Guayaquil in Newcastle, 1973
Balsa raft visits Newcastle, 1973
In December 1973 Newcastle Harbour received a strange visitor in the shape of a balsa wood raft, not unlike the famous Kon-Tiki which Thor Heyerdahl used to cross the Pacific Ocean in the late 1940s. The raft, named Guayaquil after its point of departure in Ecuador, South America, had struggled across the ocean before its crew was lifted to safety from the apparently sinking raft off Ballina, NSW, HMAS Labuan. Guayaquil did not sink, however. Currents carried it down the east coast where it was found by a fisherman, K. Bollinger, who towed it into Newcastle.…