Barbless spear (1962) Ron Zangari poses in one of Ben Cropp's historic photographs. Ben was using Ron Taylor's camera for these pictures as underwater photography was in it's infancy - the Calypso Phot not yet available in Australia.
Ron Zangari and the Tiger shark which should have made him famous.
Captain Wally Muller back in The Swain Reefs (1967) and now a spear fishermen.
Ron Zangari was deckhand aboard 42 foot Riversong had a 12 foot 6 inch beam.. Built in 1947 by W. Beattie of Mackay. The freezer could hold 4,500 pounds of frozen fish fillets.
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Gannet Cay weather station (The Swain Reefs). An example of how sand cays move - the weather station was initially in the centre of the cay.
Ron Taylor filming at the Man and Wife rocks, Yeppoon Qld (1963) with Ron Zangari.
Ron Zangari with a good catch at Fitzroy Lagoon (1964) Brian Rodger from South Australia at right.
We were on a diving safari on the New South Wales mid north coast.
A fisherman in Wooli Bowling Club told our friend, John Bonney of “a five meter-long monster” tangled in his deep water fish trap line a few kilometres north at the Sandon River pinnacle.
Fisherman Keith Knox of Minnewater NSW failed to recognize the catch and was quite frightened of what he saw without a face mask. We helped bring his catch home the next day with our twin 40 hp outboards doing the work his boat could not handle. As fishermen need to do, the ‘monster’ was disposed of – it was a prize catch. The ‘meat’ sent to the fish markets in Sydney, the ‘saw’ retained as a souvenir by the fisherman, the late Keith Knox of Minniewater near Wooli, NSW.
Very large Tiger shark, late afternoon, pursuaded Ralph Nelson to cancel our night dive - but only at the last minute with everyone suited up and ready for the dive.
This post in not complete. (Under construction)
Wild Kingdom was a long-running television series shown in many countries including Australia. The team of three or four Americans would invite one or two local experts to join their proposed expedition. These pictures are from the first of two expeditions myself (John Harding) was involved with. My purpose was to pick up 16mm film shots which could be used as cut-a-ways. It was a dual expedition - shark filming in The Coral Sea at Saumarez Reef. Sea Snakes closer to shore in the remote Swain Reefs east of Gladstone.
Gold Coast diver and a co-owner of a former Gold Coast oceanarium,John Reynolds. John Reynolds was the Wild Kingdom Australian contact for these productions. John chartered a local Gold Coast vessel for the risky travel a long distance travel offshore. In 1971 weather forecasting was primitive and GPS was still a few years from being available.
A squall upon our arrival at Saumarez Reef was not a good sign.
The WWII Liberty ship 'USS Francis Preston Blair' was still sufficiently intact to allow us to explore the top deck. Today the wreck has disintegrated into a pile of rusty metal.
Tom Allen was the young sidekick assistant for the host, Marlin Perkins. Tom's resume at SSI Pro5000 is impressive. UDT Navy Diver, stand-in on the Sea Hunt underwater series and son of Ross Allen who had an animal theme park in Florida.
I remember early travel footage in cinemas featuring Ross Allen 'wrestling' a huge python underwater in crystal conditions. Dramatic footage in the 1950s.
Wild Kingdom's Sea Snake documentary (1971) 'Voyage to the Coral Sea'
Wild Kingdom's Coral Sea Night Dive documentary.
Both films feature John Reynolds (below) a Director of Marineland, Southport Qld. (later taken over by Sea World).
A chance meeting with Sea Hunt in The Swain Reefs. John Reynolds about to hop aboard and say hello to skipper Ron Isbell, an old friend from their spear fishing days. Sea Hunt was to be chartered by WK for future expeditions.
Wild Kingdom brought a flimsy shark cage to Saumarez Reef. Quite useless.
Olive sea snake in The Swain Reefs. Dangerous species.
Deep night diving at Saumarez Reef, despite the presence of a large Tiger shark yet to be seen.
Stokesi sea snake - a large species. Dangerous but sluggish too.
Dr. Marlin Perkins (centre)
John Reynolds (Marineland Australia) up front in the dinghy. Cameraman Ralph J. Nelson II (far right)
'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.
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