Of Tragedy and Valor
Graham Toleman Rumbelow

Graham Toleman Rumbelow (Rummy) was born at Ethelton, SA, on 10th June 1927.

He was the only son of Lionel Toleman Rumbelow and Ivy Lottie Doreen Chilton who married on 17th June 1925. 

Lionel Rumbelow had survived the tragic sinking of the Ferret on December 23rd 1932 which claimed 2 lives. Lionel was a stalwart of the Encounter Bay Football Club as a player, official, goal umpire and supporter for all of his life.

Graham Rumbelow lived all his life at Encounter Bay where his forebears, for some for generations, also lived and fished in these waters. Perhaps it was natural that Graham, qualified carpenter as he was, should turn to building fishing boats and eventually to the occupation of fisherman.  Graham Rumbelow typifies the fishermen of a bygone era: self-effacing, simple, tough, wise in the ways of the sea and always ready to lend a hand when needed.

Graham grew up at Yilki and became close to his cousins, Ivan and Don Bartel and David (Rocket) Rumbelow. They fished, swam and lived in boats and helped with the fishing business whenever able. Graham was a good swimmer and helped his Uncle Eric teach swimming at the Baths. 

School was not his thing so he left at 14 and worked as a carpenter for Arch Appleby, then Harold Vorwerk and then Bartel Brothers where he was a foreman for some time. 

Graham married Jean Metcalf on 31st January 1948 and had three children, Donald, Malcolm and Raelene.

He built a 22 foot Carvel Hull craft named Mae-Don (after his children) which he used with Lionel.  Graham built the Gra-lin and took up professional fishing in 1962 in partnership with his cousin, Lin Shannon. 

Graham became a very successful cray and shark fisherman and was president of the Southern Fishermen's Association and a member of the Crayfish Advisory Council of SA. 

Graham was a keen sportsman and was captain of the Encounter Bay Cricket Team for 13 years, became a life member of the Football Club and represented the Association in both sports. He was a tough footballer and many opponents seemed to make contact with his fist with their chins.

After selling his share of Gra-lin to Lin Shannon, his son Don joined him fishing on a larger boat, the Taperoo but bad health later saw them sell the Taperoo and buy J & R Joinery.  Graham’s health continued to decline so he bought another crayfish boat the Azalea and fished locally. 

He then decided to build a 40-foot riverboat, which he did without plans on the floor of his shed. After about 4 years Graham and Jean launched Rums Rambler at the marina on Hindmarsh Island and started many wonderful trips up the river with friends and family. 

Graham loved the sea and was out fishing with his close friend and cousin, Don Bartel, on the day he went to hospital, passing away in 1995 at age 68.

40 Fishermen Attend Meeting

•  Victor Harbour Times (SA : 1932 - 1986) 

•  Fri 11 Nov 1966 

•  60 Fishermen Attend Meeting

A special meeting of fisher.men held at Goolwa on 2nd November was attended by sixty fishermen from areas as far afield as Narrung, Murray Bridge, Wellington, Meningie, Milang, as well as from Port Elliot, Victor Harbour,

• Encounter Bay, Prospect Hill, and Goolwa. The main business transacted was the formation of a new and larger organisation, to be known as the Southern Fishermen's Association. The meeting was addressed by Mr. R. Thompson, Fisheries Inspector, who spoke on the problems of fishermen generally, the revising of existing fishing laws, uniform buoy marking of nets, pollution of river waters, and research into fishing. Mr. Thompson also introduced Mr. Mitchell, Senior Fisheries Inspector. The following officers were elected : — 

  • • President, * Mr. G. Rumbelow, of Yilki; 

    • Vice president, Mr. T. A. Weidenhofer, of Wellington; 

    • Secretary, Mr. L. A. Lundstrom, of Goolwa; 

    • Assistant secretary, Mr. David Jenkins, of Victor Harbour. 

