Interview with Bob Wicks regarding the History of the Australian fishing industry
Date24 April 1990
Object numberANMS0871[130]
NameInterview
MediumCompact disk and tape
Copyright© Murdoch University
ClassificationsBorn digital media
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Murdoch University
DescriptionA recorded interview with Bob Wicks in Mooloolaba, Queensland, as part of a series titled 'History of the Australian Fishing Industry'. It contains information on the Wicks family history in fishing; prawning in Clarence River, Moreton Bay prawning, boat building, king prawn fishing, Cairns, move to Mooloolaba, whiting, method in use, recreational fishermen, proccessing whiting, pollution; spraying; clearing tidal mangroves; building development; dans on rivers; need for research; managements comittees; the user pay concept; vessel surveys; gulf of carpentaria; trawling; prices of prawns; banana prawn catches; inroads by companies; farm prawns; sashimi tuna fishing; shark netting; deep water prawns; multi purpose vessel; endorsement difficulties; need for diversity; increased costs; government grants; closures in the gulf; need to reduce vessels; vessels to queensland; management areas; buy back scheme; difficulty of entry; accumulation of units; ban of fish trawling; developmental licences; foreing incursions.HistoryThe Wicks family is a very large and very prominent family in fishing in Queensland. When he was thirteen years of age Bob Wicks started fishing with his father in the Clarence River. Since then he has fished in many Queensland fisheries as well as in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
In this interview Bob Wicks tell of his experience in those fisheries and also speaks of many of the problems confronting fishermen. Problems of pollution and depletion of stock resulting from the clearing of tidal mangroves and the damming of rivers are discussed as are management problems and the need to restrict effort. He also records his views on buy back schemes, developmental licences, foreign incursions into Australian fisheries and the Queensland ban on fish trawling, among many other matters of concern in the industry.
This recorded interview with Bob Wicks is part of a larger series produced as result of an oral history research project conducted by the Economics Department of Murdoch University and coordinated by Malcolm Tull. The project commissioned researchers in every Australian state to interview fishermen and others involved in catching, processing and marketing fish. Their research involved questions about daily work, personal memories of life in the Australian fishing industry as well as questions about the economics of the industry.SignificanceThis collection of recorded interviews is significant in providing a comprehensive record of commercial fishing from the 1950s to the 1990s across Australia.
