TCP A 45 PG 1 - The Coastal Passage Home Page

Flotsam
Words & photos Bob Norson (previously in TCP #16)
Somewhere behind the protection of the Great Barrier Reef
in Australia, a beach faces the prevailing south east trade
winds. In times of the northerlies a special treat for a
passing boatie as the usually forbidden anchorage is now
the sheltered one. On the beach and scattered
everywhere is flotsam. Plastic. Used. Broken. Empty.
No longer valued so deposited here with the natural
flotsam of coconuts, shells, weeds, dead fish and broken
coral.
A container found with the printing in unusually readable
condition but I can not read it because it is in Chinese, I
think. It is “Yoplait yogurt, active culture” but I cannot read
the rest. There are scraps of rope, bottles of coke (of
course) and empty oil containers but most are without label
or defining shape, just plastic.
One is found that is not so old and it does have a label
still. It is “Aquafina, fully conditioned,” drinking water.
Someone was very concerned for their water to be clean
and natural. The bottle says it is recyclable; that's
important I guess.
Visitors to the beach have collected flotsam, and made it
into a thing of art, a pattern in the sand to be reformed by
the artist's brush of nature the next strong wind.
A huge piece of rope that must have fallen from some
great ship looks to be a thing alive and crawling among
the rocks next to the white plastic….something. And on
one of the larger rocks under the tree where someone has
suspended a discarded rope as a swing is the ultimate
flotsam collectable. A pair of thongs, right and left about the
same size but not quite the same type. One may have
been from the Gold Coast, maybe the other was from New
Caledonia.
History is usually written by people who want to shape the
facts to suit their own ambitions or ideals, but the truth is in
the flotsam. It is the honest record of who we are.
coconut!
BOATING SPECIALISTS - DISCOUNT PRICES
41 Charters Towers Road, Hyde Park,
TOWNSVILLE
4771 5557
Mon -Fri 8.30am to5.00pm
Sat 8.30am to 1.00pm
(Except Public Holidays)
www.biasboating.com.au
15 Locations Nationwide
email: biastow@biasboating.com.au
FREE BIG COLOUR CATALOGUE
• Thousands of Items •
•
•Thousands of Items • Fully Illustrated
•Discount Prices
Pick up your copy or phone and quote
this ad and we will post one to you
www.lawriesboatservices.com.au
The Coastal Passage #45 2010 Page 17