All language subtitles for Revealed.The.Cape.2023.720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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You know that story
that happened

up there in the Gulf about those
people that went missing...

Unbelievable.

People disappear. It'd
be an easy place to disappear.

You know,
there's no one around.

There's no one
going to hear anything.

There's no one
going to see anything.

Supposedly,
it went missing at sea, but...

it's not what I've heard.

It's not what anybody else
believes either.

I feel very
uncomfortable talking about it

because there was no doubt that
this was a stain upon our soul.

This was evil.

And it really stunned
all of us.

The Gulf has tried
to put a blanket

over the whole thing.

They just want
it all suppressed.

No one talks
about it anymore.

As for the young boy,
I mean,

I think he was just bloody, um,
in the wrong spot

at the wrong time, you know.

Unbelievable.

A 10-year-old bloody kid
out with his dad, fishing.

A father and son had
gone to do what they always do

and hadn't returned.

So, from a search-and-rescue
point of view,

they weren't, like,
out in the middle of the ocean,

they were in fairly close.

I mean, they're obviously
not just getting beamed up.

It was a calm,
sunny morning

when Bevin Simmonds
and his 10-year-old son, Brad,

went to check their shark nets.

But the daily routine
ended in June 2003.

Missing,
presumed murdered,

their bodies
have never been found.

The Gulf country

is a different world,
a completely different world.

It's a cliche, I know,
but up there men can be men.

"Yeah, righto!" You go out
the back of the pub.

But it might go further
than that, you know,

might end up in a shootout.

And this leads to people
killing each other,

which is not an
uncommon event.

Professional fishing is
the second oldest profession

in the world,
after prostitution.

You know, and I'm a killer,
I'm a natural born killer.

I love killing things.

If you haven't got
a criminal record,

you don't live in the Gulf.

That's what
some of them used to say.

We used to call 'em
the truckies of the sea,

you know, the fishermen.

They're fighting sharks,
they're fighting crocodiles,

they're fighting each other.

If there wasn't three fights
in the pub a night,

the pub was closed.

It's just a frontier. It's like
the wild, wild west, really.

So to go out on the sea
was a very male-dominated place,

and they didn't like women
being on the sea.

They didn't mind having sex with
us, but they didn't like us.

You know, like, if they're
giving me trouble in a bar,

I'd say, "Well,
you want to step outside?"

Hello!

These were bulbously
muscled, bloody idiots.

But occasionally, you know,

I'd throw a really nice
glass jaw,

and down would go so and so,
"Oh, isn't that amazing!

"It works, it works!"

And then run like hell.

You know, we're having
these blues over turf

every other day.

Because we need to know we can
make enough money to pay,

you know, the hundred grand
it costs you every month

to get to sea.

If you don't catch,
you don't get paid.

So your arse is on the line.

I mean,
you try and become civilised.

But the hatred levels can get
very, very serious indeed.

And they're in
the middle of nowhere.

The police?
They may as well not be there.

They don't exist.

There's nothing up there.
Have a look on a map.

You've got Karumba,

and you've got Weipa,

and you got
bugger-all in between.

A couple of Aboriginal
establishments there,

and then you go from Karumba

all the way over
to the NT border

and you've got
a couple of cattle stations.

You go on the beach
there by yourself,

someone drops you off,
you're dead.

That's it.
You ain't getting home.

You know, you've got
so many rivers to cross.

And if you've seen those rivers,
they snake around

and around and around like that.

It's-- You just get lost.

It's, yeah, it's,
it's dead man's country.

It really is.

We all have
traditional homelands...

but that land...

we don't own it.
That land owns us.

So when we pass,
we go back to that place.

Back to our homeland.

It's just like heaven.

But that's my paradise -
homeland.

And we grow up
with those song lines

until the day we depart
Mother Earth.

Ah, "who am I?"
is a good question.

I don't know.
I'm an artist, I guess.

You know, it's right.

There's something about
the pencil on the page.

The sound of it,
the smell of it.

I dig it, you know, like, yeah.

I literally drove to Cairns.

Yeah, straight
out of art school.

It just felt exactly right.

But Cairns is pretty much
the end of civilisation.

You can go to Port Douglas.

You can get to Cooktown,
if you call that civilised.

I don't know,
many people wouldn't.

But it's where
the bitumen stops,

and after that, there's really,
honestly nothing much there.

It's a long drive, man,
and I'd run out of money.

And by the time I got there,
I had nothing.

And, um, yeah, got on
a fishing boat, you know,

literally the next day.

You're on this pristine river.

It's the morning, and the mist
is rising off the river,

and, you know,
the sun's coming up,

and you're gunning the dinghy,

and it's fucking-- this is
beautiful, you know, like...

And then the bugs start
hitting you in the face,

and it's like,
pom, pom, pom, pom!

and you can't fucking
see anything.

You turn your head like that and
look out the corner of your eye

and they're going in
your ears, you know?

Fuck this beautiful place, mate.

Why does everything here
turn to shit?

You know, like,
and they were everywhere.

They were up my arse,
they were behind my ears.

They're like...

And that was
just the sandflies.

Fuck! It's, you know,
you have this idea in your head

and then you face
the horrible hard reality,

that nature
doesn't want you there.

Nature doesn't like you. Nature
doesn't give a fuck about you.

In fact, you know, nature would
prefer to just either eat you,

or, I don't know,
get rid of you in some way,

'cause you're not--
You don't belong.

It's brutal.

Mmm.

