Lizard Island
Jackamy
Paul & Derry Harper
Mon 20 Sep 2010 00:40
|
14:39.611S 145:26.975E
Tuesday 21st September
We left Port Douglas on Sunday
afternoon in torrential rain and sailed through the night to Lizard Island.
On the way we caught two fish, I told Paul they were Barracuda so we through
them back , we found out later they were Spanish Mackerel, oops.
 We dropped our anchor in Mrs
Watsons Bay mid-day and took our dinghy on her maiden voyage around
the bay. We pulled the dinghy onto the beach and walked along to the remains of
Mary Watsons house.
The bay is named after Mary who
came to live on the Island after she married Robert Watson. Robert Watson and
George Fuller had established a beche-de-mer (sea cucumber) fishing operation on
the island in 1879. In October 1881 Robert and George were away from the island,
fishing the outer reefs.
Mary recorded in her diary 'Ah
Leong killed by the blacks over at the farm. Ah Sam found his pig-tail which is
the only proof'. Fearing for her safety Mary, her baby son and Chinese servant
Ah Sam fled the island in an iron tank used for boiling the bech-de-mer. After
drifting for days they landed on the uninhabited island in the Howard group. 'No
water Ah Sam and self very parched. No rain nearly dead with thirst'. Nine days
after leaving Lizard Island they died.
Watson and Fuller abandoned their
enterprise and Watsons Bay was never again permanently occupied.
 From here we followed a
path 2 kilometers across the Island to the Blue Lagoon. On the way we came
across a Lizard on the path, actually it's called aThagaay, Gould's
goanna.Traditionally the Dingaal people speared the Thagaay and roasted them
over a fire.Yuk....
 A little further along the track
in the trees we could here what sounded like hundreds of baby's crying, it
turned out to be Black flying foxes. They roost in the mangroves almost hidden
amongst the leaves.
 
 The Pandanus trees grow all
over the island, the Pandanus swamp is a sacred place for the Dingaal, you are
asked not to wander into the pandanus and disturb the spirits. I
stopped to take a picture of a Yungah (green ants) nest, I had read that the nests are broken up and crushed in salty
water, then the milky fluid can be drunk as a cure for colds and flu.
Formic acid in the ants promotes coughing and cleans the lungs. Paul wasn't very
impressed as he had ant's climbing up his legs.
 A few of the other rally boats
were anchored in the bay and we all met ashore to celebrate Juliette's
(Laroobaa) fourth birthday.
|