The islands hold the stain of a tragic injustice brought upon the Australian nation, yet today, after a 40-year lockdown, they shine again with a wealth of fascinating history, plus untapped riches in their turquoise and cobalt-coloured coral reef waters.
In the early 1950s, Australia’s Prime Minister at the time — Robert Menzies — granted permission for the British Government to conduct part of its nuclear weapons testing at the Montebellos. The British detonated three atomic bombs at the site, the first in 1952 and another two in 1956.
The islands are still littered with rusting reminders, including the remains of abandoned vehicles and derelict bunkers that once housed a battery of electronics and sensors.
As radiation levels subsided, the region was reopened in the early 1990s.
FISHING WONDERLAND
Having enjoyed the protection of quarantine in a time-capsule for the best part of 40 years, the archipelago now delivers the stuff of dreams for adventurous anglers. The enormous wealth of fish surrounding these coral-encrusted islands is extraordinary.
It is refreshing to know there are still wilderness areas where nature has been left unscathed, where fish and other wildlife remain as bountiful as they ever were.
However, reaching a remote wilderness usually requires an investment of time and money to organise and run an expedition.
Such locations rarely offer any infrastructure, so you need to take everything with you, including fuel, food and water. And if fishing is a priority, you’ll need an equipped fishing boat as well as plentiful tackle supplies.
THE EASY WAY
All of this explains why it was such a joy for my wife, Trish, and I to discover Blue Lightning Charters and their outstanding live-aboard set-up that makes serious fishing expeditions to the Montebellos easy (bluelightning.com.au). The Mills family began live-aboard charters in 1995, and now offer a seasonal floating basestation with fishing boats and deluxe mothership accommodation.
Moored in a sheltered bay, their large pontoon shelter provides a hub for their boats, giving you an open-air place to stretch out and relax after a big day on the ocean. It offers comfortable lounges, dining facilities, refrigeration, lighting and even a sturdy shark-proof underwater viewing cage — all cooled by sea breeze and immersed in a vista of islands.
Blue Lightning’s Captain, Chad Mills, and his charming wife, Leah, run sportfishing charters to the islands each year between June and December. Since 2006, they’ve put their anglers onto a consistent abundance of Spanish mackerel, giant trevally, golden trevally, sailfish, black marlin, striped marlin, blue marlin and a plethora of large and delicious reef species, including coral trout, red emperor and rankin cod.
During our 10-day trip, the team landed a bewildering variety of fish, with the 50th different species landed on the final day.
FLY IN TO MINING TOWN
We flew into Karratha for the pick-up with the rest of our party before departing on the boat from Dampier Harbour, only a short drive away.
Named after the British buccaneer William Dampier, who visited in 1688, Dampier is a major industrial port servicing the Pilbara region’s export of iron ore from the enormous Rio Tinto mines. Flying over and driving past the mine in neighbouring Karratha gave us a fascinating glimpse into the staggering scale of this industry.
Dampier also exports liquefied natural gas (LNG) and salt, which is dried in large salt farms along the shoreline.
Before our departure to the Montebellos, we took an opportunity to visit a charming relic in Dampier Harbour. Known as Sam’s Island, it was the refuge of a local character named Sam Ostojich who, with his bare hands and ingenuity, built for himself a castle in 1966 from the rocks, shells, and flotsam scavenged from the low outcrop of land. The structure and his living there was illegal, but the townsfolk turned a blind eye and he stayed there in peace for many years.
EXPLORING ASHORE
With Leah as our expert tour guide, Trish and I also spent several days exploring the Montebello Islands, including a visit to one of the landbased nuclear test sites.
There were three nuclear weapons detonated at the Montebellos between 1952 and 1956.
The first was exploded 2.7m below sea-level in the hull of an old navy frigate anchored off Trimouille Island. It left a crater in the seabed 16 metres deep and 300 metres wide. The command centre can still be seen on Hermite Island.
The other bombs were detonated atop aluminium towers, one at the north-western end of Trimouille Island and the other on the eastern side of Alpha Island. The first of these was reported to be a 15-kiloton device, but the second was much larger — reported to be 60kt (three times the power of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima) but believed to have been closer to 98kt. The tragic story of these tests is exposed in detail in Frank Walker’s chilling book, Maralinga.
