Family photos unravel more Old Woman Island secrets

THESE never-before-published photographs of Old Woman Island were captured by the man who built a home, a dam and a cyclone shelter on the Mudjimba landmark.

Miles Sewell looks through family photographs of his dad, John, and his time on Old Woman Island. Picture: Contributed

TAKE a look at these never-before-seen photographs of Old Woman Island captured by the man who built a home, a dam and a cyclone shelter on the Mudjimba landmark with his bare hands.

John Blackwood-Sewell bought the lease to the island in the 1960s and hand built the hut on the island which is now the dilapidated ruins visible on drone footage taken by real estate agent, John Anderson.

John's son Miles has shared the family photographs of the island which show how his dad built the hut from rocks on the island.

He has also revealed how his dad used to navigate the strong currents and rocky beaches to get ashore.

REVEALED: The truth behind Old Woman Island

John, a former airline pilot for Qantas, bought the lease for the island from a man "living out west" in the 1960s.

"He wanted to live on an island and when he found out there was a lease for Old Woman Island, he drove out west to ask the man if he could buy it," Miles said.

Miles Sewell looks through family photographs of his dad, Johns, time on Old Woman Island. Picture: Patrick Woods

The rest of the family was living on the Gold Coast, but John moved to the island to make it a home.

"He made a pontoon down at Mooloolaba and towed it to the island with a prawn trawler," Miles said.

"I was 17 at the time and living on the Gold Coast. Dad towed the raft out there and put it up on the rocks.

"He had a couple of tents and started building the house."

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The house, which had a few rooms, a kitchen, fireplace and shutters, no glass windows, was built from rocks on the island.

John also built a "cyclone shelter" and a "small dam" which some have mistaken for a swimming pool.

"He dug out a huge hole and made a dam to supply water, but it got cracks in it, it didn't work as a dam," Miles said.

The 'dam' John Blackwood-Sewell built on the island which many later thought was a swimming pool. Picture: Contributed

"He didn't have the materials to build it properly."

John had given up on the airline business and started a new career making jewellery from the island.

He had a Maverick way of working out how to polish jewellery with no electricity.

"He used a lawn mower and put a pulley on it. He ran the lawn mower to run the polishing machine," Miles said.

"Every few weeks he would come ashore and spent a couple of nights in Mooloolaba and sell his jewellery.

"He did quite well out of it, he made a living."

Sometimes trespassers create a problem, so John placed an advert in the Sunshine Coast Daily in the 1970s advising people it was privately owned.

A notice put on in the Sunshine Coast Daily to warn people away from the island. Picture: Contributed

Miles went overseas after finishing school while his dad stayed on the island.

But when he married in 1972, he dad picked him up in his tinny from Surfair in Marcoola and he and his bride honeymooned on the island.

"It was terrific on there," Miles said.

"He had little paths made of coral and rocks all through the place. He made flat pieces were you could sit and watch the sun go down.

"Every little animal he knew, he had given them names.

"You could sit there and watch the surf rolling in."

The view from Old Woman Island in the 1970s. Picture: Contributed

Unlike Peter Troy, who eventually took over the lease of island after John sold it in 1985, John was never a surfer.

"He was a bit of an adventurer," Miles said.

He had mastered the art many still haven't of landing on the island safely.

"He knew how to do it exactly, he had a white marker on the island he would line up with the bottom at high tide and then go in without a problem," Miles said.

But living on island alone finally took its toll.

"He got lonely," Miles said.

He sold the lease in 1985 which eventually ended up in the hands of Peter Troy and he then bought a fishing boat in England.

"He had a real adventurous spirit," Miles said.

John Sewell died in 2005.

John Blackwood-Sewell knew how to dock his boat on the island. Picture: Contributed

Peter Troy sold the lease to the island in 1991, but a year later the State Government took it back.

A Queensland Parks and Wildlife spokesman told the Daily the island was part of the Maroochy River Conservation Park and was managed by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS).

"QPWS did a major clean up in September 2005, which included removing an asbestos roof from an old hut which had been damaged by overnight campers," he said.

This was the hut Mr Sewell built.

"The roof was removed to prevent potential contamination to the island," the spokesman said.

"The island is one of the most southern nesting sites for the wedge-tailed shearwater, and provides appealing diving and surfing opportunities for locals and visitors."