TIN CAN BAY....A SLEEPY LITTLE VILLAGE..

 

Tin Can Bay Yacht Club

                           

 

Originally called “Wallu”, in 1937 the small fishing village’s name was changed to "Tin Can Bay". The name are said to be derived from "tinchin" meaning “mangrove, in the Yugarabul dialect of the Yuggera language of the local indigenous people.

Others say that "Tin Can" is a word derived from the word "tinken", a vine with a large ribbed leaf, which grew on the beaches. The area was also known as "Tuncunba" - "ba" meaning "Place of "; "Tuncun" meaning "Dugong" or "Plenty of tucker".   Are you confused, yet?

A white lad, "Zachariah Daniel Sparkes Skyring" was one of the first permanent residents in the area. He later called the town "Tin Can Bay". Zachariah was born on 13th. July, 1861 and died on the 4th.June, 1957.  

27 kilometres south of Gympie is Skyring's Creek.  "Skyring" is a well-known name in the Gympie/Cooloola area.

 In the early Eighties, for a brief period, I worked with a lass who was a member of the Skyring family. (We’re still in contact to this day).  Aged 16 years at the time, it was her first job.  She went on to marry a lad from another well-known local family.  They’ve lived in the Gympie area since marrying.  Their talented daughter, a singer, appeared on “The X-Factor” a few years ago, and is doing well in the world of Australian country music.

Tin Can Bay is about 30-40 minutes drive east from Gympie, depending on how heavy one's foot is on the accelerator! The drive through Goomboorian, a farming area betwixt Gympie and Tin Can Bay is quite stunning, in my opinion.

Quite often, when living back in Gympie during the years 1998 to 2002, and when time allowed, I would drive down to the 'Bay' on a Sunday morning for breakfast at the area’s small yacht club.  

Tin Can Bay’s current population is around 2,500.  Yes...that is correct...2,500, give or take...

The club is built on the water's edge.  Sitting out on the deck, lost in my thoughts as I enjoyed both the view and my breakfast was a very pleasant way to while away a couple of hours on a Sunday morning.

 Equally as nice as breakfasting on the deck of the yacht club...sometimes, instead, I would buy delicious, freshly-cooked fish (in crisp, golden batter, of course!) and chips.  Armed with my hot feast, I’d sit on the foreshore, surrounded by ravenous seagulls.

 I never mind seagulls hovering around me.  They are beautiful creatures, and, when in their presence, or they in mine, I'm always on the look-out for 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull'.  I’ve conversed with Jonathan a few times! He and I are old mates.  We always have much to discuss

 

When my now late ex-husband Randall and I married...in a very relaxed setting and ceremony on a Sunday afternoon at Randall’s parents’ home... conducted by a Marriage Celebrant...Neil Diamond’s soundtrack LP...”Jonathan Livingstone Seagull” played in the background throughout the making of our vows...vows using quotes from Kahlil Gibran's "The Prophet".  Randall and I also saw Neil Diamond live in concert at Brisbane’s Festival Hall in 1976...the same year we married.  The "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" album and story are both still inspirational...and both still bring tears to my eyes.

 

Fishing and mud-crabbing were two of our mother’s pet pastimes when my brother and I were kids. Often, Nana, Mum, Graham and I boarded a bus en route to Tin Can Bay.  We never had the luxury of a car.  

In those days of the 1950s Tin Can Bay was a sleepy little fishing village, boasting a population of 240, thereabouts.

The township consisted of corrugated iron, timber, or fibro shacks. Most were without electricity.

At night, hurricane lamps and candles shed light inside the beach shacks in which our small family unit, as well as holidayed.  Most permanent residents lived in similar conditions.

 Late afternoon and evening the air would be dense with a heavy cloak of smoke from the smouldering cow manure packed in forty-four gallon drums in the backyards. The burning of cow manure was an endeavour to keep the mosquitoes and sand-flies at bay at The Bay.

The sand-flies were the bane of my existence. They loved me. They still do, for that matter!   The feeling wasn’t and still isn’t mutual! I hated them then and I still do now!

 However, these days, if I have need to go to areas where sandflies fly, for the couple of weeks leading up to my pending visit I over-dose on Vitamin B supplements to repel the nasty, nipping, little critters.  Even though, some “experts” denounce the practice, it certainly worked for me when Randall and I used to visit Fraser Island, or when sandflies decided, in their hordes, it was time to pay a visit Hastings Street, Noosa Heads...during the time I operated my greengrocery-health food shop in the street.

When we were kids, Tin Can Bay had an open-air picture ‘theatre’...not a drive-in.  There was just a large screen plonked in a wide, open piece of vacant land.

Many a night after dinner, my brother and I sat in the backyard of where we were staying to watch the screen from afar,  We could barely hearing or understanding the dialogue, but that didn’t hinder us. Mostly, we invented our own scripts, much to our delight.

Every day, and most nights during our visits to Tin Can Bay, Mum went fishing and mud-crabbing.  

Meanwhile, in the daylight hours, Nana, Graham and I collected oysters off the rocks to the right of the esplanade.

Armed with an oyster knife each, we opened the shells bearing the delectable delicacies, eating many as we went along the oyster-bearing rocks. We each had a large glass jar to fill with oysters to take back to the shack. At the threat of death, we guarded those oyster knives as if they were made of gold. The prized oyster knives had belonged to our late grandfather, who passed away quite a few years before I entered the world.

Once back at the beach shack, we feasted on the fish and crabs Mum caught, and our bounty of fresh oysters.

Our fresh seafood was always served simply with fresh bread, butter, vinegar, salt and pepper. No further trimmings or additions were necessary.  Perfection cannot be perfected!

As a small child, I gave no thought to the health benefits but now, of course, I know how nutritional fresh seafood is. Rarely were we sick as children, so I guess all those sand fly-ridden days and nights eating fresh seafood accounted for our good health. Other than the normal childhood maladies such as the mumps, measles, chicken pox, the only other times I got sick was from motion sickness. To this day, I get car sick if relegated to the back seat or if in a boat, if I’m not the skipper. Yes, I do have a boat license but that, also, is another story for another day.

As this tale has grown longer than I initially thought it was going to be at the outset...

To be continued...is the only way to go.....