Yeah. You got to be tough.

You got to be really
fucking tough.

The only way you could
ever live there is on a boat,

because it is...
it is unliveable country.

They'll live
on the riverbank.

They'll live there, but make
these big huts and things,

or dragging caravans,

and they set themselves up
there with generators.

They'll live there for months
and months and months.

Some of the kids
are born up there

on the rivers, you know?

Fishermen are like
the ancient sea gypsies.

Always on the move,

living in their little
ocean caravans.

I often sit in the wheelhouse,
lonely at night.

I'm on watch.
The moon's just coming up.

It's flat calm.

The whole world
is disappearing behind you,

and in front of you
is this massive,

big, large Gulf of Carpentaria,
where anything could happen.

Bevin and Brad Simmonds

were last seen in June 2003,

when they left
to check offshore shark nets

near the mouth
of the Coleman River

on the northwest
of Cape York.

Prosecution
outlined the turbulent history

between the two fishing families
based in the Gulf.

I'm Bevin Simmonds' sister,
um, who we lost in 2003.

And that's the Bevin
we all remember.

That was his wedding day.

Yeah, he was so excited.

Yeah, he met Cathy and he just
thought he hit the jackpot.

For whatever reason, she
didn't really like me too much.

She hated the get-togethers.

"Why you always
gotta go to your sister?

"You got to tell her
everything."

But Bevin and I were close,

so it changed things
between him and I.

That's Brad, Katie, um...

Mum and Dad.

My brother, Glen.

And then that's the Wards.

Dave and Beth.

I never really had much
to do with any of them.

The family have got
a rough, rogue reputation.

It's different to others.

You know, they're, they're
a very strong physical family.

They're a tough family.

Old man Ward, I mean,
he was a black belt karate.

And his wife,
she's the only person ever

to knock him over.

There's no one in the Gulf
that would've tackled them.

Some of the members have
been on fishing committees

that have helped
the Gulf prosper,

helped with legislation
to help manage the Gulf.

So they're well respected
within the fishing industry,

and they've done a lot
for the fishing industry.

A lot for themselves,
in the process,

but have been like
wild powerbrokers in the Gulf,

relating to fishing.

Well, you've seen here,

my son's still fishing,
my daughter's still fishing.

My granddaughters,
both granddaughters are fishing.

Um...

Well, you've seen Katie, she's
ready to have a baby any day,

and she's still
out there, fishing.

She's not doing
the hard physical work,

but she's still here on the deck
and that's hard work too.

Everybody just sort of
comes to an agreement

that I'd like to be here.

It'd be good if nobody came,
but if somebody does come,

you can't stop them, because
our licences are all the same.

But most people have worked out
that they like this area

or they like that area.

Um...

There was just the one family

that sort of didn't
respect those rules,

and they're still not
respecting those--

Well, they're not... they're
not Government-enforced rules.

They're fishermen's
handshake rules.

Well, you couldn't write
it any better if you tried.

Their last name's Gater, the
old man had a hook for a hand.

There's murder investigations.

The mum's nuts with a big dog.

Boys are shooting at each other.

Like, you can't write this shit.

I mean, there's the Gaters,
there's old Joan,

there's Michael,
there's Vince, the young one.

There's old Vince.
I know old Vince really well.

He was a bloody rogue.
He was a shocker.

And I don't doubt he's probably
passed his attitude down

onto some of the kids.

You know, Vince and Michael.

Like,
Vince's dinghy

is decorated with turtle skulls.

The whole front of his dinghy

and the whole light bar
at the back

has turtle skulls
cable-tied to it.

And Michael makes
a very nice turtle bolognese.

I felt like we,

you know, it's hard
to say now,

but I felt like we were
friends, you know.

Finally get to meet the oldies.

He'd talked about 'em
for a while,

and wouldn't take me
there a couple of times.

And there's Vince,
he's this, like, skinny,

scrawny kind of bald guy.

And he's got a hand missing with
a hook! Couldn't believe it!

"In the old days...

"You think this is fuckin'
hard, mate. This is easy."

And he'd brag about how
he had this really young wife.

She makes fucking
strong coffee,

you know, like...

She also
made really nice...

catfish fritters.

I remember, they were
fucking really nice.

I've had the old lady
come into the office.

You know, you think,
"Oh, gee, she--"

99 out of 100 women
that come to your office

are really, really polite.

She's abusive.
She's just... she's unkept.

And she was
really proud of Michael.

She'd say it, you know, she'd
go, "Look at him, you know,

"he's got his own boat
and he's making his own way."

And she was really
proud of him, you know,

like, she'd really...
she'd talk him up.

She just...
she just idolises those boys.

It's as simple as that.

You know? I think she'd
do anything for them.

Joan would be
pulling the strings

on Vincent and Michael,
all the time.

And even if Michael
got on his boat

and moved to another area,

he was going there with purpose,

from what direction
he was given

by the matriarch.

Similar sort of thing
with the Ward family.

Probably not as quite
as strong,

but, yeah, definite matriarchs,
you know.

Like, and they're respected
and feared

because one word from them
and people do as they're told.

They've made
millions of dollars over years.

They're not a poor family,
neither are the Wards.

But they, you know,
they look broke.

They got no teeth.
They wear no shoes.

I've always said that fishermen
with no mongrel in them

don't last five minutes,
'cause they don't.

We were all friends
growing up.

'Cause we were sort of
the only friends

they were
allowed to have,

maybe because
we were fishing kids as well.

