When I saw the boat under the water my heart just sunk itself, it was like, I just cried.
It is tragic.
It is our history.
The construction photograph is in the National Maritime Museum.
I think the crux of the thing with the Almonta is 'Why does nobody care?'
The historic fishing boat sank on its moorings a year ago.
It was two months after it was hit by a yacht damaging it’s corking.
There were offers of help to raise it but nowhere to repair and display it
It’s been underwater for a year Mario’s owned Ali for five years
Ali gave him a reason to get up each day
I was working on a main powerline, the big powerlines and I had some insulators fall
on my head.
I had my head crushed and stuff like that so I had a bit of a head injury
back in '89.
Kind of my life from that point, my life kind of changed a lot from that point on.
It was pretty, quite traumatic and I kind of
lost my trade , I lost my profession.
He'd dreamt of a boat like Almonta as a child
It was his first boat The Almonta brought me, it kind of brought
life back into me really.
Tara Sinclair Almonta became Ali and she became a part
of our family, whether, she just became part of our family the same way as a pet does or
a child does, she just became a part of us.
He just loved her.
He'd go out there, if he wasn't feeling great that day
He'd go out and he'd always come back calm.
He never ever came back upset or angry or bothered by the world.
There's something beautiful about being on the ocean.
He found, I suppose some direction because he started give her a bit of
a coat of paint.
He started to fix a little bit up and then a little bit
would turn into another thing and another thing
and another thing.
There was a little bit in the early days, I wouldn't say rivalry because
you can't really be a rival from a boat but
there were some times where I would have liked to have spent more time with Mario
on land because I didn't go out as often with him but yeah, he just loved the boat.
He just loved her and looked after her as best as he possibly could.
He removed all the fuel and chemicals And Ali became his floating retreat for fishing
and a bit of karaoke He didn’t know the significance of the Almonta
for about a year
That’s the model of it they’re got in the museum
I didn’t know the history of it.
I didn’t know anything about it.
I didn't find the sleeping quarters until about six months after I had the boat.
It was really funny.
It was just a little hole on the floor and I didn't
realise I just had to lift that up and there was a whole sleeping
quarters down there.
It had four bunk beds with their own cupboards and drawers.
It was like six months later, it was like a whole new giant room.
That's the Queensland premier launching the boat in '66.
When I saw that I thought "Wow, that's fantastic.'
I've even got the kids at the special school doing
my stuff as well.
They love the boat.
It was all the stories I was hearing you know, everyone's grandfather, or father
or someone who worked on the boat and had their own story about the boat.
It meant a lot to people.
The Almonta was built by Pat Vansleve at Caloundra
on the Sunshine Coast in 1966
For tuna fisher Mike Buberis from Port
Lincoln
The Almonta was built out of pure Queensland timbers which were selected in the Imbil Range
We would hike through miles and miles of bushland for construction timbers.
We'd be looking in the Imbil Ranges.
Other than that we'd be in the low plains areas which
are full of tea-trees and the vegetation there grows in natural shapes that you can use
for the stem needs, the stern needs and so on.
It's a bit of a shame it's lying on the bottom of the ocean at the moment.
I think the Almonta deserves to be retrieved
of the ocean at the moment.
I think the Almonta deserves to be retrieved
and not restored but just as a display unit, protected as such to attract the public and
tourists so that the story could be told because I think the story is worthwhile.
Time is running out He’s asked the National Maritime Museum
to help but they don’t have the funds Port Lincoln’s Axel Stenross museum can’t
help either.
Many times since the Save Almonta cohort has just gone to rest I've thought 'Heavens sake
if my father was still alive, he and I would be down there lifting it ourselves.'
I can't even go down there anymore without, I can't even look at it now because
it just depresses me now just to see her because of all the great memories I have with her
and also with the people that have stories about her too, it's hard to see her where
she is at the moment.
Hopefully we can do something, you know,
that's what I'm hoping for because I do love the boat.
Mario’s appealing for help Before it's too late
and Ali and her stories become lost treasure