Day that changed city forever
FORTY-EIGHT years ago this week, Dutch Captain Boleslaw Pelc infamously missteered the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra into the Tasman Bridge, resulting in the loss of a dozen lives, his ship, and changing the dynamic of life in dear old Hobart Town forever.
At the moment of impact, I was doing something that I doubt any other soul on the planet was mirroring – skinning 16 rabbits on my mum’s kitchen floor – the linoleum heartily lined with many pages of the previous day’s Mercuries of course!
I had spent the day shooting with my great pal Tony, at Hermitage at Bothwell, and while obviously already gutted on the property, the final task of processing our bounty was left to be completed at home.
It remains one of my indelible lifetime memories, up there with JFK’s assassination in 1963, Neil Armstrong’s historic 1969 walk on the moon, and Tasmanian Piping Lane’s 1972 Melbourne Cup win at 66/1. My dear departed mum Shirley was by my side at all these amazing events.
Back to Captain Pelc, I dare say his incompetence, notwithstanding the tragic loss of life to 12 poor souls, has shaped Hobart in immeasurable positive ways! The Eastern Shore was transformed into an economic, social and services hub and the seeds were sown for the birth of one of Tasmania’s greatest ever business success stories, Incat. Surely, Bob Clifford has now toppled Errol Flynn as Tassie’s greatest ever son (sorry Mr Walsh) and while Captain Pelc has long since passed on, I say we should give credit where it is due, his fatal incompetence on that tragic day, 48 years ago, has indirectly led to the magnificent jewel that is beautiful Hobart today.
As Rex Hunt would always say – “Thank your mother for the rabbits!”
Steve Bailey
Glenorchy
Rare praise
WE Australians are very quick to criticise, very slow to praise. In particular, the big banks and government services such as Australia Post, have endured neverending adverse comment.
On Wednesday, December 28, I was advised that villains had got into my credit card, and the card had been cancelled, that a new card would be issued within seven working days. Given the time of year, I was not confident of a prompt result!
On Tuesday, January 3, my new card was in my letterbox! I have nothing but praise for ANZ and for Australia Post.
It is a pleasure to be able to tell a positive story!
John Solomon
Taroona
Salmon on outer
IT was no surprise that there was no salmon stall at the excellent Taste of Summer this year.
Perhaps the fact that four out of five Tasmanians consider that there is insufficient environmental monitoring and enforcement of the salmon industry in the recent online survey conducted by the Mercury newspaper influenced their decision to not attend.
In a January 2 article in the Mercury, Sue Grau, spokeswoman for the salmon industry, sidesteps the fact that half of Tasmanians who answered the survey choose to not eat salmon, many expressing concern for their health and the negative environmental impacts on our stateowned waterways.
If there were a stall at the Taste promoting salmon, perhaps half the people standing in front would be there to say that this now completely foreign-owned industry is not conducting their business with ‘social licence’.
Ian Johnston
Kettering
Our rising debt
IF a private business spends more than what it earns, it goes bust. It never ceases to amaze me that governments follow a completely different economic principle, increasing debt ad infinitum.
The Tasmanian situation is a prime example. We have the lowest population yet somehow everyone here has the expectation that we can operate on a similar level to the larger states (which of course also operate by increasing debt).
Rosemary Yeoland
Rosny
Pollie pay clarity
IN response to Robert Clark (Letters, Jan 2) let me yet again correct the record. He is incorrect in his statement that the 40 per cent pay rise granted to politicians as a result of an industrial tribunal decision is related to the reduction in the size of parliament. The pay rise was granted in the early 1990s when the Groom Liberal government was in power. The reduction in the size of parliament took place under Jim Bacon’s Labor government in 1998. While Bacon may have cited it as one of his justifications for reducing the size of parliament, when actually wanting to wipe out the Greens, the two issues are separated by at least five years and an different ideology.
Nick Hutton
Sandy Bay