Delegates elected to represent their respective areas are as follows : — MeningieCoorong, Messrs. E. A. Haywood and J. U. Lucieer, both of Meningie ; Claton, Milang, Wellington, Messrs. H. Jones, Milang, and Mr. T. A. Weidenhofer, Wellington; Goolwa area, Messrs. S. Chappell and M. Burt, both of Goolwa; Port Elliot, Victor Harbour, Encounter Bay area. Messrs. H. Ewen. Yilki, and J. Maher, Victor Harbour. All of the above elected members will form the committee of management, and in the near future will represent the Association at the Parliamentary Select Committee appointed to enquire into the fishing industry.

Medals for bravery

Victor Harbour Times (SA : 1932 - 1986) 

 Wed 1 Jun 1977 

Three men involved in a sea rescue at Yilki, Encounter Bay, in May 1975, last Friday received Royal Humane Society bronze medals for bravery. The three were among nine men to receive the medals from the Lieutenant-Governor (Mr. W.R. Cricker) at a ceremony at Government House.

The men involved in the Encounter Bay rescue were Mr. Kenneth Proctor, 51, of Vale Park; Mr. Graham Rumbelow. 49. Of Victor Harbor; and Mr. Christopher Tapscott, 23, of Port Elliot.

They went to the aid of Mr. Geoffrey Malen Rumbelow whose boat had broken from its moorings. They managed to get him ashore but he did not respond to treatment.

Mr. Graham Rumbelow said that many years ago his grandfather had been involved in successfully rescuing a man in the same area.

Graham drawn to life at sea

• Times (Victor Harbor, SA : 1987 - 1999) 

•  Wed 24 Oct 1990 

• by Janine Jones 

Graham Rumbelow can remember a time when nearly everyone at Encounter Bay was related.

"When we were kids we would stop off at the house we were nearest to because they were all relatives," recalls Graham. "Everyone at the Bay was related except for John Robby and George Battye." 

The name Rumbelow is synonymous with the history of Encounter Bay. Graham's ancestors arrived in Australia in 1854 and were pioneers of the Encounter Bay district. His great grandfather, grandfather and father Lionel were all fishermen, but when Graham left school his father wouldn't let him continue the tradition. 

"I was 14 and I was always get-ting into trouble because I was out fishing instead of being at school," Graham said. "But Dad said it wasn't much of a living and that I should get a trade instead." Graham became apprenticed to a local carpenter, Mr Appleby, and then went to work for the Cakebreads before his appointment as foreman at Bartels. 

But in 1960, four years after his father had died, the urge for a life at sea became too great and he built the boat Gra-lin. 

"Fishing was in my blood. Dad was a fisherman and it just seemed an easier going life," Graham said. 

"It was only a living in those days, there was no real money in it. When Dad was fishing you'd only get two or three bob a dozen, crayfish were nine pence a pound, the biggest crayfish you'd catch was two shillings and two bob a dozen for the little ones. If you like to work these days you can make a fortune. You couldn't sell the sharks you used to catch, you'd have to go out and catch some schnapper before you'd get anything back."

However, Graham believes fishermen have it much easier these days as far as work is concerned. 

"They don't know anything about it now, they don't have to sail and have echo sounders, they've got it all laid on. "The old fellas had to catch two or three loads of fish before they could even get one home and they'd have to chuck the rest over the side because there was no refrigeration.

"They had to pull everything up by hand and they couldn't fish very far from land or they never would have known where they were. "The new blokes have got it made now but the only problem is you can't get into it unless you're a millionaire." 

Over the years Graham has built countless boats including the 22 footer, Mae-don, named after his three children Malcolm, Raelene and Don, and the riverboat Rum's Rambler, which took him six years to build. 

Graham was a member of Encounter Bay football and cricket clubs during the 1940s and 50s. He and both his sons are life members of the Encounter Bay Football Club. 

His grandchildren are all avid sailors and he believes the love of the sea is a family trait . "It's a way of life, once you get into that way of life it just goes on and you can't get out of it — but most of the time you don't want to get out of it really," he said. 

"There have been some disasters but you would have the same with something else. "I reckon the sea's been good to us."

Oral history research project with Graham Rumbelow 

by Jack Darcey for Murdoch University on the 1st February, 1990

Interview with Mr Graham Rumbelow, fisherman of Victor Harbor, South Australia as part of an oral history research project conducted by the  Murdoch University Economics Department and coordinated by Malcolm Tull. The interview was conducted in Mr Rumbelow's (GR) home in Victor Harbor by Jack Darcey (INT) for Murdoch University on the 1st February, 1990.

