In April 2024, the Pong Su Incident turns twenty-one. As such, it gains its maturity among the nation’s most notorious maritime folklore and the annals of our ever-vigilant Border Forces, the Australian Federal Police, and the Royal Australian Navy.

It is customary for a 21st birthday to be acknowledged as a milestone. In addition, I have found the memory of this seminal piece of Great Ocean Road and Lorne history strangely fading in the collective coastal memory of many who otherwise profess familiarity with Lorne ” … the Pong Su? … I’ve never heard of the Pong Su!” Thus, it seems timely to refresh the local memory of the incident.

The ‘Pong Su Incident’ took place at Boggaley Creek, the narrow channel just past the Jamieson and the wreck of the Godfrey, that haven for garfish — those long, thin, bony, but oh-so-succulent morsels of the sea that have lured Lorne’s fisher-folk to this spot for over 100 years. ”

“You’ll need a special rig for gar,” old Cyril Norton used to tell me. But despite showing me how it should be tied, I was never meant to be a fisherman. Just ask Keith Miller or Rick Addison. I have never caught much beyond a basketful of toadies. But believe you me, Boggaley is the ‘it’ spot when seeking this most tasty of fish.

Perhaps the 30+ crew of the Pong Su, a 106m, 3,743-tonne ocean-going freighter from the Hermit Kingdom of the Peoples Republic of North Korea, decided to enjoy a spot of gar fishing … but no … the events that follow confirm a far darker purpose.

This account leans heavily on a spellbinding multi-episode podcast created for the Age newspaper by Richard Baker https://www.theage.com.au/pong-su — a-play-as-you-drive, not-to-be-missed story of intrigue and misadventure for any who visit the GOR. In addition, I have extracted or quoted in part from several separate newspaper and Internet descriptions of the chain of events surrounding this extraordinary moment in the maritime history of our coastline. Here goes …

Under cover of darkness on the night of April 15th, 2003, the Pong Su dropped anchor just off the creek outfall. Our much-missed Lorne Angling and Aquatic Club identity, Dickie Davies, estimated it to be about 250m offshore when later interviewed for the Pong Su podcasts.

This brief Korean ‘kiss’ to our coast set in train one of the enduring mysteries—and one still not fully resolved—in the rich history of Lorne. Though most sources reference Lorne as the primary place of interest, Boggaley Creek is closer to Wye River, so the Wye deserves a place in the story, too.

In a carefully hush-hushed operation — Operation Sorbet [and as an aside, where do they get these operational names from?] — the Australian Federal Police had been tracking three tourist visa entrants from China for a month or more. It seems the Feds knew something big was ‘on’, but not quite what or where.

Picking up the scent at Crown Casino [where else?], they followed what appeared to be ‘a ground crew’ down the Great Ocean Road to Lorne, where an attempt had been made to rent a ‘home base’. According to a later interview with a local estate agent [Podcast Episode 1], this fell through due to a disagreement over the linen provided at the rental … [OK: I hear you, but it gets even weirder].

The shore ‘reception’ team of two remained under surveillance and were tracked to a lonely stretch of rocky coast at Boggaley Creek. Not ideal, one might think, in retrospect, for a ship-to-shore transfer. There, after midnight on the night of April 15/16th, 2003, ship and shore torch signals were exchanged, a rubber dinghy was lowered overboard from the ship, and set out for the shore. A rough sea was running, and the ducky overturned as it tried to make an unsuccessful landing. A scramble to rescue the cargo then ensued while the evolving parallel human tragedy seemed less important.

Having loaded most [but not all] the illicit cargo into their Tarago van, the two Chinese visa men that had built the ground crew ‘took off’… leaving at least one of the two rubber ducky crew alone on the beach while the other crew member appeared to have ‘disappeared’. No effort seems to have been made to locate him.

The next day, a search at Boggaley Creek found the body of a man of East Asian appearance, covered by seaweed, close to an abandoned dinghy. The other crew member of the dinghy, unable to get back to the ship, was arrested after a short search found him hiding in scrub near the shoreline. Finally, the two men who had — in street parlance — ‘done a runner with the loot’ were arrested near Geelong in possession of two large packages, each containing 50 kilograms of pure heroin.

In May 2003, a further 75 kilograms of pure heroin was discovered in three more packages buried near Wye River. An additional 25-kilogram package — believed to have been lost during the landing — has never been recovered, yet the cache has relentlessly been searched for over two decades. As the current AFP website quotes the 2024 street value of 1 kg of pure heroin at A$350,000, do your own sums! And, as an aside, think of the nuclear warheads that Kim Jong Un could finance with that!

It would have been more than enough had the story ended there, but no, it was only just beginning! While the local drama was playing out ashore, the Pong Su had up-anchored and was hightailing it towards Flinders Island and beyond to the safety of the Tasman Sea. Thus began a cat-and-mouse pursuit on the high seas that brought in the Victorian, Tasmanian, and New South Wales water police, HMAS Stuart of the Royal Australian Navy, and the Special Operations Tactical Assault Group [TAG] of the Australian Army.

