convention of 1946, which allowed whaling. The Australian government wanted to revive the whale industry in the 1950s.
In 1929 the government of New South Wales built a 670-meter-long pier about 100 meters east of Don Street in Byron Bay for a meat factory that had been built near Belongil Beach in Byron Bay . This jetty had two railway tracks and a crane at the end. This structure formed a good basis for transporting the whales to a whaling station.
Byron Bay's existing railroad tracks connected to the Sydney - Murwillumbah railway line. The connection of the whaling station on Byron Bay via a public railroad did not otherwise exist in Australia, because these were mostly on remote coasts without such a railroad connection. In addition, the presence of the railroad tracks made the transport of the whales more efficient, because the whales killed could be pulled by a locomotive to the Flensingdeck (cutting area) on a steel platform on wheels.
Byron Bay's whaling story began in 1951 when Inverell businessmen founded the Byron Bay Whaling Company and bought land near the Byron Bay jetty. She was allowed to kill 100 humpback whales. When the company could not start fishing in 1953, the quota was passed on to the Tangalooma Whaling Station on Moreton Bay .
In 1953 a new Byron Bay Whaling Co Pty Ltd. founded by Alfred William Anderson, who also owned the meat factory.
In 1954, a cyclone destroyed the Byron Bay docks and most of the fishing boats. So whaling should create jobs quickly and the government rebuilt it. The Byron Bay Whaling Company then bought two coastal patrolling boats that were converted for whaling purposes.
The fishing season began on May 1st of each year and ended on October 31st. The first whale was shot in Byron Bay in July 1954.
Change of company
The Anderson Meat Company founded another subsidiary in 1955, the Norfolk Island Whaling Company Ltd. , who operated whaling off Norfolk Island , On August 26th, the Anderson Meat Company was sold to the two whaling companies for £ 320,000. Both companies were again shortly afterwards to the Pacific Sea Products Inc . sold in San Francisco in the US for an interest in frozen whale meat . Anderson died in 1956.
whaling
The Byron Bay Whaling Company had a quota of 120 humpback whales a year. This quota was increased to 150 copies in the same year. Two 34-meter-long boats with wooden hulls that were purchased from the Australian Coast Guard were used. Other whaling stations such as the boats at the Cheyne Beach Whaling Station and the Tangalumba Whaling Station had hulls made of steel that could not be damaged by whale attacks. The two wooden whalers were converted and equipped with harpoon cannons. They were named Byron I and Byron II . In 1956 the Byron I was severely damaged by a fighting whale and had to be repaired and could only be used again weeks later.
The whale meat was industrially packaged, frozen and mainly exported to Great Britain, a small part of which was sold to fishermen in northern Australia as fishing bait. About 10 tons of whale oil could be obtained from a large whale, and the whale's whalebones and whalebones were also sold. That changed in the 1960s when these products could be replaced by plastic items.
End of whaling
Byron Bay whaling and whaling station became inefficient and abandoned in 1962. A total of 1146 humpback whales and 2 sei whales were shot at Byron Bay . The meat factory was sold in 1968 and closed in 1983, with 360 employees becoming unemployed. In 1984 the factory and jetty were demolished. The last traces of the Byron Bay docks were removed in 1989. The jetty with railroad tracks next to the whaling station and the meat factory are no longer in Byron Bay. Byron Bay has become a tourist spot that also offers whale watching .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Keith Boulton; The Whaling Industry of Byron Bay , 2017, on Maritime Museum Queensland, pp. 12-14. Retrieved July 14, 2019
- ^ Keith Boulton: Early History. The Whaling Industry of Norfold Island (PDF), on Maritim Museum Queensland, p. 9. Retrieved July 20, 2019
- ↑ Keith Boulton; The Whaling Industry of Byron Bay , 2017, on Maritim Museum Queensland, pp. 15-18. Retrieved July 14, 2019
- ↑ Byron? S whaling past , May 26, 2005, on Byron News. Retrieved July 13, 2019
- ↑ Keith Boulton; The Whaling Industry of Byron Bay , 2017, on Maritime Museum Queensland, p. 19. Retrieved July 14, 2019