Alex's Column 3 July 2025
- NAFA
- Jul 4
- 3 min read
It’s Territory Day 1 July as I write this column, so I thought I would tell you about my first fishing experiences in Darwin which, coincidentally, took place early in July 47 years ago.
That’s right, I arrived in the Territory just days after the Northern Territory was granted self-government by the Commonwealth, which is what Territory Day is all about.
Having lived in a tent for the previous couple of years, travelling and fishing mainly Western Australia, at the time I wondered what all the fuss was about.
My then traveling partner and I initially moved into a house being rented by friends.
Even back in those days, I was writing fishing stories for national magazines, and that first Sunday a bloke came round mid-afternoon, unannounced, to take me fishing.
His name was John Haenke, and he was a friend of the people we were staying with, hence the connection.
John’s rig was an old 4WD wagon and a little 3.3m aluminium dinghy on a trailer.
We drove to Casuarina Beach and along the beach towards Lee Point where we launched straight off the sand; which, of course, you could do in those days.
John was, and still is, a bloody good fisherman and he took the boat out to a reef off the point where we anchored.
Squid baits went over the side and we were into fish as soon as the lead sinkers hit the bottom.
It was a good catch, and included coral trout, golden snapper, estuary rock-cod, GTs and Spanish flag.
The first Spanish flag we caught was sent out on a big hook under a half-inflated party balloon.
It was a huge flag and John reckoned it would attract a Spanish mackerel which we could then throw a lure at.
Sure enough, a mack turned up – close enough to the flag to appear as if it was sniffing it.
John chucked a 4 inch Nilsmaster – which seemed to be the only lure on the planet in those halcyon Top End days – at the mack and it grabbed it unhesitatingly.
It wasn’t huge, maybe 7kg, which is probably why it didn’t take a bite out of the flag, and was landed without too much fuss.
We headed back to the beach after that, and I remember that we were the only boat off Lee Point, which would be most unusual nowadays on a July Sunday afternoon.
Just a few days later, John was also the first bloke to take me barra fishing in the Territory.
I’d already caught a few barra in WA at Fitzroy Crossing, and then the Ord River near Kununurra, but I was still a virgin on the Territory barra scene.
So guess where John took me…Corroboree Billabong, where else?
However, things were a bit different back then.
Access through Marrakai Station was denied in those days and, if you went in without permission, you literally risked life and limb.
The station manager was Ronnie Ball and the name of the game then was buffalo, not cattle as it mainly is now.
Ron took no prisoners. If he came across your parked 4WD where you’d launched your boat, and there was no signed letter of permission from the property owner, who lived in Darwin, his “buffalo” bar would be used unceremoniously to create a week’s good work for one of Darwin’s panel beaters.
I remember one story when some people actually set up a tent on the billabong bank.
They had no permission and Ron demolished their camp, tent and all, driving over it with his old short-wheel-base “air-top” Tojo.
Fortunately, John worked at what was then Channel 8 (now 9) which was owned by one of the directors of Marrakai Station, so he was usually able to get written permission.
I remember there was a third bloke with us that day.
From memory, his name was Gavin, and he was a real bugger.
It was all trolling back then, and he trolled two rods, one on either side so that his Nilsmasters (what else?) flanked both John’s and my lures on the inside.
We caught a few barra, including a couple for myself, and, like everyone who ever goes there, I left spellbound by Corroboree.
By the way, nowadays John Haenke and his partner Peta live in Bowen Queensland where he still operates as a fly-fishing guide.
