Thread: Who's been to king island?

Its well worth a visit,,
its quiet but windy,
its beautiful country but windy,
great eating but windy,

dont go in winter!!!

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

Its well worth a visit,,
its quiet but windy,
its beautiful country but windy,
great eating but windy,

dont go in winter!!!

Originally Posted by garrycol

The Straitsman rolled over and sank in Melbourne harbour in 1974. It was salvaged and then serviced King Is for a further 15years before it was sold off to Fiji and given a new name.

I last visited King Is in 1977 and all I can really remember are the huge black tiger snakes all over the island, the huge lobsters, the kelp and the huge swell that rolls in on the west coast even when the water itself was mirror smooth.

Garry

Yep - I was on the island when the Straitsman sank in the Yarra. I remember my father having to fly over to Melbourne to inspect the damage to a shipment of Scheelite cons when they re-floated it. A mate of mine also had a car on board at the time - it was written off.

After they re-floated it, they towed it by tug to Launceston for repairs. I was working on a prawn trawler berthed right behind it in Launceston. During the repairs, one of the workmen was killed when he cut through a gas line which still contained gas and exploded.

And yes, I can still remember the tiger snakes. Have had the wind put up me by those bloody things more than once. Another place I have since found that has similar size and equally aggressive tigers, though not as many, is around some of the fishing spots I get to east of Esperance. We caught one trying to get into a mate's swag one day a while back and he was very aggressive when we tried to move him along - I always roll my swag up and leave it up on the trailer or somewhere similar when I'm not in it.

I've never come across lobsters as good as we used to get on the island anywhere else since.