A SERIES of articles from 1956 describes four young Northam men undertaking a 90 mile paddle to Perth, taking off 7.45am on a Saturday morning.
The newspaper cuttings were given to Mick Oliver by his Aunty Dot Oliver, wife of Trevor Edward (Ted) Oliver, currently living in Bunbury.
In the articles it is stated a previous attempt to paddle to Perth was made in 1939, but whether it was successful or not was uncertain.
In 1956, Bill Holt, Alan Oliver, Neil Bartlett and Syd Abbott were farewelled by 12 people, leaving from the Avon Bridge and covered five miles in the first hour.
Their steel canoe’s name was 'Sanisybi', the first two letters of the crew’s Christian names.
It cost 10 pounds and was built in 10 hours.
The articles mentions a ski cap; Neil Bartlett’s grey helmet and bowman Syd Abbott’s pirate-shaped plastic rain hat gave the crew a “rakish, ruffian look”.
Neil Bartlett wore gum-boots, the others sand shoes.
Five minutes after starting, the group made their first portage.
They carried their light canoe around the eight foot drop of the town weir.
It took only three minutes.
Then the foamy flood of the weir carried them away at more than four knots on their voyage to Perth.
Their first 20 minutes was smooth and easy going – except when a pith helmet was knocked overboard by a tree branch.
It was recovered.
Their progress through the tree and mud islands and parallel channels was better than expected.
By nightfall they were six miles beyond Toodyay.
They returned to Northam overnight and set out at 5am to re-join their craft and continue their trip.
The foursome made very good time, averaging about six miles an hour throughout the Sunday.
Misadventure took them late in the afternoon when some five miles below the Upper Swan bridge and only about 20 miles from their goal.
The team tackled a drop of about three feet, and it proved to be their undoing.
Their canoe was swamped by water and sank.
The crew quickly swam ashore and went to a nearby farmhouse for dry clothes and food.
The following year in 1957, three boats attempted to navigate from Northam to Perth.
They were Colin Arcus’ 'Bwap', Gordon Houston’s 'Rusty Bucket' and Neil Bartlett’s 'Sanisybi II'.
On the journey, 'Sanisybi' won by only a few feet in a frantic last-minute sprint to the Upper Swan Bridge.
The Sanisybi had capsised and been righted again in rough water six miles upstream.
In the articles, Neil Bartlett said from Upper Swan to Barrack Street jetty was the worst and most frightful section of the trip.
Crossing the open stretches of the Swan, white topped waves three feet high had to be met.
The fact it was equipped with oars gave the 'Bwap' an advantage over the 'Sanisybi' which had to paddle through this stretch.
Approaching the causeway, the crews had to get out of the boats and man-handle them over half a mile, working up to their waist in mud and water.
The 'Bwap' reached the finish line at 3pm, with the 'Rusty Bucket' nine minutes behind and the 'Sanisybi' checked in at 3.30.
“It was a wonderful experience,” Neil Bartlett said at the time.
“Looking back we can see the humour of many situations which did not strike us as particularly funny at the time.”
