The Hallams - book coming!
Whitsunday connections
I am writing a book about my Hallam family and their years on Hayman Island in the 1930s and 1940s, but in the meantime here’s a little background.
Hayman Island days
In the very early 1930s Bob and Millie Hallam, with Bob’s brother Bert Hallam, took on the lease of Hayman Island to operate as a tourist resort. Prior to this, Hayman was used as a campsite for tourists coming up from the south to fish under lease to Monty Embury. When the Hallams took it over, according to Millie’s recollections, the accommodation consisted mainly of tents and a few scattered cabins. Furniture was made from anything people could get their hands on. Pine packing cases in which kerosene tins were delivered were turned into bedside tables and chests of drawers. The empty ‘kero’ tins, cut down and fitted with handles, became the drawers. The beds used were the canvas camp stretchers. Despite the rustic ambience, the southern tourists loved it.
More to follow in the near future….
Further reading
