THE PAXMAN GUN

As a boy I remember a huge wall in the city painted with the figure of a diver and the words Jack Sue. Obviously the building in question was occupied by a dive shop.

In the window were all sorts of dive gear, and of course spearguns, which looked very impressive to a 10 year old boy.

Long wooden guns with shiny spears and multiple black rubbers certainly fired the imagination, what type of fish needed such large guns?

My eyes grew large and I had to hold one and try and pull back the rubber.

I think I tried hard but barely managed to reach the bridle let alone put any meaningful pressure into it.

The jaws of sharks and old diving helmets promised so much to my over stimulated mind, did people actually hunt in water so deep you couldn’t see the bottom?

Did they spear fish then have to fight off packs of marauding sharks hell bent on biting anything that moved?

 

The answer was yes, and a generation of divers like Jack Sue, Hugh Edwards, Ron Taylor and Ben Cropp were all pioneer Freedivers and spearfishermen in an era that was blessed with an unmatched abundance of fish life and diving opportunities.

There were of course other divers, some were to become famous and others infamous like ‘The Gelignite Buccanear’Alan Robbinson and the stories of shipwrecks and sharks were many.

 

This golden era has passed and many of the divers of this generation have faded into the dim fog of old memories and half forgotten tales.

It was only recently that I discovered the story of another of these pioneers, it was quite by accident and the more I found out the more I wanted to know.

As a keen freediver and spearfisherman I was in the habit of buying spearfishing and fishing magazines and of course anything with local content was eagerly read.

It was an old Westcoast Fishermen news paper with an article on spearfishing by the Paxman family that caught my eye. An enormous Tiger shark swimming past the boat was what really got my attention. Not so unusual you might say but this was taken from underwater without a cage!

I soon discovered the Paxman family had quite a reputation and if I wanted to learn how to really be a spearfisherman , then these were the people to teach you. I soon became a member of the Blue Water Freedivers and was introduced to the Paxman Gun and the legend of Frank Paxman.

 

I remember my first club meeting, it was at Barry Paxmans, there were a lot of blokes standing around the BBQ nursing tin cans and talking in quite tones. I couldn’t help but overhear and like a moth drawn to the flame I interrupted many a conversation that night with “how big, how deep and how many” being the operative words.

Wandering away from the crowd for a moment I was admiring Barrys boat when a familiar shape caught my eye. Nestled in the bow was a long wooden gun, it brought back those old memories of standing in Jack Sues trying to pull back the rubber on those classic guns. Except this gun was bigger, longer and looked like it belonged on the deck of a whaling ship. The spear was at least 10mm thick and resembled a harpoon, robust and well made there was nothing this gun couldn’t handle. I had heard of the Paxman gun and there was no mistaking it. I mentioned the gun to Barry, could he make me one?

He said he could, reluctantly, didn’t make too many anymore.

Obviously they required a lot of time; Frank used to make them because he had the time and seemed to really enjoy it.

Frank I learned was Barry’s father, he had not that long ago passed away.

I have a keen interest in the early years of spearfishing in Western Australia so couldn’t help but ask about Frank. I soon learned that Frank paxman was indeed in the same mold as those pioneer Freedivers and spearfishermen as these storys by Jackie Paxman and Greg Pickering illustrate.