The Ulladulla Harbour slip master followed his father’s footsteps into a life on South Coast wharves and can’t see himself giving it away any time soon. 

Now 76, Mr Helmore has held the slip master title for six days a week at Ulladulla since 1977.

“I don’t really like boats but I’m stuck with them. I became the slip master with experience I suppose,” he said. 

“In my family, unless you talked boats, there was nothing much to talk about.  I have been surrounded by boats all my life.

“I wouldn’t be here if It wasn’t interesting. I have been back to Eden, worked on boats here, there and everywhere but since 1977, I have been here at least six days a week. 

“I’m still going. I haven’t spent a lot of time doing nothing. But, if I hated it that bad, I wouldn’t be here.”

Mr Helmore’s father spent 47 years working for the Illawarra South Coast Navigation Steam Company and taught his son everything he knew about boats and the ocean. 

“My father is probably the wisest man I have ever had contact with,” he said. 

“I asked lots of questions of people on the water. 

“I was seriously dyslexic when I went to school, so I used to ask questions of people I knew were at the top of the tree. This is how I got my education. 

“A lot of the old ships masters appreciated that I asked them questions and they went out of their way to give me more time from their vast knowledge to explain things.”

Slipping boats in Ulladulla is just one of the many jobs Mr Helmore is called upon to complete. 

He also looks after the refrigeration in the co-op and repairs “everything that gets broken around the joint”. 

“I’m repairing palettes today for exporting tuna,” Mr Helmore said at the time of the interview. 

“If I see something that will cause a problem, I notify a higher authority. But, you don’t stop there, you make sure it is acted on or fix it your bloody self.” 

Mr Helmore recalls easterly storms turning the harbour into a “washing machine” and repairs on boats that had come aground on Mollymook Beach and Warden Head. 

“It is quite a magnificent harbour for about 365 days of every year. But every now and again, and it doesn’t happen every year, when an east coast low is directing an easterly sea, within 15 degrees of due east with force behind it, it comes straight in the breakwaters and you may as well be in a washing machine,” he said. 

“In 1974 I remember the worse one I have seen. There was another there in about 1986.

“I’ve seen boats that have been brought in after hitting Brush Island, running up Warden Head or running into the middle of Mollymook Beach. 

“The many disasters of the early shipping on these coasts were because of the schedule they were trying to keep in the weather they got. 

“I couldn’t even recite all of the bloody repairs I’ve had here from vessels running aground.” 

The fishing industry in Ulladulla has changed over time, Mr Helmore said. According to him, 12 trawlers worked from the harbour at one stage, not not a single trawler processes their fish through the Ulladulla co-op. 

“Only two work out of here now,” he said. 

“There has been many changes in the fishing industry and I have seen a lot. 

“I’ve had quite a lot of experience on tuna boats. On trawlers, I have built winches and all sorts of things. I don’t call myself a trawler fisherman though. 

“I am more onshore boat repairs.” 

He recalled a time when the Ulladulla Harbour was a ship building yard, and there was no co-op building. 

“I was here for the build of the whole lot, except the new bit [of the co-op] with the fish shop. We started in 1977 and we are still modifying and putting bits on here and there,” Mr Helmore said. 

“I can remember it back to when there was a ship yard here and they built a lot of boats. During the war, quite a few of the Illawarra company boats were requisitioned for mine sweepers. 

“The ship building in Ulladulla was quite extensive. They built about 40 odd army work boats here from 1941 to 1944. Then they built six other boats after the war had finished that I know of because they had a good crew of boat builders here. 

“The last substantial fishing boat that was built in Ulladulla ship yard as it was, was built in about 1959.”

When asked what people referred to him as on the harbour, Mr Helmore said: “Oh, blasts if I know, cranky old bastard. I’m known from Cairns to Port Lincoln as the cranky old bastard in Ulladulla.”