Three Men & a Boat – the MFV Tacoma Story
3rd April 2013
The three men are pioneering boat building brothers Bill, Alan and Hughie Haldane and the boat is the MFV Tacoma, built on the banks of the Moyne River at Port Fairy in Victoria and launched in 1951. It is Australia’s first purse seiner tuna clipper. It raised the technology and safety bar for the Australian fishing fleet 61 years ago and shaped the destiny of the Eyre Peninsula town of Port Lincoln in South Australia.
“This is a story of passion, dedication to an idea and a lifelong commitment to the Australian fishing industry. What these three men achieved with this significant eighty-four foot wooden vessel was remarkable and makes for a rollicking yarn,” producer Ian Doyle said.
The 56-minute documentary, to be aired on ABC Landline at 12 noon on Sunday April 7th is an engaging and entertaining story that includes the construction of the vessel and the interstate political intrigue between the post war Victorian and South Australian governments. It also argues that the arrival of the MFV Tacoma in Port Lincoln in 1952, as a single event, was pivotal to the development of the town.