They weren't
allowed to communicate

with many other families.

You got to remember
when you're up there,

you are working and living,

and you are part
of the food chain.

I always had a saying,

like, even the butterflies
will bite you.

That first six months was like,

"Get me the hell out of here.
What have I done?"

But... I was a bit stubborn.
I had to tough it through.

And along the way, I made some
friends that helped me

and gave me a bit of direction,
and that's what I needed.

It was very much,
you looked at the beach,

you looked at the sky,
you looked at the ocean.

And once you became in tune
with that, you go,

"Oh, it's going to blow
in the next couple of days.

"Get the nets out now,
before we get swamped."

So you're putting
these nets out.

You've got to go
every so many hours

because if you don't do that,

your fish will be hitting
the nets, they will die quickly.

The water temperature
is so high, they will go off.

So, effectively,
every three or four hours,

you've got to do another lap
of your nets, day and night.

And at the same time, there
might be a croc sitting there,

or wild pigs or a scrub bull,
all that sort of stuff.

You just got to be quick and
watch your back, you know?

'Cause there's lots of things
that want to get ya.

So you're just racing
against the time, all the time.

Racing the clock,
racing the tide.

So, you know, you get that fish
out as fast as you can.

I'd have times where I'd just
saw the fucking thing in half

just to get it out.

I don't know, man, it's, um...

It's... it's... it's a nightmare
within a nightmare, you know?

Yeah.

And, you know...
and Michael's living this, man.

Nothing lasts up there.

You're fighting it the
whole time. It's a battle.

It's a constant battle.

You cannot be that,
you know, that loving,

kind of looking after nature
and all that stuff

because it's going to kill you.

Everything does.

Those big sawfish, you know,

like, these beautiful
giant gentle creatures,

they couldn't give a shit.

When that's swinging like that

and, you know,
bang into something of you

and that's a tropical ulcer
and you're fucked.

You will not even risk that.

You just, like, you know,
grab the snout how you can,

I'm getting my knife
and I'd just cut it off,

and then I'd just watch
this beautiful creature

just sink to the bottom,
bleed to death.

And I don't feel good
about that.

I don't feel good
about that at all.

I feel really bad about it now.

And especially now
that they're fucking endangered,

you know, like,
and we've killed so many.

During monsoon high tide,

that's where we find
all the nets full of dead fish.

Those ones...

Sometimes we bring them here,
we have to wash it, gerni it,

get all the dead bones out,

clean it, dry it.

Then we create these ones
from ghost net.

We call it ghost net
because of dead fishes.

My days when I was a boy,

we were plentiful
of sawfish, plentiful.

Then I see nothing now.

Then I'm thinking,
if sawfish is gone...

part of our culture's gone.

They're just doing
their fishing industry.

But the land still belongs
to the traditional owners.

As far as I know,

and as far as I see,
living in the Gulf,

is that a lot of our communities
is a bit of a gold mine

for the outside people.

And these sort of people,
they go,

and then you get
another cowboy in.

And so our Rangers are very
active to apprehend them

and say to them, "So, look
buddy, what are you doing?"

And soon as they find
a little cowboy,

they report them and he's
being acted on by law.

We were just so arrogant
as fishermen, you know.

We were white. We didn't...
We... It was ours.

We hadn't ever thought
to ask anybody's permission.

It didn't come into any of our
silly bloody Australian minds.

You have an industry
that's mostly unregulated.

You know, you'll be there
a long time

before you'd see a fishing
inspector in the Gulf.

You know?

And to be honest,

er, I don't know how comfortable
some of them are,

going into those areas.

I mean, they're very
remote areas.

On your own, definitely not.

We just tell 'em that they're
not allowed to fish there.

But it means
some of these fishing people,

some of these fishing families,
are dangerous?

Oh, yeah.
Especially the Gaters. Yeah.

Yeah, don't want to fish
close to them, yeah.

Well, they've been on the rivers

for nearly five
or six decades now, you know.

They've been
polluting all the river.

And I don't know why

they gave them back
their licence, you know.

'Cause, one time,

they got - first day of
the barra season opening -

they got 40 tonne of barra.

And you wouldn't get
40 tonne in a day.

Which means they were fishing

when the barra season
was closed.

Netting during
this closed season.

We have
no respect for them.

And we'll continue
to shut them out

with the support
of the Fisheries.

Those type of blokes,

we don't hang around too long.

We're in, we deal
with them and we're out.

There's other blokes
that, you can go in,

they take it,
they cop it on the chin,

they know they've done
the wrong thing.

But this is a different breed.

Totally different breed.
You don't hang around this mob.

To us, they are very
dangerous people

because they have the attitude

and the habit
of pulling out guns.

Everybody's got guns.

All right, let's get that--
Everybody's got guns.

You're working in an environment

where everything
wants to kill you.

Once you go in,
and a fisherman sees ya,

they're on the blower.

Whether they like them
or not. It's the code.

"Fisher! Fishos are here.
Customs are around.

"Coppers are around.
Immigration's around."

Whoever it is, it's the code.
They'll call each other.

So you go and you do as much
as you can while you can,

until you get to the last boat

and he says,
"I've been waiting for ya."

Yeah, he loved that,
that fishing life.

I couldn't
understand it.

He always wanted us
to come and visit,

but I just thought,
"Oh, my God,

"I couldn't
live on a boat."

Because we were
surprised that

he was going
into that lifestyle,

the fisherman lifestyle.

But he was such a worker
that he made it profitable.

