Wow, what a week, and a bit!
Love this place, the variety of fish, the scenery, the camp, it’s all stuff of a fisherman’s dream.
Had the best Yak fishing session of my life to this point on Goldens + Queenies this trip, Period! Can it be better? Book me in for next year and we’ll see!!! Jimbo, touch of paradise here mate, can’t wait to return!
Brett Ozanne, Perth WA
A feature article in the RM Williams “Outback” Oct/Nov 2010 written by Dion Isaacson. Great photo’s too Dion, nice work as usual. Thought we’d better publish it on the site.
Ten years ago Jim Alston was paragliding when he hit a thermal. His chute folded and he plunged 30 metres to the ground. He was very lucky to survive and spent the next 3 months in hospital, then a year recovering.
“I was lying in a hospital bed, having doctors tell me that they didn’t know if I would ever walk again, “Jim says. “I was staring at the ceiling for months and months.
I had a little wish that if I ever got better and could walk again, that I would live on a remote island somewhere, like Robinson Crusoe. It was my favorite story when I was a kid.”
Jim decided his new venture would be call Wilderness Island Safari Holidays or WISH.
When Jim did walk again. He and his father chartered a plane and went scouting for his dream island. Years of paperwork, title searches, approvals and, most importantly for Jim, the permission of local Indigenous people resulted in the creation of Wilderness Island in Western Australia’s Exmouth Gulf five years ago.
Wilderness Island isn’t found on any conventional map it is roughly 40 kilometres east of Exmouth. Jim and his family have lived in the area for five generation – he grew up on nearly Yanrey Station, where he mustered cattle before his accident.
Around this time Jim met ‘Harry’ Butler (his real first name is known only to himself and his closest friends, Harry is a nickname inspired by the famous Australian naturalist), who helped him set up WISH.
Jim and Harry had something in common – the former steel fixer injured his back when he fell 50m through history Derby Jetty after a rusting grate gave way. A lengthy convalescence followed while Harry dealt with a long list of injuries, including five crushed vertebrae.
“Jim had this idea for the island that I knew very well,” Harry says. “It was a great idea and I thought, ‘My back’s stuffed, his back’s stuffed so let’s put two stuffed spines together and see what we can come up with’.” Harry doesn’t wear shoes and survives on beer, cigarettes, steak and sauce.
But 10 years experience as a fishing guide – despite the fact that he doesn’t eat fish makes him a major attraction for visitors to the island.
Jim spent $6000 on timber, building materials and power tools to add basic facilities to the island. “I left Perth in a hire truck with $20 in my bank account and a cartoon of baked beans,” he says. “If I got hungry along the way, I’d chuck a can of baked beans. I borrowed a mate’s barge and brought all the gear over here.
Harry and I just lived here, checking out the fishing and learning where we were going to put everything.” The two worked hard to make Jim’s dream a reality and they learnt a lot about each other in the process.
Jim knows the boundaries; Harry is not a morning person. “I have a coffee and a smoke, then on the second smoke you’re safe to talk to me,” Harry says.
“It was just me and him living over here for a long time,” Jim says. “We were just digging holes and putting in posts, and catching a fish for dinner (Jim’s dinner anyway – Harry ate steak and beans).
The locals around Exmouth started hearing about Jim and Harry setting up camp and the amazing fishing in the area. “People would ask, ‘Can we come?”’ Jim says. “I would just say, ‘It’s a bit rough – the fishing’s good but you’ll be swagging it on the beach’.”
The fishing is undeveloped and the area is still quite unknown, but it is starting to attract attention.
Jim loves meeting new people and introducing them to the beauty of the remote north-west. His previous tourism experience includes working on the Kimberley Quest cruise ship.
“We had a group of fly-fishermen here and they caught 52 species over 10 days,” Jim says. “These guys’ fish all over the world – Christmas Island, Mexico, Vanuatu and Hawaii – and they reckon it’s the best fishing they’d ever done.
We had Peter Morse here last year – he’s a pretty well-known fishing identity – and he took out a world record for a Spanish mackeral while he was with us. He reckons it’s the best flats for fly-fishing in Australia.”
The island is about 1.6km long and 800m wide, and features sandy beaches, limestone cliffs, sand dunes and mangroves. With no human habitation other than the camp, which can accommodate 10 people in twin-share safari huts, the island is almost undeveloped, supporting a range of plants and animals, including prolific birdlife.
Jim is mindful of the island’s unspoilt environment. “We run a commercial operation with minimal impact,” he says. “We take hardly any fish and no one takes fish home to Exmouth.
What’s caught on the island is consumed here and 90 percent of the fish caught is released immediately.”
Apart from fishing and relaxing on the beach, the other major drawcard on Wilderness Island is whale watching. Between July and November the annual humpback migration passes the Exmouth Gulf. “We go out and find a pod of whales; you turn the engine off and most of the time the whales come over to you,” Jim says.
“You’ve got a whale that’s 12-13m long; some are three times bigger than the boat. We’ve never had any sort of aggression from them; they are just curious. I think the whales are people watching, as much as we are whale watching.”
Wilderness Island has brought a big change to Jim’s life, and he couldn’t be happier.
“Harry is a pretty good teacher,” Jim Says. “For years he’s been trying to tell me things about the ocean, then one day I said, ‘Hell Harry, I think I’ve got it. It’s just like the bush, but it’s covered in water.”
(Story + Photo’s by Dion Isaacson) As Featured in R.M.Williams OUTBACK Issue Oct/Nov 2010)
Another “rave review”. Featured in the Skywest Out-There in flight magazine, photo’s and article by Dion Isaacson. We’re always getting rave reviews from everyone who comes to the island. Read and make a comment at the bottom of the post.
