Saving the whale

In the Royal National Park at Era Beach, the Heritage-listed cabins, which locals call shacks, look out onto the sea. On Tuesday, June 16, Paul Boufler, a shack holder from Era Point, noticed a whale to the north, off the point known as Thelma Point. It seemed to be moving around, but not going anywhere. 

A large number of whales migrate north at this time of year and they often come in close to the points in the Royal National Park, including Thelma Point and Semi-detached Point.

The next day Paul noticed that the whale was still there, so he thought something was amiss. He talked to his friend Graham Holloway, whose shack is on the other side of the beach. Both are longstanding members of the Era Surf Life Saving Club and they decided to investigate. 

They used a Inflatable Rescue Boat (IRB) from the Surf Club to head out towards the whale. As they approached it, the whale lifted its tail – which was tangled in rope – into the air. 

“It seemed like the whale just wanted to show us what was wrong”, said Graham. The rope seemed to be tethered to the sea floor, probably some kind of anchor rope stuck on the reef off Thelma Point.

Graham used his mobile to call 000 and a chain of people were alerted, including police and Surf Com (Surf Life Saving Communications Team). Graham was then fielding lots of calls.

Paul and Graham saw three NPWS rangers on nearby Little Garie Point. They motored over to them in the IRB, and told the rangers what was happening. One ranger, Jason, asked if they could take him out to the whale, so they did. They all observed the whale up close and Jason also noticed the rope wrapped around the whale’s tail.

Jason made calls to get the NPWS IRB, which had the equipment necessary to free the whale.

Graham and Paul took Jason back to Little Garie Point and he asked them to return to the whale and stay with it until the National Parks team arrived. It took three hours for the NPWS to arrive with their specially equipped IRB and by this time the whale seemed to be in distress.

After observing the whale and assessing the situation, the NPWS crew asked Graham and Paul to assist with the freeing of the whale by holding the rope, while the NPWS staff cautiously approached the whale to cut the rope.

Freed, the whale swam away lifting and flapping its tail, as if showing them it was free of the rope. 

Graham and Paul then tried to pull as much of the rope as possible out of the water to reduce the chance of a whale being caught up here again, and they cut a length of the rope and gave it to NPWS.

The two teams, NPWS and Era Surf Club shackies, were jubilant. They congratulated each other and handshakes were exchanged all round.
A job well done!

As Graham and Paul pulled the IRB out of the surf at Era Beach they noticed the whale had followed them. It was just out past the break, and seemed to watch them get out of the IRB. 

“We were concerned it was going to beach itself, but maybe it was just coming to thank us,” said Graham. It suddenly turned, circled around Era and North Era beaches for a while, then disappeared out to sea at dusk. 

About the author

Helen Voysey is a retired GP, lifetime member of the Era shack community. She was the president of the RNP Coastal Cabins Protection League for 20 years, during which time the communities obtained State Heritage Listing in 2012. Helen was following in the footsteps of my father, Lew Voysey, who built the family shack in 1936 on the then freehold land called the Byrne Estate.