An Adventurous Working Life

Western Australia 1959, and a young man, equipped with his newly acquired mechanical fitter qualification, rejected the settled suburban life at home to explore what lay beyond his borders. In the following years, Kerry Eivers faced and accepted challenges beyond his training, beginning with his experience as a marine engineer. In working on fishing boats, he acquired the skills of crayfishing and prawning. This led to his major undertaking of a partnership to build and operate a prawn trawler, the New Providence. Unfortunately, the high hopes of financial gain from prawning in the waters of WA and the Gulf of Carpentaria were not realised.

Dire financial straits found him in Darwin taking up retail businesses. As the same time, after the breakdown of the partnership and as sole owner of the New Providence, he turned his sights to fishing for Barrier Reef fish and Spanish mackerel. Later, the boat was modified, becoming a tug boat used in Queensland’s ports construction. From this, and later income from operating two trucking businesses, he earned a good livelihood for him and his close friend, helpmate and later wife, Leone, whom he had met in Darwin..

Kerry’s was no easy “magic ride”. He had many harrowing experiences, not the least being the near loss of his boat on its maiden voyage, and another, the destruction of his business by Cyclone Tracy in 1974. During the vicissitudes of these times he showed remarkable courage, imagination and that valuable trait, resilience.