Abrolhos icon was destined for ocean life

Crayfish and bacon, crayfish mornay, crayfish patties — Peter Robert McGilvray would have eaten crayfish for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The well-known and loved fisherman passed away at his home on August 25, and is survived by his partner Sally and daughters Maggie and Joanne.

Peter and his twin Garry ‘Wally’ McGilvray (deceased) were born in Geraldton in 1956, the sons of Jack and Joan McGilvray.

Their younger brother Gavin was born a few years later.

Jack, who passed away on September 9 last year, left school when he was 14 to learn his trade as a carpenter.

In the 1950s, he heard people were “making a quid” crayfishing and decided he wanted a slice of the action, so he bought a boat and pots and went to work on the high seas.

It wasn’t an environment completely foreign to him — his dad had been a ‘wharfie’, so he had familiarity with the ocean.

However, there was certainly one trip which didn’t go smoothly.

His wife Joan had taken the couple’s three boys over to Big Rat Island in the Abrolhos on the carting boat and Jack was to follow on his crayboat.

The family was sitting on the rocks at Big Rat waiting for him, but he got lost on the way and ended up at the Wallabi Group.

Peter was destined to follow in his dad’s footsteps — there was never a doubt in his mind that he wanted to be a fisherman — so at age 14 he quit school and went to work on deck with his dad.

Peter told his daughter Maggie that his last ever class at school was science and he got into an argument with the teacher, walked out the door and never went back.

The first boat Peter worked on was ‘Joanne’, named after his sister who passed away as a newborn, and he went on to skipper ‘Joanne II’ up until the very end.

Jack was a taskmaster and a hard man to work for, which was one of the reasons Wally decided to go out on his own — but Jack and Peter stuck at it together for years, fishing at Big Rat Island and Sandy Bay (between Dongara and Leeman) during the coast season.

Peter and Sally met when they were teenagers and were together for 44 years.

Sally Gilbertson was also the daughter of a local fisherman, but when she was 16 her family decided to travel around Australia.

They wrote love letters to each other from opposite sides of the country, but the separation was too great because one day Peter, Wally and his girlfriend Dawn jumped in the car and drove all the way to Rockhampton, Queensland to reunite the young couple.

Sally didn’t want a big wedding, so instead of tying the knot, the couple went on an extended overseas holiday to Africa with a group of friends.

Among Peter’s other loves were surfing, cooking, fishing, gardening and a well-deserved rum.

You could always tell, or more importantly hear, when Peter was coming from his booming voice — and if he couldn’t be found at his camp at the Islands, he’d be walking the track around Big Rat.

Sadly, it was there where both Peter’s mum and twin brother Wally passed away.

Joan passed away in 1975 and Wally died of a heart attack on May 4, 2010.

Maggie described her dad as a “jack-of-all-trades”, handy on the tools, always tinkering in the shed and available to help anyone who needed it.

She and her sister Joanne attended the Big Rat school during the A Zone season, just as their dad and uncle Wally had done when they were young.

The McGilvray twins were among the original students of the school, which was established by their dad Jack and a number of other fishing families.

Maggie remembers fondly growing up at the Abrolhos Islands, and her dad taking her and Joanne skurfing, fishing and on trips in the dinghy to the beach.

“He would do anything for us,” she said.

“He was a loudmouth with a heart of gold.”

She said crayfishing “was his life”, and he was so passionate that even when the family travelled overseas to Malaysia, Thailand and Mauritius during the off-season, Peter would be down there helping the local fishermen haul in their nets, fascinated by the different modes of operation.