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The Forum > Article Comments > Once we were whalers > Comments

Once we were whalers : Comments

By Ben-Peter Terpstra, published 18/3/2010

Culturally and economically speaking it is hard to write a history of Australia without acknowledging our whaling past.

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What is this article all about..?

After all , what is the past? Our ancestors all lived in caves and killed anything that was slower than them and then cooked it over the fires that started Global Warming... so it's all their bloody fault.

It's all a case of " That was then , This is now " to quote my Ex Wife during the divorce proceedings.

As for ..."One can argue that Australia was built on the whale’s back - not the sheep’s."... Please spare me the rewriting of History.. I am from the generation that actually studied the Stuff !!

I will give up trying to ascertain the Authors point other than to confirm that Yes , we were once Whalers and for for the last 50 years , we have not been Whalers... So What ?
Posted by Aspley, Thursday, 18 March 2010 10:20:25 AM
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When Australia was involved in whaling, the products that came from them had important economic uses. That is not the case now as they have all been replaced by better alternatives. The difference between us and Japan is the fact that we recognise that and Japan doesn't. They just use the excuse of "scientific study" to continue the slaughter.
Posted by snake, Thursday, 18 March 2010 10:36:20 AM
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I agree insofar as that our whaling history is conveniently written out of history, but the main thrust of the argument has as many holes as an old whaling ship. Britain was the epicentre of the world's massive slave trade during the 17th and 18th centuries, but that doesn't make them hypocritical for arguing for human rights in the 21st.
Posted by Greg Revell, Thursday, 18 March 2010 11:18:51 AM
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“it is hard to write a history of our nation, without acknowledging our whaling past” Ben, you have just referred to one (and there are others) – so maybe it is time to loosen the corsets a bit. Are yours still the old whalebone variety?.
Posted by colinsett, Thursday, 18 March 2010 1:02:48 PM
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But Greg;

Slaving is immoral as it enchains fellow human beings; I do not hold to morality arguments regarding the freedom of non human organisms; greed and cruelty yes.

Which allows for humane sustainable harvesting of whales. So, what about Australian whaling in the future?

Think of all those biodynamic non-fossil sources of hydrocarbons of unusual composition (and protein), each production unit having a fine free-range life; never having a bad day and then surgically brought in with a (large) tranquiliser dart.

Things may indeed change and not as you think.
Posted by hugoagogo, Thursday, 18 March 2010 1:28:39 PM
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I did not have to dig far to find a range of articles on whaling and it's place in our history.

http://www.tangalooma.com/assets/dolphins/whaling%20station%20history.pdf

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/sunday-mail/the-slaughter-at-tangalooma/story-e6frep3f-1111114898667

http://australian-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/history_of_moreton_island_whaling_queensland

http://www.bigvolcano.com.au/human/whaling.htm

http://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/whaling.htm

http://www.byronbayguide.com.au/info/byron-bay-whales-and-dolphin-watching/363/byron-bays-whaling-station-history.cfm

And plenty more readily available.

R0bert
Posted by R0bert, Thursday, 18 March 2010 1:55:33 PM
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Nowhere more evident is the suppression of whaling than in Tasmania where Greens Senator Brown is leading the assault on the Japanese and the PR campaign to make champions out of Sea Shepherd. The Greens gave the Sea Shepherd activists a hero’s welcome as they entered the Port of Hobart once the home of more than 30 whaling boats registered and many more international boats bringing the whale oil back for processing.

In 1804, the year Hobart was founded there was a seasonal abundance of whales and its proximity to the Pacific whaling grounds, the new colony was ideally placed to produce whale oil; in demand in Britain for street lighting and industrial processes. Whalebone from 'baleen' whales was also utilised in the women's fashion industry (essential products unlike food). Bay whaling commenced almost upon settlement with whales harpooned in sight of the main street, and then at whaling stations established in the bays of the south east.

Tasmania's first shore-based whaling station was established at Ralph's Bay in 1805. Today the greens have run a five year campaign to ‘Save Ralph’s Bay” from a proposed housing estate, but no mention of the whaling.

Nor at Recherche Bay another major whaling area, many may remember the 2005 campaign by Senator Brown to save the ‘virgin’ forests of the bay, but the national media failed to mention whaling.
Recherché Bay operated up to five whaling stations from the 1830 to 1870s, only stopping when the whale species that used to visit our shores went locally extinct.
An early visitor to Recherché Bay, George Robinson in 1833, noted that ‘upward of 100 whales’ had been caught and the shoreline was ‘strewn with the putrid carcasses and bones of the whale’ he saw the ‘numerous huts and iron pots’ used to ‘boil or try out’ the whale oil. One such whaling station was located on the NE peninsula at Sullivan Point. Oil casks were made from Tasmanian timber; the try pots used local wood as fuel.

This forest on private land is now on the Australian Heritage List for its pristine values.
Posted by cinders, Thursday, 18 March 2010 4:31:22 PM
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Don't forget the sea-cow or dugong.
http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/corp_site/about_us/great_barrier_reef_outlook_report/outlook_report/evidence/01_standard_evidence_page48
Posted by blairbar, Thursday, 18 March 2010 5:39:07 PM
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Greg I think comparing slavery to whaling is a bit rich.
By the way, I’m proud of our aboriginal whalers, and they also deserve a special mention.
Posted by History Buff, Sunday, 21 March 2010 8:51:32 AM
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Ben-Peter, do you have any evidence for anybody removing references
to whaling from text books? There is a whole museum devoted
to whaling at Albany in WA. My only complaint is that,
for the most part, it paints
the whole vicious atrocity as a boys-own adventure.

Hugoagogo: Do you know how little food the entire aquatic
products section of the food system provides? Check it out. It's
about 1% of global calories ... we are fishing our way down
ocean food chains, extincting species, destroying
mangroves ... all for this trifling return. The readers of OLO
who eat imported prawns may like to ask what responsibility they
share in the deaths of 146,000 people in 2008 when cyclone
Nargis devastated Burma, largely because the mangroves that
used to protect the coast line had been replaced by
prawn farms to meet the strong international demand by
people who don't think much about the consequences of their
food choices.

P.S. Aquaculture is a NET consumer of fish ... sorry for the pun :)
Posted by Geoff Russell, Monday, 22 March 2010 11:48:35 AM
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