INT Graham would you record your full name and date and place of birth please? 

GR It's Graham Toleman Rumbelow and I was born on the 10th June 1927 at Ethelton down the Port  Adelaide. 

INT And you've lived in South Australia all your life? 

GR I've lived in Encounter Bay all my life. I came home when I [was] three weeks old so I've been here all my life, yeah. 

INT Your family's a very, very old established family in South Australia, isn't it?

GR Yes. They've been here for well over 100 years; 140 years I think, something like that. So they've been here a long, long while. I think they've been fishermen all their life. You know, ever since they've been here. 

INT And always in Encounter Bay or from Encounter Bay? 

GR From Encounter Bay, yes. 

INT You're probably fifth generation or something? 

GR I think so. Yeah, I think I'm the fifth, yeah. I know that but we've had a good life and I think fishing's been very good to us really. 

INT Did you have uncles and cousins also in fishing? 

GR I had grandfathers, fathers, uncles and cousins. All of them [have] been fishermen, yeah. They've been in all sorts of fishing. 

INT But you didn't start off as a fisherman, did you? 

GR No I started off as a carpenter but ever since I could walk I've been in the boat with dad 'cause he was a professional fisherman. He was more or less an all round fisherman. He fished up the Coorong. He fished here for crayfish and mullet and snapper. The sharks weren't any good when dad was a fisherman. He couldn't sell them so they didn't catch them much. Towards his latter part of life he caught a few shark and sold them. Up until then, no; he was only a cray fisherman mainly here. 

INT How did it come about then that you, a carpenter, would go into fishing? 

GR I think it [laughs].... When I was a kid, he told me that I couldnt go into fishing because he reckoned there was nothing in it but as the years went on, you know, he was still fishing and making a good living so I went fishing. I didn't go fishing until after dad. Didn't go fishing full time until after my father died but then I built a boat and then we went fishing in her. 

INT You built it yourself? 

GR Yeah. A mate, Lin Shannon, and I built it between us. He'd come back and he wanted a mate to go fishing with so we built the Gralin then and went fishing. She worked out very good really. 

INT What size boat was it? 

GR She was 41 feet. She was supposed to be a 40 footer but when she finished she was 41. So somewhere along the line we made a bit of a blue but, oh no, she was very good. 

INT And what sort of power did you have? 

GR We had a four cylinder Fordson diesel in it. It worked very well.

INT And what sort of fishing did you do?

GR We started off, the first year we were here, we did a bit of cray fishing and caught some snapper. We paid for the first twelve months we had her in snapper [which] paid for the material. We had no labour costs as we did it all ourselves but we paid for it with snapper alone. You wouldn't do it now I'm afraid. You'd be lucky if you caught enough to pay for the nails now let along anything else. 

INT Yes. What style of construction was it? 

GR Planks; like we got all the planks. We imported the planking from Western Australia and she was jarrah. Everything in her was jarrah and [the] ribs of course were karri. The keel was one long length. We had to cut seven feet off it, it was that long but we had enough for the stem. Oh she was, you know, quite good. 

INT Is that boat still going? 

GR Yeah. She's over at Lincoln. I was only over there, oh about twelve months ago I suppose and she's still working good. She's still working out of Lincoln now, yeah. 

INT So how old would it be now? 

GR Oh we built her in '62 so she'd be 30 years old I reckon. Well very close to 30 anyway. 

INT Yeah. That's not a bad record is it? 

GR No. The old fellow, old Mr Hicks, drew us a plan for her and he drew it on a sheet of graph paper. When he drew it he said, "Now you want such and such" and he told us how much we'd want. He said, "You'll most probably be a bit more fussy than I'd be". He said, "You'll want a bit extra" so we got what he told us. It worked out exactly right so he was a clever old fellow. 

INT Yeah. Was he a boat designer? 

GR Well, no. He was just a fisherman I think but he'd drawn a lot of boats. He was always building boats. 