While the Tarago van team was apprehended near Geelong and the confused, cold, hungry, and deserted North Korean seaman was flushed and rescued from his hiding place in the Boggaley Creek bush, the Pong Su was sailing on through the Bass Strait with the pride of the Australian navy in its wake. It had all the makings of a serious international incident.

Directed to turn in to Port Phillip Bay and Melbourne, the renegade ship refused and advised it would head to Sydney. Then, ignoring the Navy and New South Wales Police instructions to put into port — this time at Eden — and as the weather began to deteriorate and the pursuing police vessels were forced to turn back, the Pong Su continued its doomed quest for the international waters of the Tasman Sea.

It soon became clear that the ship’s captain would continue to ignore the instructions of the Australian authorities — especially when the Pong Su chugged on past Sydney Heads. While HMAS Stuart corralled it on the seaward side and as F-111s circled above, the little ship defied all military threats … for a time.

Still, as the Australian authorities closed in and after a four-day chase, the game was up. The authorities’ patience was at an end, and the Stuart was ordered to intercept and board the Pong Su on April 20th, some 65 km southeast of Newcastle.

As several members of the Special Operations Tactical Assault Group [TAG] roped onto its deck from a hovering Seahawk helicopter above, others from the TAG team threw grappling hooks and climbed up its sides from three fast inflatable rubber duckies that had sped the choppy seas from HMAS Stuart.

The Pong Su was duly taken, commandeered, and returned to Sydney, where a fine-tooth-comb inspection revealed how extensively it had been modified for long journeys without the need to put into port. It had meticulously been fitted out with hidden illicit cargo compartments and launch-and-retrieval facilities for shore assault craft. Indeed, a Netflix series could not have done any better justice to an edge-of-the-seat thriller series with the true-to-life reality of the Pong Su Incident!

So ends Part One of the Pong Su story.

Coming soon: Part Two.

John Agar Feature Writer

 

A word from the chariman

Welcome to our Easter visitors. We hope you love, enjoy and respect our town as much as we do who are lucky to call this place home. There is plenty to see and do this weekend with the Saturday Market, a major fundraiser for our local school. Come along and enjoy craft from our local artisans, great food and fun for the kids. There is a fishing competition on Sunday at the pier, and live entertainment at the Aquatic Club, the Lorne Cinema and the Lorne Hotel. Please enjoy our beautiful beach as our late summer rolls on, but please stay safe, swim between the flags, and take your rubbish with you.

*****

Last weekend we were fortunate to be able to visit children and grandchildren in Sydney. While we were there, we also visited the White Bay Power Station. Well, you may ask, why!

It’s ok it wasn’t some fossil-fuelled or nuclear-powered aberration. The power station has recently been restored into a museum to its history but also an arts and performance precinct. It is currently hosting the Sydney Biennale, a festival of arts as well as many activities to keep younger children entertained. While the art and performance was interesting and entertaining, what blew me away was the building, an amazing structure covering over 30,000 square metres and a towering roofline. What is even more amazing is that the New South Wales government recently invested $100 million to restore the building to its never-before-seen glory to be used for the arts.

The power station was first built in 1917, to power the city’s train and rail network, and was later extended to (in conjunction with other such power stations) supplement the commercial and domestic power supply to the Sydney metropolis. The station was decommissioned in 1984 and lay dormant until some visionaries saw its potential and had the passion and persistence to convince the government to preserve an important piece of history.

As we continue our fight to respect the history of Point Grey we can only hope that such vision and passion will win the day. It is worth it!

*****

Smoke is in the air! No, not leaves and bark burning in the gutter, not yet anyway! No, this is important work being done by Forest Fire Management (FFM) protecting our property and our wellbeing. We met with FFM last week to learn that planned burns are an important part of fire protection of our community. The Otways are the highest bushfire impact area in Victoria, and Lorne is the Number 1 highest bushfire risk location in Victoria, closely followed by Anglesea at Number 2. The burns are not random, but the result of scientific modelling to maximise risk-reduction. So let’s not complain too much about a bit of smoke and remember that “fire is part of our landscape” and that you should be concerned if you don’t see smoke in March.

Wishing you the blessings of Easter

Cheers

John Higgins

Chairman

Lorne Ward Events Calendar

March

• 28 Photographic Exhibition Opening Night

6-7:30pm at Lorne Community Connect. All Welcome.

• 29-13/4 Photographic Exhibition, at Lorne Community Connect

11am-3pm daily.

• 30 Lorne Market

9-4pm https://www.lornemarkets.com/

• 31 Lorne Aquatic & Angling Club – Major Fishing Competition No 3

Weigh cut off 12.30pm. Free roast lunch for competitors, $10 non-fishing members.

April

• 21 Ravenswood High Tea, Celebrate Mothers Dy early at the historical Ravenswood home as a fundraiser for The Smith Family

From 2pm – 4:30pm tickets via www.trybooking.com/1189141 for $50 each.