Vale Harry Mouchemore

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Harry always claimed that his legs never worked as well once he stepped off his boat for the last time.

Retired Queenscliff fisherman Harry Mouchemore died from a stroke.    He gave up his craft about twelve years ago and was one of the last two of his breed living in the pretty coastal town of Queenscliff, Victoria, Australia.

Once up to 50 Couta boats would head off in the dark from Queenscliff in search of the barracouta.  Many fishermen lived in the rows of tiny harbourside cottages known as the Fisherman’s Flat. 

Harry was just 18 years old when he bought Jessie, his first Couta boat which he named after his first girl friend. He used to call all his boats after women. “I had six boats and so ran out of women” the happily married great-grandfather used to say with a laugh.  His last boat, Pepe, got her name from his pet Chihuahua.

Harry was born into a fishing family and grew up on Fisherman’s Flat, where his father was born. Harry’s cottage is so close to the water, he could watch the boats from his back porch.  It is immediately adjacent to the Queenscliff Slipway and Harry could keep an eye on the boats being maintained on that.  Despite the dust and noise he was sad to hear that the Slipway was to be decommissioned and removed as part of the new Queenscliff Harbour development, but due to his passing he does not have to watch it being dismantled.

Harry had a few close calls on the water, once almost colliding with a steamer. He knew the coast like the back of his hand and used to count the pine trees on the foreshore for landmarks. Back then, there were no unions and quotas, and no such thing as GPS. When he moved into Cray fishing, Harry dangled a lead smeared with grease overboard to check if the bottom was sandy or rock. Because of his knowledge of tides and currents he was asked to be involved in the search for Prime Minister Harold Holt, who had disappeared while swimming at Portsea’s Cheviot Beach on 17 December 1967.

Harry used to wander up the street on his walking frame listening to the cricket or the footie on his wireless with his dog Mouse by his side, and spent quite a bit of time at the Queenscliffe Maritime Museum, where he used to talk to people from all around the world and answered their questions. He was like a walking history lesson because - as he said - "The past is important." 

A Memorial Service was conducted at the Queenscliffe Maritime Museum by his friend Lew Ferrier, the now last couta fisherman in the Flats.  Next to the photo of Harry and a small bouquet of flowers was one of the Cray pots he used to make at and for the Museum, and his white line-honours jumper which was a present from the Queenscliff Couta Boat Association for his participation in Fishy Tales during the 2006 Queenscliff Maritime Weekend.  He was a very accomplished sailor, and won many races.  I remember him telling at Fishy Tales that he “lost a few - in fact there were 3!" and I reckon he could have probably told us the dates as well....

We will miss him.