INT And where did you actually build her?

GR I built it in my back yard in Encounter Bay, right alongside the hospital. We didn't have room to get her out so we had to borrow or get the next door neighbour to cut his fence so we could get the low loader in to get her out. We took her to Adelaide and they lifted her in off the wharf at Port Adelaide. Oh she worked real good. I was very pleased with her. She's done a good job really. 

INT  Have you built any other boats? 

GR Oh plenty of them yeah but I started off building flatties just for dad and them for mullet fishing for a start. When I started they were all planks. When we finished of course we went and they were all bondwood. The last one we built was all bondwood. There were still two or three of them up at Meningie. Oh only twelve months ago I saw one of them up there they were still using anyway. She'd be well over 30 years old now. 

INT Have you tried any steel boats? 

GR As a matter of fact I've just put one in the water on the 13th December this . She's only a river boat, a pleasure boat. She's 40 feet long with a 15 foot beam and I've gone back and put another Fordson motor in her but we're using it with hydraulics. So I'm quite happy. She's working alright, yeah. 

INT When you started off in the Gralin, you went shark and cray fishing?

GR Yeah. We started off cray fishing actually. Then we started long-lining. 

INT For shark? 

GR For shark, yeah. We'd just started long-lining and the sharks weren't too flash at the time and we were going down to the Murray mouth one day to have a look to see if we could get some crays down there. We'd been fishing all along the cliffs here and the crays had sort of steadied off a bit and it was in about March. We were off to the mouth to see if they were still crawling down there. As we were going we saw another fellow fishing outside of Seal Rock and so we steamed out towards him to see if he had any bait because we were a bit short of bait. When we got there, there was a porpoise floating on the top of the water and Lin looked over the side and he said, "Hell, look at the snapper". You could see the snapper swimming around under this porpoise so we immediately stopped and caught thirteen or fourteen boxes of snapper and we paid for her. That's what I was telling you; we paid for her in the first year with the snapper. 

INT Is there still plenty of snapper around? 

GR No; very scarce now. Too many boats; more boats than snapper now. Where we used to go to the outer ground, you could always catch 30 or 40 or perhaps 100. You get get 100 on a good day. You're lucky if you get one now. I went out there, oh about three years ago and I had pots. There were 27 amateur boats fishing for snapper. So there's no hope, you can't. You couldn't hardly get your pots up there were that many damn boats.

INT Yeah. You feel the recreational fishermen are making a big impact on the fisheries? 

GR Oh yes. In shore here, yes. There's so many of them now. When I was a kid there was only about two amateurs here that had boats but now there's about 200 and everybody that comes down here, they've got a caravan or a boat on the back of their car. So the fish just can't stand it, I don't think anyway. 

INT You used to fish around the Kangaroo Island area too, did you? 

GR Yes. Well we started off here. For the first six months we fished just locally here from the Murray mouth to the Newland Head and they went off so we went to Kangaroo Island then. We started off, we didn't know anything about the Island but we soon learned. You got echo sounders and what have you and we soon learned the few spots and went on from there. 

INT What about the shark fishery? That's gone down a bit too in recent years I understand? 

GR Oh yes. She's gone down here. When we started we were only hooking of course. We had 1200 hooks and we used to reckon we should get about 50 each day. Some days we got over 200 one day on the 1200 hooks. Well then you might get down and you'd get a few. When the nets come in we were one of the first ones to start with nets I think. We were fishing down at the Island and Neil Haselgrove and another fellow went to Victoria. They'd come back and they'd seen where they had these nets you see. Anyway they told us about them. We didn't know anything about them of course. Neil said, "Well I'm gonna buy a hydraulic motor. If you want one I'll get you one." So he bought the two and we had one and he had one. They were whopping big heavy things. We put them on and oh crikey we went like bombs once we put the nets on. You couldn't miss. You'd get a hundred every day. 

INT They've gone off now? 

GR They've gone off now, yeah. I worked right through on the Gra-lin for a number of years anyway. Then my son wanted to go fishing too and there wasn't enough room for three of us on the Gra-lin so I sold my share to Lin and bought the Taperoo. 

