From the shipyards of Adelaide and Papua New Guinea to a Geelong charter for fishers with disabilities, boating has long been part of Charles Neal’s life.
He speaks to Luke Voogt about several decades on the water.
Tell us about you…
I was born in East Gippsland, I’m 78 and I live in East Geelong.
My wife Jan and I have been married for 26 years. Between us, we have five children and eight grandchildren.
I started my apprenticeship at age 15 as a shipwright and boat builder at East Gippsland Lakes.
I moved from Gippsland to Adelaide and continued boat building. Then, an accident forced me to change direction.
I injured my back in a demonstration row after winning the state championships in 1965.
That was a bit embarrassing, really – I ended up not being able to walk for quite a few months.
Renowned surgeon Sir Denis Paterson performed an operation on me and it took me about five months to learn to walk again.
After the operation I moved to Papua New Guinea as a shipwright teacher-instructor at Napa Napa.
I moved back to South Australia to join a poultry food company and they sent me to Marcus Oldham College in Geelong to study pigs and ducks.
After several years in Horsham, I came to Geelong in 1987. I saw a great, untapped future in Geelong.
How did Geelong Fishing Charters begin?
People with disabilities had never been catered for with fishing charters and I thought that was wrong. So I set about building a boat to do just that.
I built Corio Princess and placed an ad in the Independent in 2013.
The satisfaction of seeing people, particularly in a wheelchair, catching a fish for the first time on Corio Bay is something that you just can’t explain.
Corio Princess is the only Australian charter boat I’m aware of that has a disabled toilet.
I have macular degeneration, which has caused my eyesight to gradually worsen over the past 25 years.
I just got back from surgery for my eyes today.
Twelve months ago it got to a point where I had to lease the boat out for other people to run the tours.
But I still get the rod out to go fishing at least once a month.
How are you coping with COVID-19?
It hasn’t worried me very much.
My family is scattered from Albany in West Australia and Katherine in the Northern Territory, to Echuca and Frankston, so we’ve missed visiting them.
But we’re going to Frankston for five days over Christmas to see Jan’s daughter. It will be the first time I’ve seen them for 12 months.
What do you like to do locally?
Vegetable gardening is my favourite activity, fishing’s next. I’m into breeding racehorses so I’m studying that. I enjoy cooking – I probably do more cooking than gardening to be honest.
I don’t eat out much – I can’t read a menu anymore!
What’s something people might not know about you?
I helped found Luv-a-Duck, the biggest duck producer in Australia. The owner originally wanted to rear calves and I convinced him to get into producing ducks instead.
More information: geelongfishingcharter.com.au.
