Whitsunday connections

I’ll be writing a book about my grandparents and their involvement with Hayman Island in the early 1930s but in the meantime here’s a little background.

Hayman Island days

In the very early 1930s Bob and Millie Hallam, with Bob’s brother Bert Hallam, took on the lease of Hayman Island to operate as a tourist resort. Prior to this, Hayman was used as a camp-site for tourists coming up from the south to fish under lease to Monty Embury. When the Hallams took it over, according to Millie’s recollections, the accommodation consisted mainly of tents and a few scattered cabins. Furniture was made from anything people could get their hands on. Pine packing cases in which kerosene tins were delivered, were turned into bedside tables and chests of drawers. The empty ‘kero’ tins cut down and complete with handles became the drawers. The beds used were the canvas camp stretchers. Despite the rustic ambiance, the southern tourists loved it.

More to follow in the near future….