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REEF & BEEF ON SWEERS...

With his second trip this year and another one to go yet, before his caretaking stint, Rob Pierce is nearly a 'local' now! Together with Jim Liston and some more north queenslanders from the Tablelands, Ingham, and Tully area - they managed to get some good fishing in, before yet another duststorm blew the Gulf up into a foamy, dusty, fury...

Father and son team Alan and Aston got some great fish including this magnificent Red Emperor - Tex says it is the biggest one he's ever seen!

(Thanks guys, for sending in these great photos!)

Last time Rob was here, he took some fish back, and he took it on a trip to Maree, where he and some friends met up with his old mate Ross to fly and view Lake Eyre in flood. The fish remained frozen solid in the esky as they flew from Longreach to Birdsville, Lake Eyre and finally, Maree. Jim and John had frozen fingers after thawing it out in an esky full of Marree bore water but Rob says this did not affect the flavour at all!  Ross and his mates are all off the land from western Queensland and do not see too much fresh fish so they are still talking about it. Even the North Queenslanders were impressed! So much so, that Ross, who breeds Wagyu cattle on his property 'Conloi', reciprocated with some tender Wagyu beef, which Rob brought to Sweers - this meat is intensly marbled with the 'good fats' = monounsaturated. The marbling not only provides good oils to the eater, but it may even be able to lower cholesterol. Wag'yu means 'Japanese Cow' and the original cattle were used to pull wagons and farm equipment, so they developed heavy muscle; meanwhile a couple of hundred years' ban on eating beef or importing new breeds, meant that they developed into a unique breed, many of them standing around, Zen-like, relaxed, tender! Myths arose about how the farmers fed them beer and massaged them, but this is more than likely because cramped conditions meant farmers fed them beer to stimulate their appetite, and used straw to wipe them down. Good story though! And the practice of keeping the cattle relaxed and calm has certainly resulted in stress free animals who hopefully meet their destiny philosophically, and whose tender juicy meat has to be tried to be believed.

Here is Rob and the gang enjoying some Sweers Island Reef Fish in Maree earlier this year: click on the image of Rob cooking, to see the end result!

And here we all are enjoying some Australian Wagyu: click on the image of Mick barbecuing the steaks to see the end result!

And here are a couple of magnificent photos of the Lake Eyre floods, taken by John Baird:

MORNING GLORY MAGIC

After a couple of lacklustre seasons, this year we are seeing some spectacular Morning Glory Clouds - they started early, and have been quite consistent. This year it is 20 years since the first glider surfed a Morning Glory Cloud, that was Rob Thompson and Russell White - and they are joined in Burketown this year by a host of other gliders, trikes and hang-gliders. Russell has been here nearly every year since that first flight, here he is again on Sweers...

And here is Rob, in his newer aircraft - (Rob & Russell first flew on the MG in their jointly-owned ZAK but now Rob is flying YT which has a most interesting history! ERestored ex Indonesian military trainer...hopefully we can put this history on our Aircraft page (when Lyn gets some free time!!!) Meanwhile, here are Rob and Nigel and also Tex helping remove the film camera for the flight back to the mainland, after another wonderful surf along one of the best north-origin Glories we've seen this year...

On Sept 23rd we were treated to the rare southern glory - with 6 perfect formations rolling over Sweers, and several more sighted over Mornington Island. The clouds usually roll in from the northeast, so this was a rare treat, and although they were not the most photogenic ones we've seen, here are a couple of photos:

Facing south, you can see one roll overhead and another approaching.....the wind really picked up as they went over - 28 knots - see the flagpole bend!

Another roll approaching the island from the south...and then it rolls off to the north...

The clouds passed over around 7am, while we listened on the news about the severe dust storms down south. Around 9am, our southerly wind swung round to the north, and the clouds blew back again, this time joining up to form a sheet of Altocumulus, just a few gaps showing how they had once been rolls. Then, around lunchtime, the wind swung to the southeast and we soon saw the orange glow in the sky that within the hour had us enveloped in dust, nowhere near as bad as down south, but enough to ground an aircraft here and prevent another flying in from Burketown. A strange day for weather! And the Bureau of Meteorology was here making their annual inspection of Sweers Island Weather Observation Station!

Also lucky enough to witness the Morning Glory were some lucky guests - the Three Amigos (alas, minus Freddo, the 3rd Amigo, who hurt his back just before he was due to make the trip north - Get Well Soon, Fred! And also, Get Well Soon greetings to Judy Hafner, who was taken ill on the very morning she was due to leave -

Meanwhile, here is a magnificent Barramund which the boys caught, to make you feel better!

That's Gary Louden with a fine Barra, caught off the top of the island - a new spot!

(You can read the previous adventures of the Three Amigos by clicking HERE...)

RECORD CATCH FOR 2009!

No such thing as the Power of One on Sweers, no, it's the power of TWO! Couple Gary and Debbie Collier from Canberra teamed up to hook and land a record catch on June 26, 2009 - a 27kg ( almost 60 lbs!) Spanish Mackerel. Well done Gary & Debbie! ( I have to put in here that the fish did take Deb's bait and hook!!!!)

That's Gary and Debbie Collier with their Champion Mackerel! Deb hooked the fish on her line and hubbie Gary helped pull it in - a marvellous team effort that matches the previous record set way back in 1993...and Deb went on to hook and land a 13kg fish so all we can say is YOU GO, GIRL!

And last year's biggest catch has been acknowledged, with a special presentation to Doug Peachy, back again in July 2009 for another trip, after his record breaking visit last year when he caught his first ever Spanish Mackerel, and the biggest one for the year!

Here is Doug being presented with his special mackerel trophy by Fleetmaster Mick Davies, with resort owner Tex Battle in the background holding up the main mackerel trophy which will be engraved with each year's champ.

Mick presenting Doug with a stainless steel engraved trophy to keep.

Tex and Doug holding the perpetual trophy while Doug shows off his special engraved mackerel.

Speech! Speech!

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