Norwegian Bay Whaling Station
The Norwegian Bay Whaling Station ( German Norwegian Bay whaling station ), also known as Frenchman Bay Whaling Station called, was a whaling station in the east of Frenchman Bay , which is part of King George Sound in the Great Australian Bight is.
This whaling station was founded by a Norwegian whaling company and started operations in 1915. However, whaling by the Norwegians off the coast of Norwegian Bay began in 1913, although the land station was not yet completed. It was finally given up in 1957. Today only remains of foundations near the beach are a reminder of them.
prehistory
Around 1900 the first Norwegian whale hunters came to Western Australia. They had whalers on which the captured whales could be processed. The steam-powered whaling boats were manned by experienced whalers. These boats were able to hunt fast-swimming whales successfully. The whale species, which would have quickly sunk to the bottom after a fatal harpooning, were also able to keep the boats on the surface of the water. Furthermore, the Norwegians had developed new whaling methods for more effective and economical whale oil production. Unlike in Australia at the time, it was not customary to produce whale oil in open pans, but the Norwegians produced this oil product in large pressurized steam boilers much faster and with lower costs. The Australian whaling industry at that time was in its whaling and machine processing technologies on the level of 40 years ago.
Australian whalers had an advantage over Norwegian whalers, they were allowed to set up whaling stations on the beach. This all changed in 1911 when the Norwegian consul negotiated with the Labor Party at the time and managed to get three newly founded Norwegian companies off the coast of Western Australia not only to catch whales but also to set up land stations on the beach. The fishing permits were limited to seven years. This succeeded because the government of Western Australia was less interested in the development of an industry and more in the levies that the three companies had to reimburse the Australian state. In 1915 alone, the whaling station cost the company £ 80,000 in government taxes to operate, including the £ 28,000 purchase of coal and other goods in Western Australia.
One of the three newly established whaling companies, the Western Australia Company , had been allocated a fishing area stretching from Steep Point to Cape Lambert under Norwegian management, endowed with capital from Norway . The company commissioned the Norwegian captain Steigwart to look for an optimal location. He found it in Frenchman Bay on the Torndirrup Peninsula and named it Norwegian Bay . At that time, the establishment of a whaling station basically required clean drinking water, a suitable site for building a factory and a safe passage and landing stage for larger cargo ships. The only disadvantage of this location was that larger ships could only safely reach the landing stage when the water was calm and the tidal range was at its highest . Furthermore, the open bay offers no protection against large ocean waves.
According to the contract, the land station should be completed one year after the 1911 contract. However, the construction lasted until 1915. As early as 1913, the four whalers hunted 900 and in 1914 2000 whales. The ships had a whale boiling facility on deck. It was also the case that the Norwegians used more ships. They let the four Norwegian ships hunt together for some of the time and achieved the specified quota without any problems. The successes were great, so there was political resistance to the Norwegian whaling industry. A parliamentary committee was set up to review the legality of the Norwegian approach. In 1915, the entire whale station with factory and crew buildings, Flensdeck, Flensrampe, pier, whale boiling plant, machine equipment and a 160 ft (about 48.8 m) long pier was completed. The cost of this ranged from £ 20,000 to £ 30,000. However, in 1915 the success rate fell to 1500 copies. A year later this rate fell to around a third. The result was that the Western Australia Company sold their whalers and closed the station.
After the First World War
After the First World War , a group of Australian entrepreneurs bought the whale station from the Norwegians and formed the North West Whaling Company . This society was undercapitalized and the number of whales hunted was too small for economic success because hardly any whales swam past the bay on their migration. She went bankrupt in 1925 and leased the station to the Norwegian Bay Whaling Company . The government of Western Australia did not want to allow a monopoly of such companies and only granted fishing licenses at individual monthly intervals from September to November 1925. The government of Western Australia also issued restrictive regulations for whale stations with new technical requirements, corresponding specifications for the Pay, regular working hours and conditions of employees. Between 1915 and 1918 the new company invested £ 18,000 in the facility. In the period of four years, 3443 whales were shot in a total of 16 months. The whaling station was then closed. In the early 1930s , a whaling organization tried again to revive whaling on Norwegian Bay . The project was unsuccessful. In 1944 the whaling station was badly damaged by a cyclone .
After the Second World War
After the Second World War , the Nord West Whaling Company invested in repairing the damage to the plant from 1944. After 1949 600 whales could be shot each year. In the early 1950s , the whaling station was rebuilt as the demand for whale meat increased. The heavy machinery required was transported overland, for which a road had to be built through the sand dunes to the bay. In 1955 the corresponding machines for processing whale meat were ready for use at the whaling station. However, the state reduced the quota to 500 whales.
Whaling end
In 1956 the North West Whaling Company took over the whaling station on Babbage Island , near Carnarvon . All machines and equipment of the Norwegian Bay Whaling Station were dismantled and placed there. The station closed in 1957 and fell into disrepair.
Today only masonry and concrete foundations can be seen from this whaling station. In addition, the construction of a public picnic area with a parking lot and access road destroyed further traces.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Myra Stanbury: Norwegian Bay Whaling Station: An Archaeological Report , from 1983, on the Western Australian Museum. Pp. 1-2. Retrieved July 23, 2019
- ↑ Dena Garratt: Norwegian Whaling Station Frenchman Bay (PDF), on Marine Museum Western Australia. P. 9. Retrieved July 24, 2019
- ^ Myra Stanbury: Norwegian Bay Whaling Station: An Archaeological Report , from 1983, on the Western Australian Museum. S. 2. Retrieved July 23, 2019
- ^ Myra Stanbury: Norwegian Bay Whaling Station: An Archaeological Report , from 1983, on the Western Australian Museum. Accessed July 23, 2019. pp. 4–5
- ^ Myra Stanbury: Norwegian Bay Whaling Station: An Archaeological Report , from 1983, on the Western Australian Museum. S. 5. Accessed July 23, 2019
- ^ Myra Stanbury: Norwegian Bay Whaling Station: An Archaeological Report , from 1983, on the Western Australian Museum. P. 6. Accessed July 23, 2019
- ^ Myra Stanbury: Norwegian Bay Whaling Station: An Archaeological Report , from 1983, on the Western Australian Museum. P. 8. Accessed July 23, 2019
Coordinates: 35 ° 5 ′ 32.6 ″ S , 117 ° 56 ′ 56.5 ″ O