[Fidock, Violet (nee Werrey), interviewed by Jennie Hardie, 27 September 1977. Transcript: Port Hedland Library]
...
JH
What can you tell me about the Koombana Blow? It must have been a shattering thing for the town.
VF
It was shocking. In 1912 the Koombana sailed from Hedland full of shearers going north, among them was Mr. Harry Briden, a local family man. About midnight on the 21st of March a cyclone struck and the ship disappeared. That is all we know. Men played billiards all night at our place so that they could get under the billiard table if the roof gave way, but it didn't. There was never anything heard of the Koombana, and there was another ship the Bullarra passed her; she had a corrugated iron funnel, she was going the other way and she came out of it. She was coming towards Fremantle.
JH
The atmosphere in the town when everybody realised what had happened..
VF
Oh yes, it was shocking. Of course it blew for days. We couldn't go to school. That is all I really have about that. But I felt terribly sad about the Koombana because I could climb on the roof. I was a tomboy, and we had a flat roof on the verandah of our back part and I could climb on the roof because the battens were outside, you know. And I used to wave to the ships as they went out, and I waved to the Koombana that day. It was rather sad. Ships have always fascinated me, and that's why I like the view here, because I can see them.
JH
The Koombana was supposed to have been an unusually designed ship, top heavy...they used to talk about it.
VF
She is the one we went up on. It was the second or perhaps third trip after we went up that she went down. But there wasn't much warning, but there was a new captain on and they seem to think that he didn't fill the ballast tanks after he got over the bar which was there then, and that seems to be the story. That is the only thing they could think of. He was inexperienced. It was terrible...
