|
A few years ago, a large group, know as “the scroungers” visited Steep Point with there normal group of 15 people. They stay for about 8-10 days. They arrived at Steep Point and set up camp near the Ovens. There prized possession for this trip was the 75 cartons of beer that they had brought with them. That’s 1800 cans of beer. One whole trailer carried just beer, wine and spirits. 100 cans had already been drunk on the trip up.
Anyway on the 3rd or 4th day, late into the evening, it was totally dark, one of the fisherman caught a large Mullaway. Whilst trying to gaff this fish the gaff-man, who was not in good shape having consumed a large amount of the beer, fell in. All hell broke loose. Being a large group helped at this point as many torches shone over the cliffs edge keeping the gaff-man in sight. Many ropes were thrown at the floundering gaff-man and eventually he was able to grab one. Being slightly more sober now than only a few minutes earlier he was able to secure the rope around himself. We 14 people now slowly hauling the hapless gaff-man up the cliff face it would still have been a scary place to be, both for the gaff-man in complete darkness and his 14 mates panicking about their mate’s safety. As the gaff-man made his way to the cliffs edge, about 30 feet above the water, he was only able to extend one hand to his now hero mates. Over the edge he came, totally bewildered as to what all the fuss was about. His group of mates were looking at the drowned gaff-man there was total quite. The gaff-man still had the large Mullaway under his arm. He had not let it go and for some reason was not at all shaken up.
The following day the gaff-man realized what had happened the night before and was a bit of a recluse for the rest of this trip.
This is probably the best of the worst tales from Steep Point; however there are I believe two deaths directly related to Steep Point over a very long period of time.
These cliffs are dangerous for the careless fisherman, or drunken fisherman, but with a little bit of care and constant attention you should be OK. Most people do have some sort of a recovery plan to get someone out of the water, but it is not an easy task.
Stax
|