A BIG and bold headline simply saying "wanted" reflected the deep passion of bayside building inspector Roger "Bud" Kellow for certain creatures of the sea.
Bud started collecting shells about 40 years ago. The Raby Bay house he shares with partner Tracy is like a shell museum with thousands of specimens from around the world.
As Bud proudly proclaims, they are "everywhere" – from the garage to the dining room and featuring on just about every flat surface, vertical as well as horizontal.
The walls have not been immune from shell mania, as Bud uses shells in sculptures, paintings and huge "blown up" photographs.
THE artwork is one of the reasons he always needs more shells – so he advertised in our Classifieds, offering top prices for good specimens.
Four words sum up the way he feels: "I just love them."
While many blokes run into trouble with "the better half" over their hobbies and interests, Bud luckily does not have to deal with a "shell widow".
He says Tracy also has a shell collection.
All this stems from Bud’s first job as an apprentice carpenter at age 18, after he grew up at Wynnum.
"About 40 years ago one of my workmates, a brickie, asked if I wanted to help him build a mission church in Fiji, so I went with him," Bud says.
"We got friendly with the people and there were a lot of shells lying around.
"I brought a couple of triton shells back and it went from there."
BUD still has the original shells. He enjoys talking about how the triton is the only predator of the crown of thorns starfish, which threatened the Great Barrier Reef.
Pride of place in the Raby Bay shell museum – size wise at least -- goes to a giant trumpet shell, about 800 millimetres long. But Bud reckons they are all fantastic, big and small.
He has travelled to the Philippines and Fiji in search of specimens.
Although he has been back in the building industry about 10 years, a "long and varied" working life has financed Bud’s shell obsession.
Living at Capalaba and Cleveland, he operated service stations and bait and tackle shops. He also describes himself as a "mad fisherman".
BUD was delighted with the response to his ad. The callers included a Cleveland woman who also had a collection of several thousand shells in cabinets.
"She said I had to take the cabinet too, or there was no deal, so I ended up with it as well," he says.
THANKS for joining me to meet the great people in the marvellous community of classified advertising. This story has appeared in The Redland Times, Cleveland, Redland City, Queensland, Australia – the new city on the banks of beautiful Moreton Bay.
2008: First half in review
SHOCKING neglect of this blog means I must catch up with some of the great stories that have been published on paper this year but not posted. Here's a flashback to autumn:
Treasured army badge on casualty list
ONE week after Anzac Day 2008 commemorated the wartime service of Australians, their suffering is still on the mind of Redland City Council labourer Mick Musielak. Mick, 33, of Capalaba, says he observes Anzac Day because his granddad, Richard Alcock,and their family suffered much because of World War II service. Sapper Alcock's discharge papers on December 20, 1945, recorded his active service as 538 days in Australia and 809 days outside Australia, Mick says. "Granddad left grandma (the late Ester Alcock, of Kangaroo Point) and their seven kids when he went into the army," Mick says. "It must have been pretty hard being away from his family for those years and having the experience of war. "He had a lot of troubles and he died an alcoholic in 1974."I never got to meet him. He was a blacksmith."
MICK believes some of his granddad's service was in New Guinea with the 51st Australian Infantry Battalion but exact details are sketchy. Mr Alcock apparently did not talk a lot about his war service. Anzac Day has been important to Mick to honour the granddad he never knew. "For most of my life I have attended the dawn service - I am quite a staunch Anzac Day supporter," he says. Mick recalls travelling to the Brisbane dawn service when he attended Morningside State Primary School, then the Cleveland service when he was a student of Vienna Woods Primary and Alexandra Hills High Schools.
LONG before Mrs Alcock died two years ago, she recognised her grandson's special respect by entrusting him with her husband's army badge. Mick has treasured the badge. Last Thursday night he polished it in preparation for the big day.In the pre-dawn, he pinned the "rising sun" badge to his vest and rode his motorcycle to Cleveland, passing along Redland Bay, Windemere and Finucane Roads to Shore Street West. When he arrived at the Cleveland service, the badge was missing.
MICK still has slim hopes the finder will read his notice in our Lost and Found column. "It's not the largest of badges but maybe a schoolkid riding his bike would see it on the roadway - it could be anywhere," Mick says. "Grandma gave me all his memorabilia from the war years - things he made out of bomb shells and bullet shells and some other medals -- but the badge means more to me."
Cricket club honours 'integrity' and 'camaraderie'
THE traditions and heritage of a great game will be in the spotlight next month when Wellington Point Cricket Club holds its annual general meeting.
The club, which formed more than a century ago, is fiercely proud of its status as one of the Brisbane district’s oldest cricket clubs.
"Integrity" and "camaraderie" are the words club secretary Peter Walden uses to sum up the code that bridges social barriers and brings together people from many walks of life.
He regards the spirit of fairness and sticking with the rules as principles that have travelled off the pitch and into the fabric of society.
"WHEN someone does something wrong they say, ‘That’s not cricket’," Peter says. "Unfortunately, the integrity does get eaten away by some of the bad boys but you’ll get that with anything."
He is quick to explain, however, that very few "bad boys" have found their way into the Wellington Point club in the nine years he has been involved as a player, a father of a player and administrator.
"We have had some hot heads from time to time," he says. "But fortunately there have always been some old fellows around to remind them, ‘You are not bigger than the game’."
PETER looks forward to the AGM at Mooroondu Sports and Recreational Club at Thorneside on June 18, as a chance to experience the cameraderie in the community of interest.
Membership has grown from about 150 to more than 200 in the past five years, he says.
Peter says he always enjoyed cricket but apart from a few indoor games he did not have any deep involvement until the late 1990s.
His son, Joshua, joined the under-12s. Dad became interested in administration and had just qualified to join the masters, over-40s, side.
THREE seasons later the son "moved on" but his dad stayed – and Peter shows no sign of reducing his involvement.
Peter says the executive committee is grateful for the support of committed people, such as Trish Franklin.
At the AGM, he will officially thank Trish for her "superhuman effort" as acting president and note the "huge contribution" to the club from her family, with husband Maurie and their three sons Nick, Justin and Matthew all in club sides.
THANKS for joining me to meet the great people in the marvellous community of classified
advertising. This stiory has appeared in The Redland Times.
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