Donald (Rumbelow) went with me on the Taperoo then. Oh, hell, we caught a lot of fish. We had extra pots and I put more nets on her. I suppose I was one of them that ruined it a bit but we only had four nets and you could catch all you wanted in four nets but we used to come home every Friday. We'd leave here the Sunday or Monday morning and come home Friday night so that I'd give the kids a weekend home. I don't reckon we should have kept the kids away when they're young 'cause they gotta have a bit of life. 

INT Did you have your family on board with you? 

GR I had Donald, my eldest son. He was on board. He was a crewman, yeah. Then I had another young cousin work for me, young Johnny (John Rumbelow). He worked for me for a long while.

INT Did you ever try other types of fishing, tuna for instance? 

GR Never done any tuna but they stopped us catching the sharks at one stage. They reckoned there was too much mercury. 

There was four of us here who went down and had a shot at the Fisheries Department to try and get a prawn licence. When we got it, it was only experimental which we found out when we started catching them. We didn't catch any for a start. 

Then when we went to Kangaroo Island there was a fellow over there and he'd been a trawl fisherman and he said, "You haven't got your gear right". I said, "Well, do you know how to fix it up"? "Yes" he said, "I'll show you if you give me the little fish you catch". There were a lot of little fish like little trevally we used to catch. He said, "I want them. I make sausages out of them". I said, "That'll be alright. We'll give you all those if you set our gear up". We were only getting a few kilos a night and the first night we went out we caught 30 kilos. He said, "Oh that's a bit better". It was a lot better than what we were doing any way. He said, "I'll fix it up a lot better". 

So we went out and we caught 200 kilos the next night. We had about a week there and we got about a tonne. We brought them home. 

When I got here there was a fishing inspector on the jetty. He said, "What are you gonna do with them"? I said, "Well what do you reckon a fisherman does with them? Sell them of course". He said, "You read the small print on the bottom of your licence. You'll find you're not allowed to sell them or barter them". He said, "You can give them away or eat them". I said "You'd be joking, wouldn't you"? "No" he said, "I'm not. You go and get your thing licence and have a look". 

Of course we came home and got it and sure enough, on the bottom in very small print, that's what it was. It was only an experimental permit so we had to give it up. We'd wasted all our money, to go and set the thing up, then we weren't allowed to sell them. That's one of the things I had an argument with the Fisheries Department about. 

INT What other experiences did you have with the Department and its management policies? I take it [it's] been some time ago? 

GR Yeah. This is a long while ago. There were two sizes of crayfish (this is the biggest thing we had trouble with), one for the local Victor[?] area. They were only eight inches. They were a bit small, admittedly I'll go along with that but then the others were ten inches at Kangaroo Island you see and down the south east. They  were just from the Murray mouth to Newland Head where we could catch these little fellows. I think.... I don't know whether its because they'd been fished here for so long or what it is but you'd catch hundreds of these little fellows in that size - from eight inches to ten inches. That was one of the.... I reckon it was a stupid bloody rule anyway but that was 'cause it suited the blokes that were fishing here. It didn't do any good for anywhere else. Oh well. I suppose it's how it goes. 

INT It's been resolved has it? 

GR It's been resolved now. It's all the one size right through now, yeah. It didn't matter what. I was on a Crayfish Advisory Council and it didn't matter what. If I went down and come home, the local blokes reckoned I wasn't sticking up for them and the other blokes reckoned I wasn't sticking up for them so I was on a no win situation. 

INT Graham, could you talk a little bit about the marketing of the crayfish? 

GR Yeah well when dad was a fisherman, like when I was a kid, we used to send them to Dawes in Adelaide but we used to have to patch them up and then put them in like kerosene boxes and send them through to town. Oh we used to get quite a few dead ones. Then when we started here fishing properly, there was a fellow here, Arthur Rosser, used to buy them. He'd come down.... or we'd take them up and put them on his scales and he'd pay us for them, you know, on the spot so that was good. 

Then, any rate, he got crook and give it away and Raptis by this time had started. They used to come down and pick up our sharks and crays at the boat so that was very good. They used to take them through and weigh them and you'd get your money straight away so you couldn't ask for better. 

