HISTORY
The Bryants – A Hastings pioneering family Part Three The names of two of the more recent generation of Bryants appear quite regularly in the local papers. They are Jenny (eldest daughter of Carl and Jean) and Max (second son of Dick and Joan).
Jenny Bryant ON her 10-acre Tyabb property, Jenny Bryant has established the Koala Rescue and Rehabilitation Hospital, which cares for injured koalas, possums, kangaroos and birds. Her ‘patients’ come from all over the peninsula, including Red Hill, Arthurs Seat, Dromana, Rye and Rosebud. Jenny has been a wildlife worker since the 1970’s and estimates that only 50 per cent of
the animals that arrive at her property actually survive; so many have horrific injuries and need to be euthanised. For her service to wildlife conservation, Jenny Bryant was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in this year’s Australia Day honours list. Wildlife warrior: Jenny Bryant with one of her patients.
Max Bryant
ON leaving school, Max Bryant did a carpentry apprenticeship with Ron Fitzgerald of Somers and then worked on ship maintenance on both coastal and international vessels. Over the next 40 years, Max spent time in both the building and fishing industries. A severe knee injury sustained in his younger days when racing motor cycles forced him out of the building industry for a time. He went to Flinders Island where he ran abalone boats while sitting exams for his Maritime Masters Certificate and by 1980, he had gone into partnership in a fishing vessel catching scallop and shark out of St Helens in Tasmania. By 1981, he had joined Allied Fisheries and was eventually in charge of the company’s Victorian fleet of 11 vessels, which operated mostly out of Hastings. About 1985 Max returned to the building industry and over the next few years, he designed and built the marina at Hastings (completed in 1988), aeroplane hangars at Tyabb, and carried out hotel renovations. In the meantime, Max had taken up flying and a trip to America in the late 1980s led him to consider a development at Seal Rocks on Phillip Island. The project was completed under Max’s supervision in 1998 and the running was handed over to Seal Rocks Sea Life Centre, which was
the beneficiary of a large government settlement. During the 1990s, Max became involved in offshore power boat racing and was the navigator on a boat that set the record of 5 hours 34 minutes for the crossing of Bass Strait (Melbourne to Launceston). From the 1990s Max has worked as a project manager with a number of building companies, including the ISIS group. In 1998, Max wondered what could be done to provide jobs and give the Hastings economy a lift. At the same time, he felt there was a need to reinforce the bond between the town and HMAS Cerberus. The following year, the Western Port Oberon Association was formed and, with the assistance of the then member for Flinders Peter Reith, a submarine was procured; the HMAS Otama duly arrived in Western Port in April, 2002. After 11 years of hard work by a small team of dedicated enthusiasts, it now appears their efforts are to be rewarded; the current projection is that the submarine will be ashore in 18 months.
Sub launch: Max Bryant (centre) at the recent launch of the HMAS Otama proposal. Picture: Yanni
Record haul for Hastings fishermen
Don’t rock the boat: An old photo in a Bryant family album shows elephants being transported from Stony Point to Cowes by Bryant family members.
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Western Port News 6 August 2013