Such Was Life: The Whale, The Cockatoo and the Lunar Landing

Whaling has been associated with Albany, Western Australia, from the early days of European settlement. But did you know that, at the same time as the Frontier Wars were raging across Australia, aboriginal men from the Albany area were employed at full wages on whaling ships working the waters of the Southern Ocean? That the work was so dangerous, even in modern times, that Captain Stubbs lost his leg on the gun deck - and that his pet cockatoo constantly tried to break out by gnawing away at the cabin door before being lost at sea? And that the special properties of whale oil made it an essential part of automobiles until the 1970s - and may have been used in the early days of the American space programme. The Whale, The Cockatoo and the Lunar Landing features a special ‘Welcome to Country’ by Menang Man Larry Blight and songs by the Albany Shantymen. 2