We start our run back and Roy told us to have a look at Forbes Island.
Named by Captain James Cook as he passed by here on the 19th of August 1770. A settlement
started there from the early 1800s through to the 1940s due to the large number of shipwreck
salvages in the area.
What’s the go with this one?
Well apparently mate, they used to live here. For like 30 years. People were like living
on this island. 1912, that’s a long time ago, that’s over 100 years. You were about
what? 21 about then?
Mate we weren’t even thought of.
Still got the iron structure around it. This thing here, I’m a bit confused as to what
this is. Ah you know that that is.
That’s the old pump.
That’s the handle off the well. Apparently there is a well here.
That is exactly what that will be.
There look, that is that there?
Well I’ll be. Mate 100 years ago, blokes were using that to make their cup of tea,
right here.
Ah look at this, look look. Look at that, that’s the front hatch of a wood stove.
See if we can find the well hey?
It’s around here somewhere. I’m pretty sure this is what we are looking at.
We are look at the well here. You look at this little mountain range. This little hills
around here. They would trap all the water, they would collect the water, the water would
come down to the beach and they would tap down to an aquifer something like that. Sitting
under the sand here. Probably be really good water.
Filtered well, someone spent a lot of time blocking that up. So I reckon if you dug down
there deep enough, you would probably get water.
Thing about places like this its like a bygone era. It’s almost like looking back in time.
That piece, you imagine that little cover plate. The front of that stove, people would
have sat round, cooked their meals. Sat on the beach here and looked out onto the ocean
here. We are talking 80/90 /100 years ago. Things were happening here. 120 years. People
were actually existing and spending a lot of time. Fishing and diving and doing all
those sorts of things that we are doing now. Must have stumbled across, I don’t know
if this would be a little rubbish tip, what ever, but there is a lot of broken glass around
here. You can definitely tell there is very old type bottles. This one down here, says,
Clarke’s Australian eye lotion. Can you remember the last time you got an eye lotion
in a bottle? Specially a bottle like that. There has got to be, I reckon if you run round
here with a metal detector there would be some serious stuff here. If you think of all
the stuff that you would leave at your own home. Over time, over 100 years. How much
stuff would be lying around. Buried or littered. There is another bottle here. This bottle
always, remains the property of Clemens. Definitely medicine bottles, you know that grandma used
to have when she was a kid. Stuff like that. It’s really interesting, I get a lot of
enjoyment coming to places like this.