And this is a photo
of me and Bevin and Glen.

Bevin was six years younger
than I was.

And Glen and I were
only 14 months apart.

It's another photo of Bevin
and my two kids,

Jolene and Luke.

He was always cuddling the kids
just before he had his own.

All he wanted was a family.

I think the first year
was probably happy.

But, um, when the kids
came along...

he got to maybe show
his domineering side.

He was an
arrogant bugger at times.

We didn't get along overly

in the last couple of years
that he was there.

But it was like the more money
we made, the more he needed.

And then we bought
the El Dorado,

and he wanted to turn it
into a shark boat.

And I didn't want to be out
every day, every night,

out in the ocean with the kids.

It's just, like, I said to him,
"We bought a barra boat,

"I want to be a barra fisherman,
not a shark fisherman."

But he wanted
the big money in a hurry.

Because with shark
and mackerel,

you can make, like, 180 grand
in four weeks, easy.

And that's what he wanted.

He was a very
motivated person.

You know, he wanted
a home for his kids.

He wanted to set his kids up.

You know, to him
he had three kids

so then he had three properties

and he was going to
have something for them.

If Bevin was sitting here
having a conversation with you,

there is no doubt in my mind

that there would be
a kid hanging here,

kid hanging off his...
you know, one sitting here.

They were just... they wanted to
be in his presence all the time.

He was just very loving,
especially towards her.

I think Cathy knows a lot more
than what she has told us.

Bevin and I
made a connection

'cause he was on the outer.

I was a new kid on the block,
I was on the outer.

So there was a lot of good
reason for us to develop

a good friendship
and an honest mateship.

And he loved
coming down to us because

it was an escape for him,
from the family clan stuff,

because he was
never full--

I don't believe he was
ever fully accepted.

And, you know, they would
say things about Bevin.

And then when
I got to know Bevin,

they certainly weren't true,

but I think they
never forgave him

for getting their little girl
Cathy, pregnant,

when she was 16
or whenever.

Um...

And I think they never
forgave him for that,

and he was never quite in the
fold, if you get what I mean.

He was sort of always
on the outer a little bit.

Apparently
there was a bit of animosity

between Bevin and Michael
over the shark fishing thing,

of Michael saying,
"Well, I want to fish the sharks

"out the front of Pormpuraaw,
so you can't."

And him going, "Well, I'm gonna,
whether you like it or not."

There's nothing worse
than a fisherman

that blowflies other fishermen
and follows 'em around.

You're not a fisherman at all.
You're just a blowfly.

At the end
of the first season,

Bevin came to me

because we were getting
ready to travel with them.

They invited us
to come down to Karumba

and travel down
there with them,

and go to the fishermen's
annual meeting there.

And that's when Bevin said,
"Look out, Rod,

"the Gater family
are moving down this way.

"They've got lots of licences.

"They will do whatever
to catch fish and block you out.

"And they're coming this way,
Rod. Watch your back."

And David Ward was a very smart,

sort of streetwise type person.

And I have
a high respect for David.

He tried to be as diplomatic
and friendly as possible

at the time,

because he didn't want to
engage with them in a war.

He's got blue,
the bluest of--

Michael, the bluest
of blue eyes.

He looks at ya, he doesn't look,
he doesn't see ya,

he just looks
straight through ya.

It's just... just weird,
strange look.

You think he's looking at you
but you can just feel the eyes

going through your head
out to the back.

He's as fit as a mallee bull,

you wouldn't want to
take him on.

So, I'm getting
a bit concerned

and I was told
they're heading my way.

But they were looking
for their own patch...

and they were prepared
to do whatever to get it.

You can grow up
being afraid of the bogeyman,

and that's what they've been,
my whole life.

They're just there.
They're in your dreams.

They're in your nightmares.

Every single day
for the last 17 years,

that's all I've thought about.

But, one day, everything's
going to come back to them.

And then, one day,
they're going to work out

how it felt to be us.

Dad said
that I had to stay home,

so Brad went
and, yeah, that was it.

And Dad, he went to the nets
happy that day.

He was...

He was happy.

But, oh...

It should have been me
that went with my dad,

because I was always there.

Brad never went with Dad,
like, not to the shark pen.

And the one day I didn't go...

and I just regret that
every day.

My little brother was
such a happy person.

And...

He was just happy.
He was always happy.

He'd go fishing.

He was...
he was an adventure.

He... he just...

He was... had a love of life.

And...

in five minutes
it was all gone.

We were so left in the dark
with the whole scenario.

Until I got the phone call, um...

the day after
he went missing,

at six o'clock in the morning
when Cathy rang me and said,

"Bevin and Brad are missing."

And I said,
"What do you mean, missing?"

She said, "Well, they went
to check the nets yesterday,

"and they never came back."

And I said, "And
you're telling us this now?"

She said, "Well, yeah,

"we've been out
looking for 'em all night."

And I said, "Oh!"

She said, "So you'll have to
tell your mother."

And that was pretty much
the end of the phone call.

And we told Mum
and she just...

Poor Mum, she just... Yeah.

'Cause Bevin was the baby.

You know, we always said
he was the favourite

'cause he was, you know,
the baby of the family.

I think there was, like,
a dozen or 20 aeroplanes.

Volunteer Rescue, Marine
Rescue from Burketown,

Karumba, Weipa, the Water
Police from Thursday Island.

Everyone congregated
into what turned out to be

a massive, big search area

of over a thousand miles
of surface--

You know, one of the
biggest searches I'd seen.

