CAIRNS ZOOLOGICAL SURVEY AT LOW ISLES

Townsville Daily Bulletin, Saturday 25 September 1954, page 5

Members of the staffs of the Biological schools both of the Queensland and Sydney

Universities as well as others, such as from the Department of Harbours and Marine took a particularly active part In exploring the zoological inhabitants of Low Isles. Furnished with a large collection of literature, particularly those published by the British Museum and compiled by the members of the Yonge, 1929 expedition, etc., special arrangements for collecting were made use of, for example, small fish were captured by the simple method of stunning them with derris powder, causing them to float upon the surface as well as the use of nets and all sorts of contrivances. Receptacles specially made tor collections, such as glass tubes and bottles of all sizes were used, and the necessary preservatives, mostly formalin, were part of the equipment. After collecting, done mostly at a time when the tide was lowest, the various specimens were sorted and labelled, some with metallic numerals, others on paper specially printed with details written In Indian ink so that they may be placed In the solutions where they cannot be mixed up causing confusion, whilst note books are crammed with details of localities, all marked on maps provided for the purpose and adding other relevant particulars. The specimens after being individually packed and sorted out finally find places In specially constructed crates and securely screwed down pending arrival at their respective destinations. The whole arrangement was a masterpiece of organisation to ensure arrival at the respective schools in best condition until finally stored for effective study, perhaps many months or even years later.

BALANOPRORA FUNGOSA.

Mr. F. S. Averkoff has posted from Mossman, what he calls a 'root plant resembling a fungus’. However it turns out to be the flowering plant already described in these columns as Balanophora fungosa in the issues no. 76 of July 24, 1938 and 668 of June 17, 1949, and is usually parasitic on the root of a plant immediately beneath the surface of the ground. Only one Australian species is known the few existing species comprising the small Family Balanophoraceae. It is an unusually curious plant of a peculiar shining straw colour, only a few inches high with a globular flowering head about half to three-quarters of an inch in diameter, occupied for the most part by the very tiny cinnamon coloured male florets, while the diminutive female flowers form a band about Its base. Mr. Avenkoff adds some further interesting particulars. Goats are very fond of it even when it Is brown, preferring the young mushroom like plants. When freshly dug and cut it smells like peanuts. Aboriginals do not eat it. It grows prolifically around the Bloomfield River and adjacent streams.

​​​​SEA TRAGEDIES, Capricornian Thursday 8 March 1928, page 12

LOW ISLES

Lying 8 1/2 miles from Island Point, Port Douglas are the picturesque low Isles. The eastern one is about half a mile long by a quarter of a mile wide, and is the resort in the season of large numbers of Torres Straits pigeons which roost among the trees that are about 65 feet above water. On the western islet is a circular white tower with a red dome like a tam 'o shanter, and from it at night is flashed a white dioptric light of the 3rd order. The duration of each flash is 0.2 seconds, and of the eclipse 11.8 seconds, and the power is that of 100,000 candles. They are all needed, as this is an important turning point for ships bound up through the intricate inner route, and the weather frequently misbehaves itself there and would swallow up any less power. It has been known even to devour the whole 100,000 candle power, and leave ships groping about and praying for the merest glimmer.

This island is coming into the public eye, shortly, as on it the British scientific committee under Dr. C. M. Yonge, will make their headquarters while conducting marine biological work among the adjacent reefs. It got quite different notoriety 21 years ago— on 18th March, 1907 — when W. T. Hannah, first assistant Light keeper, disappeared into the night with his 14 year old daughter Doris, and his 10 year old son Oscar. The following is taken from the 'Port Douglas and Mossman Record ' of March 22nd, 1907.

