The Caravan:

In the early 80's the club purchased a caravan,
to have on site at the ramp, when fishing competitions were held.
The caravan was the base station for entrance fees,
and it was the weigh in point on competition days.

The caravan had to be "manned" at all times during competitions,
and sometimes committee members had to sleep in it overnight, for security reasons.
At this time there were no shops at Venus Bay,
and the club sold bait, tackle, some soft drinks and pies, from the caravan.
This helped produce funds and made the club financial enough
to have great prizes and trophies for their competitions.

The caravan was old & heavy, and to tow it to the jetty for fishing comps
was another problem. The Caravan had to be kept at a committee
members house, and you needed a 4 wheel drive to tow it.

While it did raise a lot of funds for the club, it also caused a lot of
Headaches, and after the general store opened in Venus Bay,
There was also a conflict of intrest.

The caravan was disposed of when Doug Rosynski reformed the club in 1998.

Some funds were also used to purchase a small "safety boat".
The boat was on hand when competitions were held, and also
used by members when the channel markers needed replacing.
The cost of maintaining the boat, and the little amount of use
it was getting, forced the club to re-assess it's importance, and
after a number of years, this boat was sold and most of the
proceeds were donated to the S.E.S, who were the responsible
rescue service for Andersons Inlet.


Channel Marking:

Channel marking has always been a priority of the club.
Early days saw members getting long, straight tea-tree trunks, and placing
them each side of the gutter that leads to the main channel.
Metal squares and triangles were fixed to the tea-tree, to give boats a guide.
Seaweed and weather made it an everlasting task to keep the channel marked.

Wally Diss, Alan Tyley, Doug Rosynski, Bruce Evers and Greg Thomas, were
among the many who kept the channel marked in the80' & 90's.
The old channel ran west of the boat ramp, along the muddy bank towards the drain.
The silt build up along this bank has caused boats to now travel east
from the ramp where the water is now a little deeper.
The channel is still controlled by tide times & tide heights.

Due to the persistence of Alan Tyley, and Tony Burgess,
Ports & Harbours provided the yellow buoys that marked the channel to 2001.
These buoys were put in place by Alan, Tony, and other members of the
"One Armed Bandits"fishing club
[a club that was formed, at the time the Venus Bay Boating and Angling Club
was in "recess". [About 1995].

Work was also done to remove the broken tea-tree markers that had become dangerous.

In 2002 the committee elected Gerald Batt & Ian McIntyre as safety officers.
Gerald & Ian maintained the yellow buoys with the help of Gippsland Ports.
These buoys moved with very high tides and broke away in storms.
Keeping the channel marked required constant work.
These buoys are now replaced with red and green channel markers,
and are maintained by Gippsland ports,
the responsible authority for Anderson Inlet.


Looking after the environment:

The early committee was strongly opposed to netting in the inlet,
both legal & illegal. Many letters were written to local papers & politicians on this issue.
It all appeared to be fruitless, as people in authority mainly refused to believe
that netting had any effect on fish population. However with constant attention being
drawn to netting, it did become an issue and now there is no netting in the Inlet
and recreational fishing has improved dramatically.

Another topic that caused much angst was in 1983, when the government first moved
to make marine parks along the Gippsland coast.
Recreational fishermen joined professional fishermen in opposing this plan.
Professional fishermen feared of losing their livelihood, recreational fishermen
feared that they would not be allowed to fish in these areas,
and local people along the coast, believed their towns would die,
without a fishing industry.

People rallied all over Gippsland, and protest crowds of 300 to 400 people were common.
The Venus Bay Boat & Angling Club was very vocal in opposing the planned legislation,
to the extent of supporting professional fishermen who had license's to fish Anderson Inlet.



           
Back to Main    The birth of the club    History Part 1

           
History Part 2      History Part 3       History Part 4

           
History Part 5      Office Bearers