The Story of Brian McNamara

Told by Elsie McNamara (mother) and Brian McNamara (son)

Elsie:

Today is Sunday, 18th December 1949, the week before Christmas.  I’m Elsie McNamara, wife of Thomas McNamara, mother of Brian, Billy and Patricia.

Brian:

Hi I’m Brian McNamara, I’m 11 years old and live in Webb Street, Tully.  I love Sundays.  Sunday is the day our family; my mum, my dad and my younger brother and sister go out on a family outings, this Sunday it is with the Pease family from across the street. When we go with the Pease family, we go in their ute. I have a seat I like to sit in, in the back of the ute, so I always have to race my younger brother to get it. I always wear my brown felt hat up the front.  We are on our way to North Mission beach in Mr Bert Pease’s utility.

Elsie:

We had a lovely day at the beach that day, we set up our picnic on the grass next to the beach, had all the trimming for lunch. We swam in the ocean, the kids played games on the beach, and we had time as a family.   

That was until about 4 o’clock.  

The sea was very calm, and we decided to have one last swim, to wash off all the sand before we head home for the day. 

4 o’clock is a time I will never forget! 

Brian was first to race off into the water.

Then we heard an almighty curdling scream from Brian out in the water.   Tommy, my husband, raced over to him, we thought it was a shark. When he got there, he saw it was a giant sea wasp, Tommy began attacking it, by repeatedly hitting and kicking it.   Tommy, his father, dragged him out of the water, he had tentacles wrapped around his legs and chest.  He had been attacked by a giant sea wasp, which we call today a giant box jelly fish.  We rubbed sand on the tentacles, because that is what we thought we needed to do to get the tentacles off him. 

We knew we had to get him to the hospital, and Mr Pease’s ute only went 20 miles per hour, so we rushed him to hospital on a timber truck that was nearby.   We knew Brian was very ill, he was not in a good way. He was in horrendous pain.

My Brian, my son, died on the way to the hospital, and was pronounced dead in Tully hospital.

This day, 18th December 1949, I lost my boy. 

My husband, Thomas McNamara had welts on his arms and chest, from the box jelly fish’s tentacles, from trying to save our boy, Brian.

Narrator:

Thomas McNamara, Brian’s father, had to wear the scars of the tentacles on his body for the rest of his life, the scars of his son’s death.

Tom & Elsie never went to the beach again, their children were never allowed to swim in the ocean again.

They did go on to have another daughter; Sharon. 

Brian is laid here; at the Tully cemetery, with his younger brother Billy, who died 11 years later from a brain tumour. 

Sharon McNamara, now Collins, is the only living relative from his immediate family now, in 2024.