This File Is Part of the Following Reference: Duncan, Brad G. (2006
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This file is part of the following reference: Duncan, Brad G. (2006) The maritime archaeology and maritime cultural landscapes of Queenscliffe: a nineteenth century Australian coastal community. PhD thesis, James Cook University. Access to this file is available from: http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/2050 Chapter Six: Fishing Community Landscapes …the experienced hunter is the knowledgeable hunter. He can tell you things from subtle indications that you or I, unskilled in the hunters art, might not even notice. Called upon to replicate this knowledge, he may do so in a form that reappears… as a corpus of myths and stories…But we should resist the temptation to assume that since stories are stories they are, in some sense, unreal or untrue, for this is to suppose that the only real reality, or true truth, is one in which we, as living, experiencing beings, can have no part at all. Telling a story is not like weaving a tapestry to cover up the world, it is rather a way of guiding the attention of listeners or readers into it. A person who can “tell” is one who is perceptually attuned to picking up information in the environment that others, less skilled in the tasks of perception, might miss, and the teller, in rendering his knowledge explicit, conducts the attention of his audience along the same paths as his own. (Ingold 1993: 153) Chapter Six: Fishing Community Landscapes 1) Introduction Fishers in many global cultures have demonstrated an awareness of seasonal climatic trends and resource availability that have led to deeper understandings of, and close relationships to the sea and its creatures. These insights have often led to the development of distinctive landscapes that are entrenched in knowledge networks tied to the sea and land through folklore, oral histories and toponymy, and which were physically linked to a variety of terrestrial and maritime sites. Western fishing landscapes were therefore structured differently to those of many other social groups, as they regularly relied more on inherited familial knowledge to interpret the landscape, a notion which has many parallels in indigenous maritime societies. Restricted access to this knowledge further limited any potential understanding of the meaning of these landscapes to the fishers themselves, which was then used to reinforce their identity and support their territorial boundaries with other cultural groups, and also affected the social fabric of those fisher cultures themselves. As discussed previously, Ingold (1993:153) has highlighted the role played by narratives in landscape studies, and advocated that informal knowledge networks via stories and myths offer potential insights into historical cultural behavioural traits and natural environmental observations that may (or may not) be subsequently expressed in material remains observed in the archaeological record. In particular, he demonstrated that hunting knowledge was often only retained through tales and folklore, and that experienced hunters were perceptually attuned to picking up information in the environment that other less skilled hunters might miss. With this in mind, the following observations were recorded of another hunter/gatherer group, the Queenscliff fishers, from both the 148 Chapter Six: Fishing Community Landscapes past and present. In order to understand the culture and depth of structure of the fishing industry, numerous fishers were interviewed within the community, who evidenced overlap between the fishing and other maritime sub-groups, providing valuable insights into the community as a whole. It will become evident throughout this chapter that oral histories are a central data source for accessing and understanding fishing landscapes, as much of this information is never written down or recorded historically. In this chapter I will investigate the maritime worlds particular to the fishing community of Queenscliff to demonstrate the diversity and range of cultural landscapes that form part of the fishing culture, and the depth to which the concept can be explored. Aspects of fishing customs will be examined to demonstrate the types of activities undertaken, how actual fishing practices operated, and consider the differentiation of spaces and places used by fishers to explore the notion of multivalent fishing landscapes. This will be contrasted with traditional knowledge and belief systems to investigate the scope of sources available for understanding fishing practice, and how they might ethno-archaeologically inform of their subsequent and/or potential archaeological signatures. The close relationship of fishers to the environment will be explored in further detail to demonstrate the level of hereditary knowledge that is embedded within these local landscapes in the form of folklore that is used to predict seasonal resource availability. It will be demonstrated that members of the fishing community relied heavily on other means to supplement their fishing incomes, and these economic sources will be briefly examined to show the range