I'm guessing there was...
there was over 10 boats,

it's got to be closer to 20,
that were out there doing it.

By then, we sort of knew
that Bevin had had his nets

set out off the Coleman River
quite some ways.

You know, I just thought
it was a matter of time.

I was surprised

by sunset that first day,

that we hadn't found them.

Because if they had
broken down,

the currents are
only two, three knots.

So, break down, here's the nets.

Righto, okay,
went missing 10 hours ago.

They're going to be
within 30 miles at most.

You know, we know tides,
we know currents,

we know tinnies,
we know the ocean.

And we're all talking
on the radio,

all the different
search vessels.

I had my big spotlights
on the top of the roof

of the boat,
which I turned to one side.

So as I was idling along, it was
just lighting up the beach.

As we got past the Mungkan,

which is a creek
just north of Pormpuraaw,

we saw a fire on the beach.

And we go, "Here they are."
And we're spotlighting it.

It turned out to be a group
of local Indigenous community

camped down there.

It was like, "Oh," you know.

You go from this level
down to that level.

So, yeah, we're getting more
and more worried by that time,

'cause that's where
I thought they'd be.

So this was becoming,

you know, like,
how could this really happen?

How can you just,
really, that close in,

just disappear,
in reasonably good weather?

And then we'd well
and truly covered that area.

I had my charts out
and everyone's calling in

latitudes and longitudes
as they're going.

I had my charts out
and went, "That's covered.

"Let's work our way back north
towards our camp

"in case something's happened
and they've gone that way."

So I then did a grid pattern
all the way back.

Yeah, you're thinking
of all possible scenarios.

And next thing, a dinghy
comes flying up to us.

In that dinghy,

it's Michael Gater,
Cathy Simmonds.

And they pulled up
alongside the boat.

I gave Cathy a big hug
and said, "Don't worry.

"There's that many boats
coming, everyone's coming."

I'd been speaking
to other fishermen

that were heading that way.

"We'll find them,
we'll find them.

"I'm going to keep working
my way down here

"and then we're going to
head out and join the search."

She said, "No, Michael and I
have just been

"along all that area.

"You don't have to do there.
Go out and join the grid here."

And it was like
they didn't want us looking

down along that area.

And it seemed funny, as like...
Bevin and Brad are missing.

Why are they...
what are those two doing

roaring around
in a dinghy together?

Around the
5th of June 2003,

I was working in the CIB.

Here in Cairns.

And basically I was advised
of the disappearance

of Bevin and Brad Simmonds.

My role is purely from
an investigative perspective.

Is this situation
a kosher disappearance

or is there a potential
for third party involvement?

I said to Glen, "We got to
go looking for him."

And Glen said,
"What are we going to do?"

I said, "Well, if this
was us missing,

"Bevin would come
looking for us."

So my boss organised
a small plane.

And, um...

Anyway, we got to Edward River,

Pormpuraaw as it's called now.

And we stayed there for ages,

waiting for someone to
pick us up - we didn't know who.

And, anyway, Cathy ended up
coming to pick us up,

and Michael.

You know, Cathy...
she didn't want to talk to us.

Like, "What are youse doing
here? Why did youse come?"

She was uneasy about us
being there. Definitely.

You know, I started hearing,
I suppose,

a bit of wharf gossip.

What you have to appreciate

is about the fishing industry
in the Gulf.

They're the greatest bunch
of rumour-mongers in the world.

The story was that, um,
Michael was, um...

having it off
with the fella's wife.

Cathy, and, in fact, pretty much
the entire witness group

concealed the fact that there
was an active relationship

and an overt relationship

between Cathy Simmonds
and Michael Gater.

Yeah, for me, it's not
a matter of public interest.

You know, we all keep
our secrets, good, bad, ugly,

close to my heart.

So, you know, whether Cathy had
slept with Michael Gater or not,

really, it's none
of my business.

A person who conceals
the fact of a relationship

in that circumstance,
you wonder why.

You're thinking,
"Well, that can't be, you know.

"This can't possibly happen.

"You can't, this can't--
No, no, no.

"There'll be another
explanation for this

"and we'll look again tomorrow."

At the centre
of it all, Catherine Simmonds,

wife of Bevin,
mother of 10-year-old Brad

and one time lover
of Michael Gater.

Things apparently turned sour

when she said there
was no future for them.

Oh, look,
Cathy was obviously...

had a child missing at sea
and her husband.

And originally
on the face of it

you found Cathy
an honest witness.

But, um, it was
like pulling teeth.

But eventually we got
the information from her.

After I realised
something was...

something bad had happened,
or they were missing,

I rang Mum.

Mum ended up
getting onto the police.

And then, um,

I went over,
I was talking to Michael Gater

and he jumped in
and he come searching as well.

Because I had a bit of
an affair with Michael and...

And so how long
had that fling been going?

Oh, only a week maybe.
Yeah. Five days. Yeah.

And, frankly,
it was overt, you know.

This was known through
the entire community, you know.

So, concealment was nonsensical

and concealment was suspicious.

Clearly.

And that's why she never
wanted me around, always,

because she knew that
I would see what she was up to.

Subsequently,
we learned of a rumour

of actual physical dispute
between Bevin and Michael,

down in Karumba,
some months before.

I dunno what...
how they got into the blue,

but I think Michael
had Bevin down on the ground

with his legs on his neck
or something, yeah.

And then we left Bevin there
'cause he was really drunk.