Do you remember the last time you spent a night under canvas? The last time you found yourself an isolated location, looked up to the sky and lost yourself in a vast blanket of stars?
Hmmm … thought so. Sounds like it’s about time you took a break and fell asleep with the wind rustling your tent and the sound of waves rolling up the beach. If you’re already hoping there is a day spa, some chic cafes and a shopping mall down the road, Wilderness Island is not for you.
But here is your chance to strip away life’s excesses and spend time in a place where the only traffic is the odd hermit crab crossing your path on a beach walk.
Wilderness Island is located roughly 40 kilometres east of Exmouth and can be best described as a spot where the desert meets the sea. At any time, you will find a mix of families, fishermen and backpackers call it home for the week. The Island can accommodate a maximum of eight peoples in four twin-share safari-style cabins (Now we can have groups of 10 in 5 cabins). While not luxurious, they are certainly comfortable, and I found that the combination of hiking, fishing and sea air meant I slept very well at night.
Central to the camp us a communal meeting/dining tent where people can catch up during the day. Outside is a large deck from which you get great views of the ocean and a large dat bed to help you indulge in a novel.
At night, you’ll find everyone around the camp fire, where conversation runs late into the night, in keeping with the eco-friendly policy on the island, the camp is powered by a 12-volt solar system.
The island is run by two colourful characters, Jim Alston and ‘Harry’ Butler, he is not the ‘real’ Harry Butler: his last name is Butler but his mates thought his first name should be Harry and are sworn to secrecy on what his real name is.
You can easily spot Harry – he never wears shoes and despite living on an island, he doesn’t eat fish.
Jim is a local boy of some five generations. He grew up on nearby Yanrey Station and knows this area well. He loves meeting tourist and wants them to experience the country that he has loved his whole life.
Wilderness Island is best known for its amazing fishing: in fact, fly fisherman from all over Australia are leaving there passports at home and are coming to experience what has been describes as some of the best saltwater fly fishing in the world.
I travelled with Rob Paxevanos from the television series Fishing Australia, and we recorded two episodes there in May. He describes it as the best flats fishing he had experienced in more than 150 shows. “The water is so clear that you can see the fish, know if it’s the species you are looking for and cast your lure straight to it”, he enthused.
On one trip to a secret fishing spot near the island, we caught a huge variety of fish – brassy trevally, golden trevally, some large queenfish , Malabar cod, coral trout and mangrove jack.
The island has a large, comfortable eight metre boat to get the best fishing spots. It draws only 40 centimetres, so Jim and Harry can take you to quite, shallow bays of crystal-clear water – and don’t be surprised if you see dugongs and turtles on your travels.
I joined some backpackers on a walk to a remote mangrove creek and we went fishing using small pieces of pilchard as bait. They were casting their lines and landing baits just under the eve of the mangroves and before the ripples had settles, they were fighting some good-sized mangrove jacks.
We took a couple of the best fish back to camp that night and cooked them Vietnamese style, with island-grown lemongrass and a sprinkle of turmeric.
Harry is more than happy to take you out looking for mud crabs n the mudflats nearby. Is it a great experience to head out each day to look for your dinner – quite a change from the fight for a parking spot at the local Woolworths.
Harry was quite confident out there without shoes, despite the fact that a decent chomp from a mud-crab would probably chop off your toes. I think he must know every mud-hole out there on those flats and he used a long loop of wire to hook the crabs on. Later, Jim cooked up a fantastic feed in a wok on the campfire: Singapore chilli mud crab. We enjoyed it with a crisp glass of Western Australian semillion.
Jim wants the rustic nature of the Wilderness Island to remain intact. “Enjoy it for what it is: it’s a beautiful piece of coastline, a beautiful environment,” he says. “Respect it, and learn that you can actually enjoy yourself in an area like this and not have an impact.”
The island has a policy with regard her policy with regard to fishing: no fish are to be taken back to Exmouth. What is caught there must be consumed there but in practice, almost all of the fishing is ‘catch and release’.
That’s not to say you will get hungry – Jim promises everyone some great feeds of local fish and has a terrific menu to satisfy hungry tummies after a big day exploring the island.
And it’s not just humans who like to take time out around Wilderness Island. For 5 months between July and November, humpback whale mothers and their calves take breaks here on their migration south to colder waters. Then, the fishing rods are stowed and it’s time to just observe and experience awesome nature at her best.
Jim says the best way to see the whales is to stop the boat and turn off the motor: nearly always, then, whales will come up to the boat to assuage their curiosity.
He has photographs of various people almost touching the gentle giants’ noses. That’s the wilderness for you.
See Michael Thomson (Thommo) from Channel Nine’s “Just Add Water” in action on Wilderness Island. “Thommo” was there for a visit with 2 of his sons, James and Sam.
Right from the shallows in front of the lodge and on the first cast with a popper Thommo hooked something large, and you should see how this fish kept him going for the next 40 minutes.
Pulling something this big within minutes of casting is not unusual at the island.
Thommo spends some quality time with the 2 guys behind Wilderness Island. You really get a sense of the passion these guys have for their little piece of paradise.
Wilderness Island is a fishing and ecological paradise in Exmouth Gulf in North West Australia that offers small groups an exclusive and unforgettable experience on their own private island.See Harry Butler in action in stealth mode catching the huge mud crabs.
TOP STAY / and it will make a couple of top shows on Fishing Australia. A truly great location and a dream to photograph!
Dion Isaacson – Cameraman – Win TV
“One of the best fishing trips I’ve ever been on: a truly unique experience with the best flats fishing in Australia…I’ll be back.”
Rob Paxevanos, Fishing Journalist, Host Fishing Australia.
