Tales From Davy Jones's Locker
Newcastle Herald
Friday July 25, 2003
AFTER 50 years of spearfishing, the Neptunes Underwater Club has enough fishing stories to fill a book.
And that's just what is going to happen, with club president Dallas Davies now compiling a history of the club which will be published in time for the 50th anniversary dinner on September 20.
Among the members helping with memories of early days is his father, George Davies, who was among the 11 foundation members and has been club secretary since 1958.
Recalling his first contact with the underwater world, George Davies said he was reading a magazine in his doctor's surgery in 1939 when he came across an article entitled ``Human submarine shoots fish with arrows".
``Being young and adventurous, the article had me fantasising about hunting the denizens of the deep in the company of man-eating sharks," he said.
In the ensuing years, George and his younger brother Trevor, also a Neptunes foundation member, fashioned masks and snorkels from discarded car tubes and, by the mid-1940s, had developed the world's first self-contained pneumatic speargun.
By 1950 they had built aqualungs based on the principle of reduction and demand valves invented by Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnan in 1945.
``The novelty of spearing fish with aqualungs was short-lived, partly due to the expiring air frightening off fish and the moral issues involved," said Dallas Davies.
``It was agreed that the use of scuba gave the spearfisherman an unfair advantage. It was another 25 years before this was enforced by legislation in NSW."
Meanwhile, the Neptunes club had been formed and had its first competition in 1953.
Underwater skills were soon in demand for more than sport, with the club helping in the search for amphibious army vehicles that sank during a storm in Stockton Bight in 1954.
In 1955, seven members of the club worked up to two metres below floodwater in Maitland Park to help restore the city's water supply.
On the fishing side, highlights of the club's history have included establishing premises at Charlestown in 1960, conducting the NSW Deep Sea Angling Championships at Port Stephens in 1973 and organising the first international competition in Australia, the South Pacific Spearfishing Championships, at Port Stephens, in 1978.
The Neptunes are also continuing with a determined effort they began in 1996 to have the rare bluefish protected in NSW.
Former members interested in contributing to the club's history can ring Dallas Davies on 49574482 or 0404041448.
© 2003 Newcastle Herald