and unexpected diversity of resources that were essential components of fishers' landscapes. Recreational pursuits and relaxation areas were also shaped by fishing culture, and are therefore important landscape indicators. The examination of these aspects will further demonstrate the interconnectedness and continuity of the land and sea within the fishing world. The fishing community will be explored from a gender perspective to demonstrate how the same geographic landscape was experienced differently by members of the opposite sex. 2) Historical Overview of the Queenscliffe Fishing Industry The earliest known non-Indigenous fishing activities conducted at Shortland’s Bluff were undertaken by a professional wrecker, William Bailey, who fished around Pt Lonsdale using an open boat salvaged off the beach (Simpkin n.d.:8). The early fishing industry at Queenscliff and St Leonards (along the creek) was dominated by Chinese fishermen who were already operating in this 149 Chapter Six: Fishing Community Landscapes area when European fishermen first appeared on the scene in the early 1860s (Anon. 1853 [updated 1864] [plan]; Fanning 1893; Kerr 1985:69; Wynd 1988:115), and the community increased markedly after a bumper season in 1862 (Simpkin n.d.:9). Under conditions of their fishing licences, fishermen were entitled to camp on Crown Land which they leased for £1 per year [HM; LID]. Within a few years a small community had evolved at the southern extremity of the Queenscliff Bar peninsula (known as Chinaman’s Point), and the area was further developed with the arrival of their numerous European counterparts (Figure 6.1). Dried and later fresh fish were an essential commodity for the early colony, especially to provide the increased demand at the goldfields. The Queenscliff Chinese fishermen operated a fish smoker to produce dried fish and squid for the inland mining communities, and remained in the industry until at least 1875 (GA 20/2/1875; Cuzens 1912:5). Figure 6. 1: Fishermen's Flat 1866, showing huts, boats careening on the Chinaman’s Pt Spit beach, and Queenscliff Pier on right (Image: Albert Cooke, 25/4/1866, SLV Collection). Figure 6. 2: Fishers cottages on the Fishermen’s Flat 1907 (Image a02774, SLV Collection). European Queenscliff fishermen originally inhabited the swampy region at the northern end of the town near the current railway station in the early 1860s (which was previously home to the local 150 Chapter Six: Fishing Community Landscapes Indigenous community). Later allotments were leased in the area now known as the Fishermen’s Flat by 1863 which thereafter became the hub of the Queenscliff fishing community (Cox 1863 [plan]; Dod 1931:80; Gee, 1971:5 Beavis and Raison 1984:iii - see Figure 6.2). 3) Fishing Environments and Types of Fishing Fishermen exploited the large schools of pelagic fish that seasonally frequented the area (QS 10/12/1892). They formed the principle economic catches for Port Phillip fishermen (and many other coastal towns around the state), and are inextricably entwined with the history of Queenscliff and the fishing community. Intimate understandings of the habits of these species was an essential component of every local fisherman’s world, and to investigate how the fishing community landscape operated, it is essential to first understand how fishermen encoded information about these fish within their traditional knowledge and belief systems. Three main types of fishing were common in the Queenscliff area including barracouta (known locally as couta), snapper and crayfish, which involved the use of fishing lines, nets and pots, respectively. Other fish species were also exploited, and these will also be addressed in lesser detail (see Appendix E-1 for details of economic fish species). Fishermen usually specialised in one form, but not necessarily to the exclusion of the others, and sometimes were engaged in all three. These fish species were migratory and territorial, and to harvest them required a detailed knowledge of their seasonal availability, feeding localities and habits. Catching fish required a familiarity of all these factors; you could not just go out fishing, you had to be prepared to catch a certain type of fish: “Old man Zanoni would say ‘let’s go fishing! What would you like to catch?’ ”[PF]. These various fisheries led to differential fishing landscapes within the community based on species exploitation, and are therefore worthy of further consideration. A) Net Fishing Net fishing was usually undertaken in shallow areas across sand or mud banks, often close to the shoreline (e.g. Lonsdale and Queenscliff Bights, Swan Spit, Swan Bay and around Swan Island, Duck Island and Mud Islands). Many types of fish species were taken using this method, including eel, ling, garfish, mullet, salmon, snapper and whiting. Boats used in this profession usually required a tapered stern to set and haul the net, whereas line fishermen usually preferred a transom stern to allow more fishers to access the school, although as fishermen were sometimes engaged in 151 Chapter Six: Fishing Community Landscapes both netting and line fishing, square (transom) stern vessels were sometimes used.