Batavia Road model

For three months every year rock lobster fishermen and their families would head to the low-lying windswept Houtman Abrolhos Islands for the fishing season, where they lived in basic shacks, sent their children to tiny schools and drank at lively halls to pass the time between fishing. On wind-free days this area could be an ocean-lovers’ paradise, but strong prevailing winds often made for idle times when the day’s fishing was done. Fishermen Bob Sweet put this time to good use in the 1950s by crafting this model of the Abrolhos carrier boat Batavia Road. The carrier boat’s arrival was eagerly anticipated, as it broke up daily monotony with the delivery of letters, fresh food and boat parts from the mainland. The boat would return heavily laden with the fishermen’s rock lobster catch.