It is a passion the octogenarian still loves to indulge after writing the Bluff Beacon for 25 years.
"You’ve got to do something these cold winter days."
Bluff History Group president and Alan’s wife, Jan Mitchell, believed the books were important to Bluff’s future.
"It’s going to give people a glimpse back at a whole different way of life in our town." she said.
The author’s latest publication, Remember When has been dedicated to the memory of James Spencer, Bluff’s first European settler who arrived in 1824.
Its 123 pages contain a rich collection of stories, photos and information about the tiny coastal settlement.
The book was published by the Bluff History Group and is the third book in the series, with Bluff in Retrospect and Reflections preceding the latest publication.
Mr Mitchell used tidbits from Bluff Beacon columns penned years before as the foundation of the book.
"I’ve lived in the town all my life and being an old bugger, a lot of things stick in your memory.
"It was just funny things that stuck in my memory ... largely about Bluff, but a few from the outside too.
The topic had proved popular with the locals, he said.
"The number of people that would bail you up in the street and talk about something, or phone or make Facebook comments."
Anecdotally, he recalls the story of the fisherman who was shipwrecked in Fiordland, who survived by living off the sea and salvaging wreckage from the beach.
But it was the story of the Dutch fisherman who imported a barrel organ from the Netherlands and proceeded to cart it around to entertain at charity functions that tops his favourite yarns list.
He also writes about the direct Bluff to Sydney flying-boat flight that launched from the harbour.
The three young women who wore a Miss Southland crown, school classrooms with an average of 40 pupils per class and the Bluff Harbour Board that used to employ 430 people all feature on the pages.
"Technology has simply changed everything. Once upon a time, there were over 400 men working on the wharf ... now there’s about 23, augmented by casuals.
"Once upon a time almost every piece of cargo used to be handled manually.
"Now it’s all containerised and all those jobs have disappeared.
Ocean Beach Freezing Works, which closed in 1991, used to employ 900 men.
The passage of time and technology had changed the dynamics of how people lived he said.
"Just even in my lifetime, the changes in technology and communications have been quite dramatic — things you would never have contemplated or dreamed of."
The book will be available to buy through E Hayes, Bluff Service Centre, Real Estate Cafe and the Bluff Maritime Museum.
- By Toni McDonald
