Prawners Down Under (Vol2‪)‬

Prawners Down Under is a sprawling, rollicking book that recounts first hand the adventurous saga of Brian Bienke’s lifetime of fishing in the waters of Australia’s New SouthWales and Queensland’s tropical north. Brian’s story follows four generations of his family from the 1920s until the present, sailing out of their home base of Byron Bay and then Brunswick Heads, in northern New SouthWales, into the wild waters that stretch from Cape York Peninsula, across the vast Gulf of Carpentaria, to the Northern Territory’s Arafura Sea.
This is a fascinating insight into an era when a tough breed of men and women endured continuous hardships and danger to pursue their livelihood.
Crocodiles, sharks, and cyclones just some of the risks that had to be faced in an unforgiving environment that punished the unwary with injuries and sometimes death.
Trawling for prawns is a lucrative business and the rewards can be great,but it is highly competitive and a fleets of vessels converged on the best fishing areas each season to outdo each other, often leading to hostile confrontations between crews.
But the rough and tumble fishing world was not without its friendships and fun, and Brian’s book has many humorous anecdotes that paint vivid pictures of these hardy characters enjoying each other’s company at sea,or around a campfire on isolated beaches around the Gulf.
Prawners Down Under is a no-holds-barred journey through a fishing life that is both enthralling and entertaining. It is also a true to life historic record of a time that is vanishing forever.