'It appears that it was Hannah's turn on Sunday last to go on watch in the lighthouse from 8 o'clock in the evening until midnight. He went up to the lighthouse for that purpose. The superintendent of the lighthouse was also there, it being his duty to see that the light was properly lit. During the day Hannah's behaviour had certainly been most peculiar. He had been singing, praying, and swearing by turns. The superintendent said to him: 'What is the matter with you, Hannah?' and be replied: 'There is nothing the matter with me.' The superintendent then said, 'You had better go down below and have a camp for a few hours, and then you will be all right.' Hannah did not seem inclined to go, so the second assistant light keeper was ordered to burn the flare up for the Port Douglas pilot boat, as he could see that Hannah was evidently not altogether right in his head. As bad luck would have it, the pilot at Port Douglas did not, evidently, see the signal, though it was kept burning for a considerable time, nor was it apparently noticed by anyone else on the mainland. When Hannah saw the flare-up burning, he seemed to pull himself together, and stood beside the Supt. for a while. 'At about 10 o'clock Hannah appeared to calm down and become more rational, so the Supt. went down from the lighthouse, but kept looking at the light himself. At midnight Hannah went off duty, having a quarter of an hour previously called the man whose duty it was to relieve him. Everything then appeared to be all right. Hannah went to bed at his cottage shortly after midnight and slept until six o'clock the next morning. During the early part of Monday, he attended to his share of the routine work of the light house. At about 10 o'clock that morning, the Supt. said to him: 'This is a holiday, Hannah. You need not do anything more to-day.' On hearing this, Hannah jumped up in the air and shouted 'Hooray.' Hannah then went to his house, and was afterwards heard romping with the children, singing, praying, and swearing in turn. The Supt. was now quite certain that Hannah was not mentally sound, so he gave instructions to burn the flare up again.

The signal, fortunately, was answered that night, and Pilot Mathews started out from Port Douglas in the pilot cutter about 10-30 p.m. Hannah had then nothing else to do but to go home until called to do his watch at midnight. They went to call Hannah about a quarter to twelve, only to find that be had gone out in the flatty. The assistant then went to report the matter to the superintendent and they got their wives to go up the lighthouse and watch the light while they themselves went down to get their boat to search for the missing man.

They noticed that Hannah's flatty, a little bit of a boat, had disappeared, and thought that Hannah, in a fit of temporary insanity, had gone off fishing. The two searchers were after Hannah - they did not know at that time that Hannah had his two eldest children with him. After going round both the islands and finding no trace of either Hannah or his flatty, they put back at about ten minutes past two, and had just got into dry clothes when Pilot Mathews arrived at the Island in the pilot cutter.

Pilot Mathews went up and asked Mrs. Hannah where her husband was, and she replied: “He went out to meet you, and took the children (mentioning two of them by name) with him.''

It was elicited that Hannah took with him in the boat a tin hat box, which contained a suit of clothes for the boy, and a dress for the girl, along with a few nick-nacks. He also took a portmanteau, containing his shaving gear, a suit of clothes for himself of white duck. Besides these things he took a long pole and a white sheet to use for a sail, although there was no provision made for attaching a sail to the flatty, which was only about six feet long and 2ft 6in wide, and evidently incapable of carrying one mile alone from the island to Port Douglas.

Five years and ten months rolled by, and then, in January of 1913 a search party out looking for traces of the vanished Dancing Wave went as far as Cape Bedford. There they found shattered portions of the ship they were looking for, and then, higher up on the beach they found the Low Isles flatty. In it were the skeletons of two children, and the veil, which had been so reluctantly lifted, was again dropped. The sea holds the secret of what transpired on that night of horror, and the sea holds many such secrets for all time.

If men are held to be responsible for their actions, then southern officialdom should have been arraigned for the murder of two innocent children. The charge would have been that of keeping men out in positions of isolation until their minds gave way. So imbedded was this barbarous practice, that Proudfoot shoal lightship was withdrawn because eventually the light keepers went mad. Of the mentality of the officialdom which saw nothing grotesque in the awful confession, it seems impossible to more than speculate, though it gives a first-hand indication of mans’ inhumanity to his fellow men' even in this age of ultra-civilisation and humanity.