ON THE FLENSING DECK
with “Snow” Port, Wynnum North
“I worked for six months at Tangalooma Whaling Station on the flensing deck where the whale carcasses were cut up into chunks of blubber ready for boiling. As you can imagine, the smell was horrendous. After the whales had been killed, their carcasses were towed into the Bay to the whaling station at Tangalooma. Large sharks would follow them in. When the carcasses were winched up onto the flensing deck ready to be cut up by me and my mate, there would sometimes still be a huge shark still attached to the flesh on which it had been feeding. When it did finally let go, it would thrash around on the flensing deck with its teeth snapping. We made sure we kept well clear of it!”
Bob Emmett adds: ‘Whales were everywhere round Moreton. Once in the “Heath” we had to heave to between Comboyuro Point and Tangalooma because the water was so thick with them. Also, the chasers sometimes didn’t have to go even as far as North Point before catching their full complement of whales. They wouldn’t even get outside the bay. I’ve seen the whaling station break down, and 16 whales left rotting. They were absolutely putrid, and they had to tow them out to sea and blow them up. When the station was operational, the smell was pretty bad anyway, and if you walked along the beach near Tangalooma, the water’s edge was always oily.’
Extract from ‘Moreton Bay People – The Complete Collection’.
Moreton Bay History 
Sad times. The whales have had their revenge, now around in increasing numbers, which is good news. I even saw on the news last night, that they like to frolic around out from Main Beach on the GC and use the sand on the bottom to exfoliate. Beautiful part of the world, Tangalooma
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