Douglas Pitt descendants
Douglas Pitt's great grand daughter Flo Kennedy describes him:
'He used to wear a flowing beard; he used to wear two revolvers and he was said to be a good shot. Old Douglas Pitt followed Bully Hayes in his two-masted schooner; he ran it alongside Bully Hayes' boat, stepped on to it and said: "Name your weapon!" And Bully Hayes said to him: "I own half the Pacific; you join me and we'll take the other half". In the Torres Strait a lot of men had floating stations, and my great grandfather's island was Halfway Island.'
When Douglas Pitt came to the Torres Strait with his Lifuan wife in 1870, a year before the missionaries arrived, he first set up a floating station off Mer Island. He lived at Mer for thirteen years during which time he had ten houses built for his family and employees.
'He used to wear a flowing beard; he used to wear two revolvers and he was said to be a good shot. Old Douglas Pitt followed Bully Hayes in his two-masted schooner; he ran it alongside Bully Hayes' boat, stepped on to it and said: "Name your weapon!" And Bully Hayes said to him: "I own half the Pacific; you join me and we'll take the other half". In the Torres Strait a lot of men had floating stations, and my great grandfather's island was Halfway Island.'
When Douglas Pitt came to the Torres Strait with his Lifuan wife in 1870, a year before the missionaries arrived, he first set up a floating station off Mer Island. He lived at Mer for thirteen years during which time he had ten houses built for his family and employees.
Keywords: colonisation, Hayes, Bully, Kennedy, Flo, Mer, pearling industry, Pitt, Douglas, Stars of Tagai, Torres Strait Islanders
Flo Kennedy OAM, in Sharp, Nonie 1993, 'Stars of Tagai', Aboriginal Studies Press, selected and edited. Still:Flo Kennedy. Courtesy of Trevor Graham.
Author: Sharp, Nonie
Source: Kennedy, Flo OAM
Author: Sharp, Nonie
Source: Kennedy, Flo OAM