And we went out, 'cause we had
a place in Karumba,

so we went and stayed
there for the night -

the kids and I, and Michael.

You know, this relationship
was overtly occurring

on the El Dorado,

while, you know,
her husband was away.

We were in a different territory
when we're dealing with

the potential murder of a child.

Something as serious as this,

you bring in the heavy
artillery, you know,

and we brought in
the heavy artillery.

We were joined
later by...

I think they came from
Maritime Safety Queensland.

Two guys that
the police had requested

come down with a sonar.

And they set up
on board our vessel

with a machine
that would read the soundings.

And we towed that torpedo

around rivers and creeks
and offshore,

extensively over
the next days and days.

They don't do that when
people go missing at sea.

They don't turn up with a sonar

because we are looking for
somebody in the ocean.

Never! 25 years, no one's ever
turned up with a sonar

and asked me to drag it
around the ocean

looking for the people
that drowned.

So then you get
a chill down your back

and you get a bad feeling
that, you know,

this could be a double homicide.

I couldn't believe it.

I don't think anyone
could believe it.

You know, you didn't know
what to believe,

what was true, and...

And I know when
we were there,

the beach is as clear as.

The ocean was like glass.

You could see for miles,
absolute miles.

And I remember standing
on the beach, thinking,

"How can we not find anything?"

You know, not anything.

Because Bevin and Brad
were supposed to be both

in the orange overalls,

and they would've had a net
and bits and pieces in the boat.

But not one ounce
of debris at all.

Nothing.

And that's the type of boat
that Bevin was in.

That's Beth Ward and Brad.

So it's a big dinghy,
for that to vanish.

Like, somebody knows
where it went.

You know, all that stuff
just doesn't disappear.

You get a teaspoon of oil

and pour it on water,

you'll see a rainbowy shimmer

for a long way.

An outboard motor,

well, firstly, it's two stroke,
so it's got oil in the fuel.

So if it would've sunk,
that fuel would've floated

with a shimmer of oil.

Would've been spotted
by a plane, if nothing else.

There was lots of things that
could float out of that boat.

Our specialised barra net hooks,
they usually had floats on,

so if you dropped 'em over
the side, you could lean over

and grab 'em before
a crocodile did.

You know, when a boat goes down,
things turn up.

Nothing was found.

And that's
the extraordinary thing.

Not just extraordinary,

but extraordinary
piled on extraordinary.

We were in the field
for 50 days.

You know, this investigation
really commenced

on the 6th, 7th of June

and ran through to May
of the following year.

So what we've got
is Joan and Michael Gater

within five kilometres
of the offshore net,

at the same time that
Bevin and Brad are at that net.

And there was nobody else.

There was nobody else.
You know, it is isolated.

Half a net
had been cleared of fish.

And then an event occurs,

which they stopped
clearing the net.

So, bottom line is
Michael and Joan arrive

somewhere... 9:30, 10:00.

So, they're unaccounted
for four hours.

Michael attributes the delay
to vehicle breakdowns.

And I think I said
to the crew that - [exhales] -

"If he's lying,
he's a good liar."

"He's a good liar."

Now, upon arrival,
they then swap boats.

So why that is relevant
is because the vessel

that they used on that morning
goes missing,

and is, some weeks later,
found secreted and sunk.

The motivation
was attributed to

the fact that the vessel
had been "stolen"

and it was necessary
to conceal this from the police.

Um, stories...

Stories are
they'd take it up a creek

or up a river somewhere,
anchor it up,

go around the back,
take the motor off,

put the motor in the bush,

undo the bungs
on the back of the boat,

and it would just slowly

sink in situ in the river.

They know where it is,
no one else does.

Certainly this family has been
associated with suspicion

for many, many years
about things like that.

And Michael...

obviously intelligent.

Simply the fact is

that we would never have
laid a glove on him

if he was by himself.

It was only separately when
Joan's statement was obtained

and his mother couldn't
keep the story together.

So it was that...

which turned the smoke
into a fire.

From that point in time,

we have to treat these people
as suspects.

The game is formally on.

For whatever reason, Joan Gater
come into our camp.

She wanted to buy... That's
right, she wanted to borrow,

and wanted to see if I had
some refrigerant gas.

We did the normal
neighbourly thing.

Would you like a cup of coffee
and a biscuit?

We're sitting at the table

having a cup of coffee
and a biscuit.

And somehow, for some reason,

she brought this
conversation up,

saying how she knew things
about the bush.

And that her uncle
or something like that,

I'm pretty sure it was her
uncle, was in special forces

up in New Guinea

and had taught her

if you wanted to get rid
of a body, how to do it.

You wrapped 'em up tightly
in trawler net

and weighted 'em down.

So if you sunk them
down to the bottom,

they would sink in the mud.

The bones, nothing would ever
float to the surface.

And in these northern waters,

all the plankton and everything
would eat everything away

and nothing would ever be found.

And I'm sitting there going,
well, that's weird.

Why would you
want to tell me that?

And that made me
very much on guard.

We were lucky we
had two big dogs.

So when I was
not in the camp,

I carried my shotgun
with me at all times.

We established
that all firearms

owned, registered to
Michael Gater were missing.

Entirely gone.

Um, Joan Gater,
in explanation of this,

said that sometime prior,

Michael Gater had attempted
suicide in a vessel

and that they'd thrown
the firearms overboard

as a consequence.

However, Vincent Gater
discounted this

as just a straight lie.

