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Ballina members' outing

by Faye Duncan, Probus Club of Ballina Waters | 26 Nov 2013

The Probus Club of Ballina Waters recently enjoyed a 'Local Day Out', with lunch at an Italian restaurant followed by a visit to the Maritime Museum to view the last remaining Las Balsa Raft.Ballina Waters Probus Club members visit the Maritime Museum

After lunch at an Italian Restaurant, members of the Probus Club of Ballina Waters, who had not been for some time, took the opportunity to visit the local Maritime Museum. In pride of place is the remaining Las Balsa Raft.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Las Balsa Expedition expedition of 1973, in which three balsa wood rafts sailed 192 days and almost 15,000km across the Pacific Ocean from South America, finally landing at Ballina.  

These famed Las Balsa rafts are constructed from balsa wood, similarly to the Kon-Tiki raft of Thor Heyerdahl, which sailed in 1947 from South America to the Tuamotu Archipelago. Both were designed in agreement with drawings and descriptions made of similar rafts seen by Spanish sailors far away from the coasts of South America during the 16th century.The Kon-Tiki only sailed half the distance of the Las Balsa Rafts, and the main objective of the Las Balsa expedition was to test such a raft to see if it could make it to Australia.

Constructed without iron, brass, steel or any other modern material, the rafts are made of only balsa wood and hemp ropes, with a square sail of canvas supported by two hardwood masts. 

The designs of the Kon-Tiki and Las Balsa rafts did not include a rudder, as it was not known in pre-Columbian South America. The Kon-Tiki had used an oar for steering. Instead of an oar, Las Balsas used ‘guaras’, or moving keel-boards, made out of hardwood and inserted in between the balsa wood logs.

The Ballina Maritime Museum was first established in 1983 in the old Pilots Cottage, moving to the present site in 1993 to more adequately house the remaining Las Balsa raft. The Museum was extended further in 2007 and now boasts of holding the largest collection of model ships in Australia, along with rare and unique shipwreck items. Photos and records tell many rich stories of coastal shipping history and early local river systems. 

The members were given a brief history and background of the Museum by Clem McMahon, the curator and historian of the Museum.