Palermo

The reef that had claimed the Gilt Dragon and the lives of 118 people just over 300 years prior, claimed another three lives in December 1969.

The Palermo was a small fishing boat operating out of Ledge Point during the rock lobster fishing season. Three brothers from the Carbonaro family, skippered boats at Ledge Point from the 1950s until 1969. Paolo operated the Palermo, Vincenzo operated the Messina and Rosario (“Saro”) operated the Torrenova.

As was commonplace in those times, multiple fishing families would share business interests on various boats, and this was the case with these three fishing vessels, having the Carbonaro family and the Monastra family involved. Both families originated from a small town in Sicily called Torrenova, and had migrated in the 1950s.

Tragically the Palermo was wrecked on the 16 December 1969. It was assumed that a wave had swamped the boat as the hull was intact. On the morning the boat left Ledge Point, there was a strong southerly wind blowing. A number of skippers of smaller boats had decided to forgo fishing for the day because of the strong southerly wind.

Another skipper, Tindaro Beringheli of the Aquila, had seen Paolo Carbonaro (37) – Skipper, and his crew Giuseppe Monastra (58), Salvatore Monastra (36) pulling their pots off the Gilt Dragon Reef at 9:30am. That was the last sighting of the men, until debris from their wrecked boat was found floating in the sea.

Soon after the Palermo sunk, the body of Paolo Carbonaro dressed in a yellow waterproof coat, was found floating in the sea and retrieved by Beringheli. It is said he was still warm when found.

Following the tradition of the sea, a search was immediately instigated. Six boats from Ledge Point, and two boats from Seabird, commenced searching in the rough seas for the missing men. The boats included the Joan of Arc, Flaming Star, Freche del Sud, Thern, Josephine and Sea View.

A young Giuseppe Paratore, now in his second season crayfishing, joined the search on the Joan of Arc. He was working on one of the boats (the San Francesco) that had decided not to fish that day due to the bad weather. His skipper, Carmelo Di Mario, had returned to Fremantle for the day. His fellow crew, Natale Monastra, lost two of his relatives and returned to Fremantle to mourn with his family.

The skipper of the Sea View, Denis Bennetts, found the wreckage of the Palermo in the late afternoon. He followed an oil slick south from the Gilt Dragon Reef where he found the wreck of the Palermo. Even though the wreck was lying in 35 feet of water, being an experienced diver, he used his diving skills to check the cabin of the Palermo.

On 21 December, John Melvin, skipper of the fishing boat Carmen, found the body of Salvatore Monastra in the sea several miles north of Lancelin.

Two hours later the body of Salvatore’s Uncle, Giuseppe Monastra was found on the beach five miles north of Wedge Island by a weekend fisherman and inspector at the Fisheries and Fauna Department, Mr Graham Brekvord, whilst he was beach fishing.

A blue and yellow inflatable life-raft had been found by Police the day after the tragedy, but a search for the missing men had to be called off then because high tides made the beach impassable.

All three souls left behind families in Fremantle and are now buried at Fremantle Cemetery.

As a consequence of the tragedy, Paolo’s brother, Vincenzo Carbonaro, “pulled his pots from the ocean and sold them on the beach and never returned to Ledge Point”. Vince had tried to dissuade Paolo from taking the boat out that day and later he said he had a feeling that something would go wrong. He eventually returned to fishing, from Messina I and Messina II, out of Fremantle. He died in 2004.

In later years, Denis Bennetts owned the 32-foot crayfishing boat, Classic, which was moored at Ledge Point. In August 1994, it slipped its moorings and drifted off, arriving on 1 April in Xai-Xai, Mozambique, some 4300 nautical miles across the Indian Ocean.

Amazingly, when the Classic appeared in Xai-Xai, it was identified by an Australian backpacker, Kathleen Brennan, who had spent holidays at Ledge Point and was Denis’s next door neighbour.