Leen and Bill Wallace

Two of the early pioneers in tourism in the Whitsunday region.

It could be said that Leen and Bill Wallace from Coral Art on Dent Island fitted easily into the category of alternate life-stylers; individuals who had chosen a lifestyle that was perceived to be alternative and/or individuals who had chosen to drop out of society and live on islands or the coastal fringes of Queensland.

From 1955 – 1961, they were caretakers of the lease owned by Jack O’Hara who, after his death, left it to his family. The house in which Jack and his wife, Margaret, had lived on the island after their retirement from their mainland farm was built in 1939 from timber from the first Hewitt Building in Proserpine’s Main Street. (Mrs O’Hara then rebuilt a new single storey building on that spot. This is where Home Brewitt is now located). Sons, Roy and Ray, took over the house on Dent after their parents died. Over the years, this house was used by various caretakers.

In the early 1950s, Ray O’Hara and his young wife, Margaret, befriended Leen and Bill Wallace who, at the time, were living at Hayman Island and making coral gardens to sell around the islands. Bill, an ex-US Navy flight engineer, was the collector and the coral, shells and other natural products that he brought back from his diving were decorated by the artistic Leen, a former Sydney showgirl. They had met when Leen was visiting her sister in the Whitsundays and Bill skippered their boat.

After their marriage in Cairns in 1950, they were attracted to the area by its sheltered, white beaches surrounded by crystal clear waters stocked with fish and corals. Ray offered them the use of the house on Dent with the agreement that they would maintain its order. The Wallaces gladly accepted and shortly after, Ray took up a job in Papua New Guinea.

In 1961, the Wallaces applied for and obtained a lease of 1.01 hectares over the area around the house and fronting onto the beach. They purchased the house from the O’Haras and began setting up their Coral Art establishment carving out a niche market for themselves selling painted coral arrangements. Leen and Bill shipped their painted coral around the world and this enterprise was used to promote the Great Barrier Reef through the Queensland Tourist Bureau. Eventually, they opened up their own Polynesian-style art studio.

Leen and Bill were the makers of the Coral Crown that was presented each year to the Coral Queen from the Great Barrier Reef Coral Festival which was first held in 1958. Today, this crown is on display at the Proserpine Historical Museum after having been donated by Thora Nicolson, formerly of Lindeman Island, one of the Coral Queens.

As the area opened up to cruising yachtsman in the 1960s, passing sailors, such as John Gunn, documented them in his 1966 book “Barrier Reef by Trimaran”.

“A married couple live in an idyllic setting on a cleared area of land behind the beach on this northern tip. With tremendous enterprise they have pioneered a business for themselves. The husband dives for coral pieces, and the wife applies delicate shades of colour to them, to make them look like the living corals … One may not be enthralled by this kind of tourist art, but it is popular. And the life that the two have carved out for themselves on their own island is one that many of us would love to have …”

Leen Wallace passed away at her tropical paradise home on Dent Island October 20 1988 after living a life which she referred to as a lifelong honeymoon.

Story courtesy Proserpine Historical Museum and information also sourced from “Island Artists” by Ewen McPhee (“Qld Museum and Community Collections” newsletter May 13 2020) and Ray Blackwood’s “The Whitsundays: An Historical History”. Photos sourced from National Archives.

POSTSCRIPT: If any of our readers have any knowledge of what happened to Bill after Leen’s death, the PHMS would be grateful to receive this information.

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