Stonefish agony: 'Brother came galloping home on his horse'

ON READING about the youth who stood on a stonefish, brought back memories when I was a young girl.

Stonefish have been talk of the town in Bundaberg recently.

ON READING about the youth who stood on a stonefish, brought back memories when I was a young girl.

We lived near Smith's Crossing.

My brothers would go with their mates and have a swim in the Kolan River at the crossing.

One Sunday, my brother Alf, about 14 years old, came galloping home on his horse, screaming out he had been stung by something.

In those days no car or telephone.

So mum boiled the kettle on the wood stove and could see prickle like marks under the sole of the foot.

The water was boiling hot but Alf kept saying it wasn't hot.

Mum got a needle and pricked at the prickle marks and kept boiling the kettle.

She kept bathing the foot and all the time Alf could hardly sit still. This went on for hours.

I think mum ended up putting iodine on the foot when the pain eased.

My other brother, Des, also got stung some months later.

They used to call them devil fish, now stonefish.

The saying was that the pain wouldn't ease till the turn of the tide.
 

Originally published as Stonefish agony: 'Brother came galloping home on his horse'