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A TRIBUTE

KEN HENDRY: 1935—1996

THE MAN AND HIS LURES

THE MAN

Much has been written about the Seekers.

This tribute is from a more personal angle about their creator.

I have never met Ken but I do know some of his close relatives for a long time.

Ken was a fisherman who made lures. A classic story of a cottage lure maker.
Phyllis, his wife said that he would have been quite pleased that there are people out there interested enough to collect his lures.

Ken‘s occupation as a butcher started after his learnt his trade locally in Bendigo. He then worked for his uncle in a butcher shop at View St Bendigo Later on he gained the position as a meat inspector. He continued in this role until he retired at the age of 53 due to ill health. In between time he did a three months stint in what was known as National Service during the Korean conflict.

He put in a more serious effort in making lures after he retired and continued to do so until his sudden passing at the age of 61. That is a relatively short career as a lure maker of one of Australia’s iconic lures.

He is survived by his wife and two daughters and their children, whom Ken took on numerous fishing trips. They have fond memories of these trips and many photos were evidence of them.

As common to some other lure makers, Ken made lures for himself to fish with. Then some mates wanted some made because they caught fish. He was involved with the local Field and Game scene and soon the demand for his lures increased and he went into a more serious lure production mode. And the Seeker was born.
His work shop was at the back of his house in Kangaroo Flat. He would spend many hours, sometimes in the freezing cold, shaping and carving his lures, using a spoke shave and other instruments.
He did the painting out in the back yard and the drying in one of those old clothe dryer shaped like a fridge with the dowels in them. The lures at times would be hanging in the sun to dry as shown in the above picture. The work bench is on the back ground on the left and there are wood shavings on the ground. There are some beauties hanging there.

These early lures with cod head background was taken on the work bench shown above.

His also had a great association with the famed Mulwala Classic. The Seekers became much more widely known and the popularity and demand grew with new colours and shapes added to his lure range. They were distributed interstates. There was even an order for his lures from the USA. He was quite bemused by this.


Ken in his kitchen with Mulwala Classic 93 shirt on. The lures are out of focus though.

The following are more photos of Ken in his environment.
Ken and a small cod. The mighty Murray in the background.

Ken and his boat and a nice cod
Ken in his kitchen
Ken in Mulwala

HIS LURES

We are all familiar with the magnificent voice of Judith Durham and the boys in tunes like “The Carnival Is Over”, “Morning Town Ride”. But the name Seeker bears no relationship to the famed Aussie group.

They were named because they were made to seek out fish. And they are quite successful in this.

The writings on the lures were done by Ken himself. Nobody else did any signing of his lures.

The following photos tell their own stories

Some Round Eyes
Some later lures


Range of sizes and colours

THE SEEKERS IN ACTION
They do work!!!

A Blue capture
A Red/Black in action

Early Yellow/Black


More Round Eye victims

THE STORY OF THE SHOE BOX.

A good percentage of the Seekers in this collection are gifted to me and I thank these people for their generosity. Some of them were friends of Ken’s ,some who knew him from the Field and Game association, one a fellow National service colleague, and others were people who bought the lures, fished them, and gifted to me when they found out that I collect them. The rest were bought from various sources, including 3 from Mrs Hendry herself.

Mrs Hendry came into my work one day in May 2009 with one of her sisters. She discovered my interest in Ken’s lures. The next time she came in she had a shoe box in a plastic bag with her. She gave it to me as a gift.

The following photos showed the shoe box and its content.




It is important for me to tell this story because this shoe box is the seed in my head to do this series about Ken and his lures.

I visited her in the presence of one of her daughters in June 2009 and she gave me some nice photos after I told her of my intention to write about Ken and the Seekers. I also bought the three lures mentioned previously: a Flathead lure, the black frog and a carded CARP.
I also took some photos of Ken’s tackle box and some lures on the kitchen bench



Some nice modern samples
Ken’s shed key. For one reason or another, and some of us know the truth about this, the idea then became dormant for over three years. Right through the Musketeer thread, it remains in the background, waiting for the courage to gather, to confront myself really, and the seed finally germinated and here we are.

I have to thank Phyllis and her two daughters for their kindness and reading of this section for accuracy and also their kind permission to use the photos.

I also thank a good friend for the suggestion of writing this in sections so future inputs into the respective stages can be done without going through a big long article.
And most of all to my mate Vince , thank you . He knows what he has done for me in this journey.

As stated in the beginning, this study is an attempt to catalogue the Seekers. The knowledge base is incomplete and there are many “lost souls” out there waiting to be identified. It is hoped with further inputs from others who are willing to share, that it may eventually become a source of reference for Ken and his lures.
I have enjoyed writing this thread very much and I hope you do too.

However this is not the end. The Seeker name lives on, through the work of Mark Dobbin of Marong, a few km from where Ken used to live.

Albert

a pic from the local newspaper
Albert