'Super Diver'. Nikon F in a plastic bag (1974) Underwater comedy sequence in 16mm.
John Gallagher (1933 - ) Great-Aunt featured on the Australian ten dollar banknote, Dame Mary Gilmore who he remembers well.
A founding member of Sydney's Eastern Suburbs Club, White Water Wanderers. Club mates were pioneers Ron Ible, Harry Dowsell, Don Read, Vic Ley, possibly Scott Dillon, Don Linklater, Spud Murphy and Andy Armstrong.
John Gallagher has been able to add information (May 2019) to people in this picture, at Heron Island 1957. Mr. Les Price was a film cameraman and 16mm film-making mentor for young Ron Taylor. (Ron is 2nd from left)
John Gallagher - (red costume)
Two boats had departed Heron Island for Sykes Reef about 10km away from the resort. John Gallagher encountered the Tiger when it swam up to him in shallow water. "I could have speared it in the eye, the spear was just inches away but caution told me 'don't'. I yelled out to Wally Gibbins 'there's a big shark here' and they came over in their boat".
The rest is freediving history.
Times have changed. Tiger sharks are now food-friendly at diving resorts. It's a concern for us old-time divers who know wild sharks have a different disposition to the tame variety. A big predator is potentially very dangerous in the wrong set of circumstances.
Grey Nurse shark (1964) A scene from but not shown in the film.
Whale shark hitch hike free divers (1967). (Ron Taylor film image) Became the flagship image ofTaylors Innerspace a 13 episode series.
DIVER=MUSICIAN MAKES DOCUMENTARY FEATURING HIS SHARK BITE (RECREATED).
Other shark bitten survivors were interviewed in Savage Shadows.
A RON TAYLOR SHARK FILM (Dramatized documentary).
Filmed in The Coral Sea (1964) Unnecessary shark scenes at the end ran 2 mins 40+ seconds or the length of a 100 foot roll of 16 mm film. Hardly one second wasted by expert cameraman and film editor Ron Taylor. YouTube version "Saumarez Reef" (below)
PRESENTED BY RON TAYLOR - IN PERSON.
How the world first saw White Pointer sharks underwater. Hollywood chose the more dramatic title Great White which was more suitable than White Death as used by paperback author Zane Grey when he fished for sharks and marlin in Australia during several trips in the 1930s.
Fathom mag #3 (1972) The first Coral Sea trip for divers.
Ron and Val Taylor, Walt and Jean Deas, Vic Ley, and Roy Bisson were aboard.
Fathom No.3 (1972)
1964
1964
Chesterfield Reef trip (1971)
Middleton Reef trip (1972 and 1973)
Kenn Reef trip (1970) Walt Deas picture of his wife Jean.
Ron Taylor (1964)
self (1965)
Ron Taylor live narration shows at the Union Theatre (1967-1968)
Riversong captained by Wally Muller(b. 1930)was the one boat sufficiently brave or reckless enough to explore The Swain Reefs (un-chartered until 1965) and Saumarez Reef in The Coral Sea.
Ron Zangari wrote of the first free divers to The Swain Reefs.
Ron Zangari photographed by Ben Cropp (circa 1962)
Ron Taylor's documentary (1964) Good quality and sound.
Grey Nurse shark jaws (circa 1964)
Spear fishing aboard Riversong (1964)
New Skindiving Paradise (new edit) Heron Island 1963
Ron Taylor at Fitzroy Lagoon (offshore Gladstone Qld) 1964
South Australian shark bite survivor Brian Rodger. (1964)
Alexander and Roy Muller - sons of Captain Wally Muller.
Grey Nurse shark speared at Wattamolla, Sydney circa 1961
Ted Louis and Dave Rowling (both at the left, top, and below) were the leaders of that era.
Ben Crop with the poison injecting syringe on a spear.
Ron Taylor, (right), homemade equipment. Kurnell NSW
Plongees - a French underwater magazine noted for color covers. A brilliant portrait of the new CMAS World Champion. Ron Taylor held in French Polynesia (Tahiti) 1965
Ron Taylor and his Sydney skin-diving team appear in The Shark Hunters documentary.
Ted Louis, Blue groper possibly at Jibbon bombora.
John Gallagher has been able to add information (May 2019) to ID people in the 'Fish at Heron' group picture, Heron Island 1957. Mr. Les Price was a film cameraman and 16mm film-making mentor for young Ron Taylor, whose first film was the black and white television 1961-62 special "The Shark Hunters" with Ben Cropp - the first underwater shark hunting movie, at a time when Grey nurse sharks were thought the common man-eaters - thought so by the media. A time when making any shark ID was difficult for even professional fishermen.
Ron followed with a color film "Skindiving Paradise" in 1965 for the Queensland Government Tourist Bureau despite featuring massive spearfishing scenes at a resort. An example of the attitudes then.
"New Skindiving Paradise" (2018) is a shorter edited version. (Quality is poorer due to generational losses from the original - this version meets with Valerie Taylor's approval - below).
Valerie in 'New Skindiving Paradise' (2018)
The mini-book "Sharks and other Predatory Fish" (1959) by Peter Goadby offered the first illustrations to help separate dangerous sharks. Goadby declined a request to reprint the shark drawings in the Fathom sharks issue.
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