Ballina’s hidden history – the forgotten expedition that broke a world record

CHADDEN Hunter was stuck at home in Byron Bay on a rainy day in 2020, caring for a baby and a toddler during the COVID-19 pandemic, when his wife suggested visiting an attraction she’d come across online.

Although he thought the Ballina Naval & Maritime Museum sounded dull, he went along anyway – unaware that it would change the course of his life.

He was looking at an exhibit at the far end of the museum when his wife called him over and said “You should make a film about this”.

She had discovered a five-metre-high raft from the Las Balsas Expedition, in which 12 men sailed nearly 14,000 kilometres across the Pacific Ocean from Ecuador to Australia on three wooden rafts in 1973.

“She said they filmed the expedition on 16mm cameras,” Hunter said. “Then as a filmmaker I had a lightbulb moment. I thought, ‘I wonder if I can find the original films and digitally remaster it?'”

It took Hunter a year to locate the original 16mm master film stock, which had been stored in cold storage in Los Angeles for more than 40 years. He then tracked down the seven surviving crew members, pored over their diaries and memorabilia, and flew around the world to interview them with support from Screen Australia.

The crew who embarked on the six-month journey had included a bullfighter from Mexico, an ex-terrorist from Quebec and a geologist on the run from Pinochet in Chile who had never sailed before.

“It’s a phenomenal story,” Hunter said. “To this day it’s still the world’s longest ever raft journey, which blows my mind. It still holds the world record.

“Salvador Dali helped paint the sail with an eagle cruising the ocean as good luck. The Spanish captain, who was very charismatic, tracked him down in New York and told him about the expedition. He was really impressed with his confidence and they became friends.

“It was a very spiritual experience for those guys and that comes through in the interviews – the way they talk about reconnecting with Mother Nature and the power of the ocean and how it made them feel.”

Although the rafts had originally been aiming for Mooloolaba, the current swept them south. The HMAS Labuan followed them past Brisbane to the Port of Ballina, where two trawlers pulled two of the rafts into the Richmond River.

The third raft was deemed too waterlogged to endure the strain of being towed and was cut loose. It drifted to Newcastle, where it was destroyed by vandals who set fire to it.

Hunter, now based in Brisbane, said the restored footage shows schoolchildren running to greet the adventurers when they arrived and a hastily assembled marching band playing Waltzing Matilda.

The 48-minute film, The Raftsmen, had its world premiere at the Sydney Film Festival last year and is available to stream on Apple TV and Amazon Prime.

It will screen at the Ocean Film Festival at Brunswick Picture House in Brunswick Heads on March 6 and 7. Tickets are available via oceanfilmfestivalaustralia.com.au