Reader Comment: Pier One

A friend of mine, Linda, whose late husband Domenico was a professional fisherman, sent me a response to the Pier One item posted yesterday.  Linda's son Diego carries on the family fishing tradition, which goes back many generations.

Hi Otto

I just checked out your information on Pier One and here is a bit more trivia for you. We were one of those Italian families who moored our fishing trawler at Pier One in the 80’s. Domenico used to come to Sydney to work, from May to September every year, for the Gemfish season. We had some interesting times at Pier One. A significant memory was in 1985 Domenico coming round the corner with the Kirrawa with a definite lean on the boat, the deck was just above the waterline. On Pier One was the longest semi-trailer I have ever seen waiting for him. He caught over 21,000 Kilos + of Gemfish as well as 5,000 kilos of other fish like Mirror Dory and Hairtail. In total he caught between the hours of 2 am to 4 pm that day just on 27 tonne or 27,000 kilos of fish. We worked all of us through the night, men and women (wives) side by side sorting, stacking, icing and loading the semi-trailer. It took more than one semi for the transport of a 1000 boxes of fish. One hell of a day. In those days Domenico made for the 21 tonnes of Gemfish only $27,000. Not bad for a day’s work.

Warm regards

Linda