So, therefore,
Joan Gater's explanation

in regard to
why the guns are missing

is not only false,

it's a direct lie,
proven by her son.

And they were never recovered.
We never found them.

The only scenario
I can come up with,

if they've both been shot,
if that be the case,

I can only think
that, for some reason...

the shooter never saw the kid
until after Dad had been shot.

And then the kid's
head's popped up.

I dreamt that Brad...

He's still in my dreams.

I said, "Are you okay?"

He said, "Yeah, I'm with
Dad and Granddad."

And I said, "Are you all right?"

He said, "Yeah."

I said, "What happened?"

He said, "They rolled us up
in an orange net,

"and put us in a croc hole."

I have vivid dreams sometimes.

The rivers themselves
are lush

and full of beautiful creatures.

But then when you're in the
estuary, which is the mangroves,

which is the ugliest
place of all, man,

like, these ugly trees and this
mud and the water's all brown.

You look at it and go,
"This place is shit, man."

But the estuary is a breeding
ground for everything

and it's full of fish.

And where all these fish are,
of course, is crocodiles, man,

and they're all over the place.

And I guess the lesson
in all of that nature,

is that there's no room
for the weak in there, man.

You won't survive.

So, we were brutal out there.

I learned that off of Michael,
that you got to assert yourself.

When you have to hand-kill
animals with a knife,

over and over and over,

you know, you discover
your brutality

and you start pushing it away
and then you know...

we're the alpha here
and we've got guns

and we'll fuck ya
and we'll fuck ya first.

And that way you stay on top.

And I learnt that from Michael,
I reckon, and I felt it too.

Yep.

You just harden up.

It's a sordid tale
involving two fishing families

from the far, far north.

Father and son,
Bevin and Brad Simmonds missing,

presumed murdered by
Joan Gater and her son Michael.

What I'm trying to do
is bring to the jury...

as transparent a story as I can,

because, you know,
what ultimately your jury sees

is but a mere shadow.

But there were undertones

of a potential third party involvement.

Now, to be specific,

and to cut to the chase,
Catherine Simmonds.

I never seen that
woman shed a tear. Never!

And I don't think that's normal.

She stopped all engagements
with us.

Why would someone do that?

You know, you rally
around your family,

you pull them in closer
and you, you know, share stories

to get to the bottom
of something.

She didn't. She just distanced.
She distanced the kids.

And that's the way she kept it.

And I've believed that
right from the start,

that she put
the thought out there.

I honestly believe
that it was orchestrated.

With the promise that,
you know,

I can't be with you,
while Bevin's here.

And Bevin knew, like...

Bevin said that Michael
had been buying her jewellery.

$3,500 they paid
for this watch,

Joan and Michael Gater.

It was an enormously
expensive gesture by Michael.

Like, this watch,
apart from it being effectively

a glamour costume
bit a jewellery,

it was entirely unsuitable
for use in that environment.

You know, how does Cathy
Simmonds explain this watch?

So it indicates a level
of lack of respect.

And he said,
"She will not take my kids."

And she knew that.

There's no way in the world

she could have left Bevin
for another bloke

and took them kids 'cause he
would've fought tooth and nail.

And there are

at least four or five witnesses
that relate to us

direct conversations
with Michael Gater,

in regard to, if Bevin
went missing at the net,

no one would ever know.

Well, every investigation
comes to a point

where you've got to
make a decision.

Also, you know,

when push comes to shove
that you're arresting them,

that creates a different mindset
for these people.

So there's opportunities

potentially there
that might arise.

Someone might decide,
"Well, too good for me, boys,

"I'll tell you everything
about it. I'll fess up."

That didn't occur.

When you believe you've
exploited and gathered

as much information
as you could potentially

likely to ever gather,

and the only further information

can come from
the perpetrators...

time to act.

13th of December 2003, we acted.

And we charged them,
Joan and Michael Gater...

of the murder of
Brad and Bevin Simmonds.

Only Michael and Joan Gater have
been charged with this matter.

I sat there
during that court case,

and I sat there for almost
the whole two weeks.

I don't think
they knew I was there,

but I was just listening
to everything.

And I just thought,
"Man, they're just there."

"That's all you've got.

"He's the easiest
person to blame."

You know,
I sat in the courtroom

with my mum
and my grandma every day.

And Bevin was the father

and he was the husband.

Yeah, he could be tough,
but he was not the monster

that he was made out to be.

It was almost like it was
justified what happened to him.

The jury came out, there
was very little eye contact.

There was a lot
of the Gater family

present in the courtroom,

which at the time
was quite intimidating.

A lot of people were
so scared to speak out.

And those that did speak...

um, were belittled.

It just looked
completely like,

they happened to be there
at that time,

"Yeah, let's pin it on them,

"because we've got
no fucking imagination.

"We can't work
anything else out.

"And, look, let's go for
the easy target," you know.

Who's going to believe him?

Michael, his entire life

had effectively lived
the closed environment

on the vessels with his family.

It was only in his late
twenties, early thirties

that he discovered the benefits
and pleasures

arising from female companionship.

Whereupon
he's lost the plot,

and he's doing
anything else but fishing.

He's off pursuing women,

which is a quite natural
and sensible course of conduct

for a young man
in his situation.

However, from
Joan Gater's perspective,

her husband has a single arm.

He's effectively
an invalid on the vessels.

She doesn't actively go fishing.

Michael is the fisherman
for the family.

Vincent is probably too young.

Vincent, his brother, he's
probably too young at this stage

to actually shoulder
the major responsibility.

