In this camp a family from Narrogin way goes fishing at Pallinup every year. This bloke we made fun of him because he used to fish with a line tied to his foot and then he'd lay back on the bank and wait for the fish to bite. The thing about this is, and we couldn't get over it, this chap had the biggest toe I had ever seen! It was three inches long and two inches wide if I can remember what it was like. We could only laugh and say he would have been good at harvest time with that big toe in the gas pedal. Us boys always remarked about Claude and his big toe. He gave us scope to keep the pot boiling.
About two days before we came home some time was spent fishing and catching enough fish to bring home. So an apple case was used with a layer of seaweed on the bottom and a layer of fish and this was repeated until the box was full. A layer of fish and a layer of seaweed, that was the only way, because there was no fridges and no way of keeping fish we only had this salt thing and when you got them home you had to get rid of them quick. Dad gave most of the fish away.
Like I said before petrol was hard to get and people say it was a good easy life
but hard but happy. Seeing petrol was in short supply people used to set to
and make charcoal to put into gas producers. I for one burnt mallee roots
and buried them in the paddock and two days later dug them up and they
were black and all cold. The charcoal was then fed into a burner with a fan
to keep it hot. The water tank, about a gallon in size, with a top fitted to drip
water onto the hot coals. Now this burner was made on a frame so that it
would fit on a motor car. This made gas although it lacked some power it
helped all people and some of them were able to stock up a bit on fuel. I
guess looking back over the years this was how we obtained enough petrol
to go camping and fishing at Bremer and Pallinup."
Handley (Bomber) Page
"My first experience with the Pallinup River was back in 1979 when we first
came down here, Margaret and I. We'd only been here about a day when one
of the old gents from down at Miller's Point had heard that these new people
had moved in up to the Beaufort Plains and they'd come from somewhere
up in the wheatbelt. So he went out and set a net and duly arrived up home
with a smile from ear to ear but with three enormous mullet in this bucket.
I'll never forget it if I live to be a hundred because they were still flicking
their tails, that's how fresh they were. He handed us over these three mullet
and it definitely proved to me that I'd arrived pretty close to paradise anyhow
I reckon."
Charlie Hick
"Well I've been going down the Pallinup from when I was a child, young
child with my family and I know all the spots along there. From what we call
the `Swallow's Cave', that's in part of the old Marra farm property. Right
down past the Ranger's hut there's another place further down, we used to
fish all along there. A long time ago you could travel right down to Miller's
Point, because there was a track going right alongside the river. With all the
fires, trees have fallen over and blocked the roads there. So you go out along
the paperbarks and out to the highway and back into Miller's Point. That's
the only way you can access that now, unless you've got a boat, that's the
easiest way down."
Aden Eades
"Just prior to getting married, a friend and I were contract fencing and we decided we would have a bit of a holiday, so we went down and took an old caravan annexe down and pitched it right on the edge of the water at the Pallinup, right at the mouth and that was actually a terrific time. We of course used to mainly fish and explore and bream fishing were absolutely terrific. But Amelia's father spoilt it a bit for us because while we were there she came down with her family and it rained. We had a good set up because we had this open fronted caravan annexe and we could lay in bed in the morning and throw our line out in the water and catch breakfast. So it rained and we couldn't do much and the old fellow sat on the end of my bed and he fished and he fished and he fished and every time he threw a line in he pulled out a bream and when they left we went fishing and couldn't catch any more fish.
He did tell us about, he called them the 'Red Cliffs', and I now know that
they are the cliffs of the type section for the Pallinup Siltstone. He advised
us that a good fishing spot was to go over and walk around and follow the
bar to the other side of the inlet and underneath those so called 'Red Cliffs'
it was really good fishing. We walked down there late one afternoon and it
was getting dark when we got there and it was absolutely fantastic fishing.
We found all you had to do was throw out about a metre, or maybe two
metres of line at the most, and you could catch really great big bream. So
that's just what the fishing was like then, it was terrific.
After we got married and twelve months later, we had our first holiday, we went
and camped again at the mouth of the Pallinup. But this time it was a little
more sophisticated, we had a proper tent. Amelia's mum and dad came down
with us too and we had a great holiday fishing again and exploring, walking
around the coast. One of the significant things I remember about that is
that we took the cat again, it was the same cat, and every afternoon it brought
in a rat and we thought of course it was the normal sort of black rat and
realise now that it was actually bringing in bush rats."
Bill Moir
"The river bellied out at the bar, at the estuary. I've heard it quoted as about
a mile wide then. But upstream where there were rocks, we fished the whole
length and breadth of the river from about two miles from our house the
fishing started. We knew all the rocks, and where there were rocks against
the side the river was narrower and deeper but it bellied out when it got
down to the estuary. Miller's Point on was much shallower but wider."
Betty Sewell
