Fish tin

This fish tin is reminiscent of the heydays of Peel’s fish canning industry. The industry sprung to life after initial attempts at delivering fresh fish to market in Fremantle by boat were thwarted by hot weather and light winds ruining the product. The solution came in 1878 when colonial entrepreneur Charles Broadhurst developed a fish canning business, sparking a series of fish canning enterprises. Among the industry’s main players was Louis Dawe, who started Pleasant Grove Preserving Works, which produced tins like this one. Dawe had started out as a tinsmith to the Tuckey brothers’ Peel Inlet Preserving Works which, at its peak, was producing 5,000 cans of fish a day, mostly for the Kalgoorlie goldfields and export to India. The industry waxed and waned over the years along with declining fish stocks, eventually dying out after WWII when refrigeration and road transport enabled fresh fish to reach Perth markets. It was only then that the Dawe family closed the last remaining fish canning operation in Mandurah, consigning the region’s fish canning industry to the history books.