Redbill: from Pearls to Peace -
Life and Times of a Remarkable Lugger
by Kate Lance
Introduction
This is the story of a large wooden boat named Redbill that began life as a pearlshell-diving lugger in the early years of twentieth century Australia.
Redbill was once owned by the notorious Captain Gregory, a master pearler who was not only the inspiration for the dashing hero in a handful of novels, but the subject of bitter rumours of betrayal; a man famous for his buccaneering ways and his friendships with Asian people in the days of strict racial segregation.
For two decades he calmly deceived governments with his Japanese-crafted pearling fleet of illicit phantoms that, one-by-one, took over the identities of his officially registered vessels, and Redbill was to become one of those phantoms.
Over the years Redbill was rebuilt and repaired many times. She was threatened in wartime, abandoned as worthless, sunken, negelected and often forgotten, yet somehow she always survived; perhaps because she had an almost uncanny ability to inspire the kind of love and hard labour it took to return her to seaworthiness.
Redbill went to work on behalf of Greenpeace, with ecological surveys in the Barrier Reef, environmental protests around Australia and a voyage all the way from Tasmania to Tahiti and back to defy the French in the South Pacific. She raised funds for refugees from East Timor, filmed a TV documentary on troubled teenagers sailing through the wild islands of Bass Strait, and helped reunite a young Aboriginal man with his long-lost family.
Redbill took on an epic voyage around the coast of Australia to return to Broome, where in 2000 she encountered her greatest challenge yet. Over decades she had survived dozens of terrifying storms, but this time, alone, she had to face Rosita, the most powerful tropical cyclone to strike Broome in ninety years.
Woven throughout Redbill's story is the thread of simple happiness felt by everyone who knew her. Witness to a century of Australian history, there was (perhaps) no magic to it; Redbill was just a boat -- a large, lucky wooden boat -- but she was one that set sail with extraordinary people.
- Here are the images from Redbill for each chapter of the book.