Impacts on dugongs - The Great Barrier Reef: An Environmental History - page 102

In 1893, Saville-Kent (1893, p328) provided the following details of dugong
processing at a station in Repulse Bay, near Mackay (se e Figure 7.1) :
The hides, if well-cured, realise a price of 4½ d per lb, the large tusks of the
male about half-a-crown per pair, while the bones make the best charcoal for
sugar refining. […] After many years' experience, it has been found at the
Repulse Bay station that the old cows yield the most oil, the quantity being
sometimes as much as eight or ten gallons, but on the average only four or
five. The winter months, with respect to the amount of oil obtained, are the
most profitable ones for the industry.
In contrast to southern Queensland waters, Saville-Kent (1893) stated that
the northern Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait had no systematic dugong
fishery, although Indigenous hunting of dugongs occurred in those regions.
Fison (1894) reported that the dugong fishery in Moreton Bay was successful
during the open season of 1894, yet by 1896 dugongs were again scarcely caught
in Moreton Bay, although Fison (1897) later acknowledged that the animals
remained numerous in the northern Great Barrier Reef. Thereafter the dugong
industry failed to supply a significant market for oil and only a small, intermittent
fishery existed between 1900 and the 1920s. In 1902, James H. Stevens (1902,
p967), Queensland Inspector of Fisheries, stated:
The demand for dugong during the last winter has not been a sufficient
inducement for fishermen, although the fish [ sic ] has been plentiful. The
only person who did start caught 30, and so did very well, selling the hides
at 7 d per lb for carriage brakes. The flesh, too, served a good purpose […].
In addition, 55 gallons of dugong oil were exported from Queensland to Victoria in
1902. Stevens attributed the lack of fishing effort to the collapse of the market that
resulted from contamination of the dugong oil. Initially the impurity of the oil was
blamed on negligence during the refining process; subsequently, samples of the oil
were found to have been diluted with large quantities of shark oil. In 1905, Welsby
(1905, p95) stated that in Moreton Bay dugongs were 'not nearly so numerous as
in years past', and Stevens (1905, pp1041-2) reported that the dugong fishery in
the Moreton Bay area was 'at a standstill' as only eight animals were caught during
the season. Yet, he stated that high prices could still be obtained for dugong oil and
hides if production were increased, and he acknowledged that much larger stocks
of dugongs were found in coastal waters to the north of Wide Bay. The following
year, using one net, the dugong catch in Moreton Bay increased to 45 dugongs, all
of which were caught during an eight-week period (Stevens, 1906, p1419) . 4
By 1907, dugong fishing stations were still operating in Moreton Bay at
Amity Point and Pelican Banks. However, the following year, the Moreton Bay
fishery was again unsuccessful due to poor weather. By 1908, the oil was 'almost
unobtainable'; a shipment of 70 bottles was sent to the Franco-British Exhibition