UP CLOSE WITH TURTLES
We also visited several nesting beaches where green, hawksbill and flatback turtles return between August and March to lay their eggs.
In the sand dunes behind one of nesting beaches, we discovered a gruesome reminder of the harsh reality the females endure to lay their eggs in the sand. Exhausted and dehydrated after their ordeal just to reach the island, then hauling their heavy bodies up the hot sand to then dig a deep pit and lay their eggs, some of the turtles become disorientated in the darkness and head inland instead of back to the water. We found them trapped or overturned behind boulders, and a tragic number ended their journey in a broad, dished turtle graveyard on the back of one of the dunes.
After seven to nine weeks in the sand, the eggs usually hatch at night so the baby turtles have a chance to avoid the army of birds, lizards and crabs awaiting them on land. In the water in daylight, they face an even greater threat from fish, seabirds and other predators.
At dawn on the morning of our visit, we discovered an alarming cluster of small whaler sharks milling about the shallows, awaiting the impending first wave of hatchlings.
Perhaps only one in 100 hatchlings reach the open ocean, and of them, only one or two turtles survive to return and breed.
WORLD-CLASS ACTION
Although the majority of their clients focus on the reef fishing, Captain Chad Mills has devoted special attention to pioneering the region’s billfish potential over recent seasons. Starting in the 2007 season, he spent 21 days chasing sailfish, releasing 123 as well as six juvenile black marlin. On one day alone, they released 39 sailfish!
In 2018, they spent only 29 days trolling the offshore grounds, yet released 290 sailfish and three marlin, giving an outstanding daily average of 10.1 billfish released. When Trish and I joined them in late September 2019, they’d already released 211 sails and 16 marlin since June.
To achieve such amazing success, Chad has developed a great tease-and-switch system that enables up to eight anglers to join in the sailfish action at the same time. A row of outfits is lined up in vertical rodholders along the starboard gunnel, each already connected to a leader baited with a small baitfish on a circle hook. Each angler is assigned their strike order, with their outfit positioned in the row to correspond. For example, the first angler on strike has their outfit closest to the transom.
A mix of teasers are trolled, including daisychains of plastic squid from each outrigger, which proved irresistible to the sailfish.
SAILFISH PRODUCTION LINE
The team springs into action once a fish is spotted, the first angler dropping his bait into the clear water beside the starboard end of the stern, then feeding out line as he walks across to the far side of the transom.
Once the bait reaches the strikezone where the teased sailfish are ready to climb on, the angler holds the line to get the bait skipping until a sailfish grabs it, at which time it is free-spooled for a couple of seconds before increasing drag and allowing the line to gradually come tight and hook the fish.
While the first angler is going through this procedure, the second and subsequent anglers are also following suit in an orderly procession.
Fighting multiple sailfish requires a lot of ducking and weaving to prevent cut-offs, but it sure is exhilarating!
FLYING MACKEREL
Our trip also opened our eyes to an extremely exciting technique for catching Spanish mackerel with cast surface lures, which appears to be as reliable as clockwork — at least over the prolific reefs of the Montebello Islands.
Casting outfits were rigged with stickbait lures and left standing ready in rodholders while we trolled diving minnow lures, such as Halco’s excellent ‘Laser Pro 190,’ over the reefs. When a strike revealed a school of mackerel, one angler fought that fish while everyone else raced for their casting outfits and fired out a lure. It soon became apparent that the schools lurk near the surface in the same vicinity for quite some time, as we frequently hooked fish up to 15 minutes after the trolling strike. Once we’d either drifted off the area or the school had moved on, we simply resumed trolling.
While catching Spanish mackerel of 10–20kg is always exciting on a light outfit, watching their slashing strike as they nail your lure on the surface — or even better, rocket high into the air with your lure across their jaws — escalates the excitement to an entirely new level.
TAKE HOME BONUS
Our days on the reefs provided a mounting bounty of delicious fish.
Those who had been with Blue Lightning before were well aware they needed to book an extra suitcase with the airline for the return trip, since we all went home with around 20kg of coral trout, mackerel, and emperor fillets. Over the following months, Trish and I were reminded of our adventure in a special and delicious way every time we dipped into the freezer for dinner.