Centenary of Ballina’s Pilot Station
Written by Diana Mercer for the Northern Star 1953 Source
ONE hundred years ago the 11-year old settlement at East Ballina took a big step forward by the appointment of Captain George Easton as pilot of the Richmond River.
The river mouth at that time extended in a system of shallow shifting leads from the present site of the South Wall to the Lighthouse headland.
At no place was there greater depth than about five feet and manoeuvring a sailing ship over the bar was a difficult undertaking, even under the best weather conditions.
The original pilot station was near the present kiosk site and the boatmen’s huts were built along the shore.
Captain Easton used a four-oar boat and a megaphone to guide the vessels through the best channel and for 33 years he piloted ships of all types in and out of the river. One of his original boatmen was William Yeager, who later became a sawmill and boat owner. He contributed a great deal to the development of this district.
In 1842, when Thomas Ainsworth settled his family on the bank of the Richmond, the only town between Brisbane and Sydney was Newcastle. Supplies were few and far between. The nearest settlement was Casino, which was only connected by river, there being no roads or even tracks between the two places.
Cedar was plentiful and soon a sawpit was set up beneath a giant fig tree near the present kiosk site, where a small spring provided fresh water. Later, six saw pits were operating in this area. Though cedar was easy to get, the price was as low as 10/- per 100 feet. A tremendous number of logs were lost.
In the mid-fifties, however, gold was discovered on Ballina beaches by some New Zealand miners who had been working near Jerusalem Creek and a wave of prosperity helped the struggling settlement. At that time such amenities as there were were centered in East Ballina and it was not until the breakwaters were started in 1886 that West Ballina began to form into the main business centre.
The first death in East Ballina was that of Jack Farrell in 1848, when he fell between logs of a cedar raft and was drowned. He was buried on the high land near the present Missingham Bridge because the water flowed deep near the bank at that spot and a boat could pull in close.
Others were buried there for the same reason and later the area was dedicated as a cemetery. One of the early burials was that of W. Wallett, who took a naked light too near a barrel of rum, causing it to explode!
With the boom in the mid-fifties came the first steam-driven vessels, but sailing ships continued to fill the harbour for many years.
A large tribe of aborigines, about 500, lived in this area and got along quite harmoniously with the white settlers. It seems to have been the “amenities of civilisation” that caused the blacks to die off, not any brutality such as was taking place in Tasmania about that time.
The Pilot goes for a swim – 1901
Courtesy of Trove The crew of the pilot boat, who had a narrow escape from drowning on the bar on February 20, had just left the steamer Macleay, when a wave suddenly curled up and broke over the boat, capsizing it, and throwing the men into the water. One of them, named J. Johnson, struck out for the northern breakwater, and after a hard struggle managed to reach it, but was completely exhausted, and could hardly speak. The other men Captain Fraser (pilot), W. Bryant, C. Cheyne, and J. Saunders, clung to the boat. W. Graham, at the lighthouse, witnessed the accident, and hurried to the pilot station, a mile distant, launched the other pilot boat, and, assisted by George Easton, went to the rescue, picking up Johnson on the way. They managed to save the whole of the crew, who had been in the water for over an hour. Fortunately the tide was running inwards at the time, otherwise the work of rescue would have been much more difficult. None of the men suffered very much from their immersion.
The aborigines lived well on the fish and oysters that were plentiful in the river; and they must have been a great help to early housewives by showing them the use of yams and other native foods in the swamps.
Schools of salmon used to appear during one month of the year and were greatly sought by the blacks. However, in 1857 some disease attacked these fish which were cast up on the beaches in countless thousands. Since that year the migratory schools of salmon have disappeared.
Before the breakwaters were built, floods came down the river from time to time to sweep away in one night all the work of years. One particularly serious flood in the 1850’s did some good by scouring a channel 20 feet deep through the bar which made shipping safer for some time.
In 1864 eight floods occurred. The 1893 flood was aggravated by the fact that, in spite of being advised by Sir John Combs (the designer of the original Clarence River breakwaters) to build the South Wall first, the builders started on the North Wall and effectively blocked the getaway of the flood waters, causing them to back up for miles.
In the 1870’s increased shipping created a need for a towing service. The boom had made some very inexperienced sea-men try to cash in on the easy money, for in 1871 no less than six ships were wrecked on bar a large percentage of the total of 35 wrecks recorded between 1856 and 1908.
Captain Thomas Fenwick established a towing service which served the district for over 20 years, until Captain Fenwick himself was wrecked with his seaman, J. Lomax, in the William Langford while towing his own ketch over the bar.
Though the signalman at the Lighthouse was able to rescue them both, Captain Fenwick never recovered his health and died two years later.
Captain Fenwick had built for his family the beautiful Fenwick House at East Ballina, which has now become a hotel. It is famous for the native cedar doors and staircase which have been preserved in the reconstructed building.
After 33 years of piloting vessels over the bar, Captain Easton retired to the house he had built from the timber of the original pilot house. Here he lived, overlooking the river mouth he knew so well, until his death at the age of 87. Two of his daughters, Miss Harriett and Miss Kate Easton, live there still [1953].
The second pilot was Captain Fraser, followed in 1905 by Captain David Jones; four years later Thomas Radcliffe became pilot and held the position for 11 years; Captain Robert Lyttle came next and then Captain Brady who handed over to the present pilot, Captain Hannell, in 1949.
During the 100 years the nature of the pilot’s job of guiding vessels over the bar has altered a great deal. Much of the hard physical work and danger has gone, but its place has been taken by so much office work that being a fully qualified captain is no longer enough.
As well as piloting, Captain Hannell controls the installation of wharves and other buildings along the river, check surveys all small vessels, inspects wharves, supervises regattas, represents the Commonwealth in accidents at sea, controls overseas vessels while they are in port and routine office work.
If he were here today Captain Easton might feel that in spite of the hardships, he had in many ways, a less harrassing job than Captain Hannell in his office, surrounded with files and folders – each representing a different facet of the once straightforward work of getting ships over the bar in one piece.
