Mandrake

Martti Jooseppi Tolonen was born in Alavieska, Finland on 19 March 1931. He was the youngest of eight children born to Frans Jaako Tolonen and Maria Josefiina Saari. 

Customs record indicate Martti flew from London to Darwin on 17 July 1952 and planned to reside in Mt Isa, Queensland for three years. Whether Martti went to Queensland is unclear but the next recorded information for him shows he was in Western Australia.

Specifically, he was living at 207 Fifth Street, Wonthella, a suburb of Geraldton, and he had become a cray fisherman. Wonthella was a popular place for fishing, farming and immigrant families because the house blocks were large and could accommodate boat building, equipment storage and large vegetable gardens.

On 22 November 1959 Martti was naturalised as an Australian citizen, indicating his intention to remain in Australia. He had an older brother, Eero, who also lived in Geraldton and was cray fishing at the Abrolhos Islands.

Martti fished from Little Rat Island, at the Abrolhos Islands which was inhabited by a group of European men, most of whom were from Finland. Martti worked alongside Torsiti Kuru [Happy Harry], Johnannes [Johnny] Jacobson, Kauna Visisenano [Big Bull], Vic Laine and Laurie Kannikoski. Martti learned to catch cray fish [Western Rock Lobster] from these men, and worked for them until he could afford his own boat.

Like many of the cray fishermen in the 1960s, Martti had an 18 foot [5.48 metres] boat. He dropped his pots in the breakers off West Reef, close to Little Rat Island. His boat Mandrake was licenced as G27. He had just over 40 cray pots on his licence.

Mandrake was built in 1948 and was licenced from 1950. She was originally owned by Ray Page who had licence number G22 and worked from Basile Island. In 1958 Mandrake was used by Robert Hartley on Little Pigeon Island. Records show that Martti took up Mandrake for his own licence in 1961.

In June 1961, Martti was pulling pots when a large wave swamped the little Mandrake. He was rescued by a fellow fisherman Olly Alanko, who picked Martti up in his launch and they managed to get Mandrake back to Little Rat Island safely. 

After this incident the older fishermen tried to convince Martti to “respect the sea” by taking the days off that were too rough for safe pot pulling. Martti was a determined man and he continued to pull his pots every day, regardless of the weather.

Martti had the Mandrake for approximately one year. On 17 April 1962, he was pulling his pots on West Reef in 3 fathoms [5.48 metres] of water. The boat was destroyed by a huge breaker. Martti was drowned.

Island fishermen searched for Martti without success. Wreckage of Mandrake were found near the island. His body was never found. The older fishermen commented that Martti “did not respect the sea”, and should not have been working when the breakers were so big and the seas so rough.

Martti had not married, and his family in Finland were left to mourn without a funeral for him.

Martti had a brother Eero Juhani Tolonen who was four years older, and who came to work on the Abrolhos Islands, cray fishing. In 1969 Eero died in the same way as Martti, in the same reef breakers. [See Eero’s story].