STINKER: Of boats and tragedies: Shining a light on our seafaring early settlers

PIONEERING families on the Tomaree Peninsula were mostly seafarers or fishers, with the Cromarty family the first to arrive in 1824.

Boats were a part of everyday life, used extensively for work and transport, and occasionally for leisure.

Prominent among the early arrivals were the Lambournes, Lunds and Lamans – all fishers or light keepers.

Henry Edward Lambourne Sr (b 1854), known as ‘Harry’, was of a whaling background when he married Lillah Priest (b 1864) and moved onto Fingal Island where he was later appointed as assistant lightkeeper at the Outer Light in 1891.

The couple had four children, sons Henry Jr, Jack, George, and daughter Annie.

Henry worked the light with stepbrother Alf Glover and the Principal Lightkeeper, James Priest.

In later years, Henry moved his family back to the mainland, where he was employed with his stepfather, William Glover at the Inner Light until 1917. William was appointed the first keeper of the Inner Light in 1876.

Sadly, Lillah died during childbirth at the age of 33 years in 1898.

Tragedy again followed the family when young son, Henry Eccleston Lambourne Jnr, a fisherman, drowned in Providence Bay on Broughton Island in 1905, aged 21 while attempting to save his mate ‘Scotty’ Marshall.

The Sydney Morning Herald of Tuesday, 31 October,1905, wrote: “Two young men named Henry Lambourne and Archie Marshall are supposed to have been drowned at Broughton Island on Saturday. It appears they were engaged in lifting lobster pots on Saturday when two heavy squalls struck them, and they have not been seen since. Their boat being only 17 feet long, no hopes are held for their safety. Search parties have been out since but have found no trace of the missing men. Lambourne is the son of Mr H Lambourne the light keeper at Nelsons Bay. Marshall arrived from Scotland recently.”

Their bodies were never found.

Second son Jack, also a fisherman, worked the Simplex while a third son, George, known affectionately as Horsehead, skippered the Yacaaba and Yoothapuna, two ferries owned by Alf Korsmann of Tea Gardens.