Port Lincoln's Bartolomeo (Bob) Puglisi

Here is a truly Australian celebration of establishing a new prawn industry in South Australia.

It is a story of hardship and survival, of a man who strove to get ahead, to look after his families and to succeed.

Bartolomeo (Bob) Puglisi has been in the fishing industry 63 years. He started working as a crew member on a fish trawler at 12 and a half years old in 1954, but even then had been fishing for years. He worked with his brothers in Ulladulla on the New South Wales coast, where many Puglisi families lived. The heads of these families were nearly all fishermen who had come to Australia from Lipari, an island off Sicily.

In late 1967 Bob attempted to sail his small fishing vessel, the Angelina Star, from Ballina near the Queensland border to Port Lincoln in South Australia but was foiled by horrific weather and tried again. He was 25 years old and had been prawning for many years. He heard that in Port Lincoln fishermen wanted to fish for prawns, but had little knowledge of what to do. Beginning early in 1968, Bob brought in his first catch off Cowell. The rest is history; the history of the prawn fishing industry in South Australia.

About the Authors

Musharella Puglisi is Bob Puglisi’s wife. She lives with Bob in Ulladulla, and they return to Port Lincoln for the prawning season each year.

Rhondda Harris is a retired archaeologist. She is author of Ashton's Hotel: The journal of William Baker Ashton, first governor of the Adelaide Gaol.