Then Raptis gave it away. When he went up to Queensland, he give it away a bit and we had to sell them to another fellow in Adelaide but he used to still come down and pick them up here. I think there's still fellows who come down and pick them up now. Oh no, we've been very lucky with the marketing arrangements. 

INT The tail would be exported? 

GR Yeah the tail but they used to take them away whole. Raptis used to take our sharks and our crays on the same truck. When you come in from the Kangaroo Island we'd wireless into Dulcie at the Island and she'd ring them. When we got in here, he'd be waiting for them so you couldn't have got anything better than that. 

INT That's Dulcie Smith? 

GR Dulcie Smith yeah. 

INT On the radio [unclear]? 

GR On the radio, yeah. She used to work for Raptis I think or she used to work in with them anyway. 

INT I think they supplied the equipment and really employed her. 

GR Yeah, but oh she was a marvelous person. I don't care if you went the world over, you couldn't get a person as good as Mrs Smith. You'd swear you were either a relative or a son or a daughter or something, you know. She was marvelous. 

INT Yeah. Fine person. 

GR Fine person, yeah. 

INT Is there a live crayfish export market from these parts? 

GR No, not live I don't think. Not live I don't think. Not from just here. No they used to tail them. All ours were tailed and sent off, just the tail. 

INT To the USA? 

GR Yeah. Mainly to the US, yeah. 

INT Could we have a look then at the fishermen's organisations and their role in the management of the industry nowadays? 

GR Yeah well I've never had a great deal to do with them. I was the President of the Southern Fishermen's Association here for a few years but that's for the lakes and Coorong too, you see. Before the Department actually changes any laws they'll come and have a bit of a yarn to this Association. I hadn't been in it for three or four years now so I can't tell you what's going on but up until I gave fishing away I was an active member up there. Oh I think it helped quite a bit. Course as I say, I don't know what's going on now. 

INT There is an opportunity for fishermen?

GR Oh yeah, yes. The Department were quite good really 'cause they'd send a fellow down and have a bit of, you know, a talk here with them and go and show them. We had an old inspector here once, an old Mr Thompson. He came down and when he came here he'd been a welfare officer and he didn't know a thing about fishing. He went and seen Burt Ludrum at Goolwa. Burt told him to come down and see us, we might take him out. Any rate we took him out and he was very interested and did a very good job as far as I was concerned 'cause he'd give you a go. He'd sort of put you in trust and you wouldn't break the law 'cause you reckoned he was a decent old bloke and you didn't want him to catch you cause he'd pinch you if he caught you, I was quite sure. No he was good. 

INT Graham, things have changed a great deal from the early times to now and it must be very difficult for a young man starting off to break into the fishing industry? Is that true? 

GR Well I don't know how they can break into it now unless they've had a very wealthy family behind them or something because.... Oh look, when I was a kid you could get a boat and build it, or somehow you'd acquire a boat and you could go fishing. You've gotta have all these licences and that now. You gotta buy your pots. You've gotta buy a licence for your pots and your boats are worth a quarter of a  million each so how in the devil can a young bloke get started? don't think there's any hope. I honestly don't. 

INT That must be changing the industry? 

GR Oh crikey yes. Yeah look the more you think of it just the more you'd wonder how in the devil they can get started now 'cause if you want to buy a shark licence, its cost you so much. Cray licences are just about out of the question. I sold my first lot of pots for $1000 a pot and the last 30 pots I got $4000 a pot. They tell me now they're about $7000 or $8000 a pot so how in the devil can a young bloke get started? No hope, I don't think anyway. 

INT So it looks as though they'll be companies that run the fishing? 

GR Yeah and that'll be worse than.... Once you get a big company running it, they're gonna really knock the.... 'Cause they're not gonna be interested in looking after the fish. All they want to do is get as much for the return of their money as they can. Once companies get into it I think it's the finish of it. [I] Honestly do. 

INT So you're not too sort of confident about the future of the fishing industry? 

GR No, no. I wouldn't like to put too much of my money in it now anyway. It was good to me when I was in it but I reckon I was in it at the best time. No, I wouldn't like to put all these hundreds of thousands you've got to put in it now. You'd have to be a millionaire just about to start off anyway. 

