Toorbul Days 3 : Early Events

Roy Bliss (1922-2015) was a boat builder of Moreton Bay and owned the bay cruiser Ardarth. In the following poem, Roy mentions his grandmother's brother Charlie Brown (1874-1953) who was a jeweller in Brisbane before moving to Toorbul in 1919 to work as an oysterman. Roy writes Charlie "engraved pictures on pearl shell, mainly depicting a yacht". Later in the late 1940s and early 1950s Charlie Brown lived on Bribie Island.

If you have one of Charlie Brown's engraved pearl shells or any other information about Charlie's life at Toorbul or Bribie Island, please send BIHS an email so we can record the details.

 Toorbul Days 3 : Early Events

By Roy W. Bliss

(Reproduced with the kind permission of the family)

I arrived at Toorbul when only three weeks old,

I was a cranky little B-aby, so I've been told.

We rented Bill Freeman's house up towards Elimbah Creek,

About half a mile north from Dad's parents, so meek.

Toorbul Days Sketch by Roy W. Bliss (c)

In a hut near the beach lived Grandma's brother Charlie Brown,

A talented person who just could not live in town,

He engraved pictures on pearl shells, mainly depicting a yacht.

Made a one-string fiddle, which he played quite a lot.

Charlie helped farm the oysters and on us kids he would dote.

A few years later on, he built his own boat.

Grandpa nurtured his oysters, he worked really hard,

Grew passionfruit, grapes and vegies in his half acre backyard.

His work boat was flat-bottomed and eighteen feet long,

He rowed standing up as he sang his best song.

Grandma was so gentle, us kids she would mind,

Hard times she was having, she was a saint and so kind,

Mum had her hands full with my brother and me,

Dad ran his launch to Bribie, to take fishing parties to sea.

There's no future in oysters, my Dad came to see,

So we moved back to Brisbane, Mum, Dad, Ossie and me.

Dad sold the boat's engine and pushed the hull up the creek,

So that she wouldn't sink far because of her leak.

It was about 1925 that decision was made,

And Dad got the chance to go back to his trade.

Back at old Toorbul, Grandpa looked ahead,

Whilst rowing his boat to his old oyster bed.

With his snake stick in hand along the foreshore he hiked,

Not much money in oysters but it's the lifestyle he liked.

Ned Bishop, two miles south, jovial and rash,

He was plump and pleasant and wore a walrus moustache.

We took the train to Caboolture, to co-ordinate with Old Ned.

He loaded groceries for Toorbul and charged us two bob a head.

He drove his old Essex, knew every bump on the track,

And if he missed one, he would sometimes go back.

His lovely daughter Adie, a real farm girl of course.

Would deliver the milk, riding bareback on her horse.

The bird life at Toorbul, spoonbills, osprey, cormorants and swans,

Cranes, seagulls, butcherbirds, parrots and wild ducks in their ponds.

Dark green foliage, white beaches, blue waters and sky.

Magnificent Glasshouse Mountains, to the northwest they lie.

I have crammed in these things as they came to my mind,

I would never have wanted to leave them behind.

I could appreciate the beauty in this place by the sea.

The view from our Brisbane home was the Toowong Cemetery.

In July 1929 when I was aged seven,

My sister Dorothy arrived directly from heaven.

My grandparents stayed on at Toorbul until the war years,

A bit late in their lives to start new careers.

It's now many years since they both passed away,

One fails to think properly until one's old and grey

I hope I said, "Thankyou," for all they had done,

It helped me through life, and I had so much fun.

(c) Roy W. Bliss

Poem is accompanied by sketches of a house with stairs and tank on the side of the house (copy above), a man named Ned and a car, a man standing up rowing a small dinghy with four of the Glasshouse Mountains in the background.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We acknowledge the kind permission of the Bliss family allowing BIHS to reproduce Roy Bliss' poem and one of his sketches on this blog. 

Further reading

Poem: Glimpses of the sea by Roy W. Bliss
https://woodenboat.org.au/wp-content/uploads/file_uploads/The-Log/2018/18-02_The_Log_February_2018.pdf

Vale - Roy Bliss
The Log (Wooden Boat Association of Queensland Inc) Feb 2015, p. 4-5.
https://woodenboat.org.au/wp-content/uploads/file_uploads/The-Log/2015/15-02-The-Log-FEBRUARY-2015.pdf