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Chaff-bag Charlie Overhearing two long time residents talking, a name came up that we had not heard before: Chaff-bag Charlie. He was a chap who lived on our island in the 70’s. One day he simply appeared with a chaff bag over his shoulder looking around for a place to live. He found a couple of old broken down car wrecks on Reg Medling’s land opposite the old tip and made them his home.(an Islander seems to remember that one car was an old Vanguard) The only company he had was a black curly haired dog by the name of Cindy (as Garry Kenner remembers) who would not let him out of her sight. No one knew where he came from. As he became known to some of the locals they realised that contrary to his appearance he was quite a well educated man. Andrew Bould remembers inviting him to dinner one night (the family was worried that he didn’t get enough to eat) and found him enjoyable company. From talking to him they learned that he had decided to “opt out of society“ and felt our Island was a good place to do it. Apparently he lived mainly on the fish he caught using a small wooden dinghy or he fished off Reg Meddling’s jetty. He also used go to over to the old ice works (Fisherman’s Wharf to many of us) and the fishermen would feel sorry for him and give him a fish or two just to make sure he had something to eat. He had an unusual method of barbecuing fish. In the days we are talking about the ferry park still had the old fashioned BBQ’s,a few bricks with a plate across. Chaff-Bag would put the fish on a hot plate without having scaled or gutted it. When the fish was ready he would grab it by the head and peel off the skin. He would then cut open its belly and remove the shrivelled-up innards with a flick of a thumb. After having lived on our Island for as few years he left and we never heard of him again. His dog was looked after by islander until she died in ’86. That’s the end of a story of about our very own swagman. ALMOST : one Islander remembers that her mother once told her that she saw Chaff-Bag on the Ferry blowing his nose into a beautifully chequered hankie. Moments later she realised that the hankie was his scarf.
We are following up on our second swagman Bill Lipscombe and hope to bring you his story soon. Would anyone information on the two men above please get in touch with Kate 5156 6851
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