INT Yes. Before we finish, is there anything else that you'd like to have recorded on this tape Graham? Is there a problem with pollution? 

GR Not just here I don't think but in other parts of the world yes. I think they've got a problem up the Gulf where all this sewerage comes out. I think that's a problem anyway. I know it is but not here. I don't think we've got any real problem. There is a bit down here where they've got sewage running into the river here, the Inman River. Now that is [where] all the weeds dying out where that's running in but they reckon it's nothing but I'm sure it's the sewerage that's causing it.

INT Yeah. At sea do you get much litter? 

GR Down the Murray mouth. We never used to get much at Kangaroo Island but down the Murray mouth you'd sometimes get, oh strips two or three mile long and a hundred yards, two hundred yards wide just about solid plastic bags and what have you. We were always getting stuff hooked up in our pumps. You had to be careful  down there. I don't think it's quite as bad now as it was. That's going back six or seven years now. Oh it was terrible there then, yes. 

INT You're out of the industry now of course? 

GR Yes I'm retired. Yeah I'm one of the lucky ones I think. 

INT If you had your time again would you go fishing? 

GR If I was in it, yes I'd still go fishing. I love it but I don't think I'd like to buy into it now. I wouldn't; well I couldn't afford to now anyway. Oh no. I'm happy now. I've got a little farm here which keeps me out of mischief. 

INT Good. Well thank you very much for this interview. It's been nice to talk to you. 

INT Thank you very much. 

END OF INTERVIEW 

Last of line of fishermen

•  Times (Victor Harbor, SA : 1987 - 1999) 

•  Fri 5 Jul 1996 

• By Arch Grosvenor 

Graham Toleman Rumbelow, who died recently, was the fourth generation of the Rumbelow family on the South Coast. He was also the last to be engaged as a professional fisherman, a family tradition which dated back to the whaling days. He was 68.

The first (original Malen) Rumbelow arrived at what has since become known as Yilki, in the shadow of Rosetta Head in 1855. He migrated from Midenhall, Suffolk with his wife and large family, spending four months at sea on the voyage. He became associated with whaling in the locality.

His son Malen was a fisherman and he was the first of six Rumbelows to lose his life at sea. His son, Malen 2nd, became a fisherman but it was his son - David Malen - known as Malen 3rd - who died of a heart attack while at sea in his boat. He was only 39. 

Malen 2nd died almost three months later on July 1, 1905 - aged 59.

Four of the sons became fishermen -  Charles, David, Lionel and the third Stanley Malen, better known as Ween.

Lionel, Graham's father, was the sole survivor of the Waitpinga wreck of the boat Ferret which broke in two in the dead of night, returning from Kangaroo Island with a load of fish. Lionel's brother, David, and his cousin, Walter, both lost their lives. That was in 1933.

Both Lionel and Graham received bravery awards, Lionel for a rescue off Yilki, and Graham for his attempt to save his cousin Geoffrey, who was drowned when he tried to save his boat in a severe storm. The fourth generation Malen (Ween) was responsible for a number of rescues from the sea in the locality.

I was pleased to have him included among "two hundred unsung heroes" in a book published in connection with Australia's bicentenary. His name was chosen from 4000 entries from the public.

A fourth generation Malen, Ween's son, was not a fisherman but for a time was associated with the retail side of the fishing industry.

Graham Rumbelow was born at Victor Harbor, and in addition to following the family trade, held several important positions as a leader in the industry. He was also a boat builder. He is survived by his wife Jean and children Raelene, Don and Malcolm along with seven grandchildren.

In common with other members of the family he played cricket and football for Encounter Bay.

His funeral service was conducted in the Bay Football Club with many of the 400 attending listening to proceedings from amplifiers outside the crowded building.

Of the six Rumbelows lost at sea, all but Malen 2, were drowned — the last Kevin, fourth generation in November 1981, missing for a week in his new boat before his body was found at Parsons Beach.

Both David and Kevin were maintained as Rumbelow names when the wives of the two men gave birth to sons several months after their husbands' deaths.