Magnetic Island (Qld), 1956

In 1956, my father took long-service leave, and the family escaped a whole Melbourne winter, spending 4 months on Magnetic Island (off Townsville), then several weeks touring from Cairns to Sydney, with all travel being by train.
The island was not yet a Townsville suburb, and was only mildly touristy (one resort hotel, one guesthouse, and one pub-style hotel). It did have a lot of holiday camps, for schoolkids from inland. We rented a house with an extensive yard. There were lots of pineapple farms, but my memory of fishing is just recreational, not commercial. There were several ferry trips per day to the mainland, in Hayles ferries (1.5 deck, enclosed, about 20 m long). Vehicles and cargo came by barge. My memory is that the island had one taxi (Ford Zephyr or Consul), two buses (open, possibly Chev, which later became tourist gimmicks) and one truck. The photo shows the truck, offloading drums from the barge. I guess that they are fuel for generators: the island had no grid; we had our own generator, turned off each night. The cables for mainland power were being laid while we were there. I didn't return until 1968: many more vehicles. Now there are high-speed ferries, regular roro, surfaced roads, resorts everywhere. Our block lost the rear to a new development, and the front to be the site of Surfside Motel.
The truck has been identified in HCVC facebook as a 1935 Chevrolet.
Roderick
Apr.-Aug.1956. Picnic Bay, Magnetic Island (Qld). Truck and barge. (Neil Smith, Roderick Smith collection).

Looks like it was a beautiful day.
Was the truck a Reo Speedwagon?

Rodders
what a great simple life that would be in those days

One of the Chev buses is in the Bus Museum in Sydney, it was restored there a few years ago.