So, from Joan Gater's
perspective,

the empire is tottering because
Michael is not on the job.

He's lost focus.

Joan then starts making
overtures to the Ward family

about the benefits of

a Michael Gater/Cathy Simmonds
formal union.

And Joan starts to offer
a range of incentives,

in regard to fishing licences,
financial remuneration...

to effectively a dowry,

I suppose,

to facilitate this.

And it would've been
a satisfactory conclusion,

from both families'
perspectives,

for this to arise
in a natural course of events,

of a relationship devolving
and a divorce

and everyone moves on,

and if it moves into Michael
and Cathy's direction, well,

yahoo, the two clans
have been joined,

and Michael becomes
very focused

and the empire can continue
steaming along.

But I suspect
that there was no...

clear sign of a formal
separation between...

Catherine and Bevin.

So Michael's limbo
was set to continue.

Bevin leaves for
about a two-week period,

to work on some
boat-related issues,

particularly for
a shark reel.

And in his absence,
the romance was continued

in quite overt fashion,
where Michael was in fact living

on the El Dorado
with Cathy and the family.

Clearly, Cathy is not of
a mind to end the relationship.

There are a whole range
of consequences of that.

Financial is one of them.

And then within five or six days
of his return,

the father and son
disappear at the net.

Brad Simmonds
and his father Bevin

haven't been seen
in more than two years.

And prosecutors say
it's all because of the affair

Cathy Simmonds was having
with a jealous trawler skipper.

It's alleged - with the help
of his mother, Joan -

he murdered father and son
and disposed of their bodies.

He then spent the night
with an oblivious Cathy

aboard the family boat,
the El Dorado.

You know, they painted
the whole picture, right?

So, you know, alcohol

and, you know, all this stuff
out of control, you know.

And I'm sitting there, thinking,

"Yeah... it doesn't sound like
the picture I remember.

"No, it doesn't sound like
what I experienced at all.

"You're just...
you're bullshitting."

Now forget the fact
that we had no bodies,

we had no forensics,
no witnesses to the event.

And we had an entirely
circumstantial case.

You don't know.
None of you know shit.

Whatever it was, it's tragic,

and would've been violent
and messy, but...

third party involvement
led to their deaths

of a homicidal nature.

I couldn't even go
to the last day of the trial,

because I knew that
they were going to get off,

and I couldn't
bear to be there.

I knew they were going to
walk free, and they did.

They walked out of
the courtroom free people.

But I still remember
the look on Michael's face

when... when the verdict
was read.

And he turned around,

and he just had this
shock look on his face,

like, "Oh!"

That was it. "Oh!"

As he turned around
and then he faced back.

And that was pretty much it.

I remember being so angry

and...

You know, they sort of
come over to interview us,

but they were just so hell-bent
on Michael's story.

Michael and Joan, they've
just been acquitted of murder!

And I just think
Bevin and Brad

were kind of really forgotten
in that moment.

I guess that, well,
I'll take that to my grave.

This is a void of information.

This whole investigation

surrounds the reconstruction
of the surrounding events.

But the actual events
are a black hole of information.

None.

No one knows
what happened.

There's only the perpetrators
of this crime are the--

And I say it's a crime,
incontrovertibly it's a crime.

This isn't a disappearance
at sea.

This isn't an accident.

There's third party involvement
of some nature in this.

So the only people alive

are the perpetrators
who can tell us what happened.

And I don't know.
I don't know.

You know,
and, sure, I can understand,

you know,
killing the things you have to,

but you don't kill the things
you don't have to.

It's not that I don't think
that Michael, you know...

or they aren't capable
of doing it.

I mean, you're capable
of doing it for sure, man.

We're all capable of doing it.

And I guess you're
on the edge there a lot more

because of your lifestyle.

Our family unit definitely
fell apart after that.

You know, I don't even speak
to any of my other cousins

because of this.

You know, Glen and I were sort
of at loggerheads too about it.

So we didn't talk for a while.

Just really rocked
the whole family, I guess.

My role here is justice.

Maybe my law was a bit stronger
then the Westerners.

That's how I feel.

You do anything wrong or murder
committed in the bush...

There's a justice spear,
it's a three-prong spear.

It's painful.

It's painful.

That's the only way
they can settle a matter

in two different clan groups.

Justice spear.

Then when that happens,
everything's back to normal.

But our way...

revenge,
before everything stops.

Day one of a murder.

"Hm! All good."

Day three, four, five.
"Yep, I got this."

Week one...

Week two...

A month... A year...

10 years...

20 years...

A murderer has
to live with the guilt.

Part of the reason
I'm sitting here...

There's...

I feel guilty that
I didn't speak to the police

prior to the event.

And part of my
not speaking up earlier,

even... I was gutless
as I was scared.

Part of it was
my own survival.

You know?

So if I've got it,

then a lot of other people
have got it a lot more.

Bevin and Brad's bodies
remain missing.

They haven't been recovered.

These matters remain
live investigations, forever.

You know, it's...
it's a bleeding sore.

We'll never know.

You know, we'll never know
that last moment, you know?

Did they feel fear?
Did they feel scared?

Did they feel peace?
Did they...?

Little Brad, his heart
was a bit like his dad.

He'd had this great heart.

And I'm not going to
say goodbye to 'em.

Because... they will
never die to me.

They will always
be in my memory.

Yeah, I'm not saying goodbye.
Sorry, I can't.

Wherever they were missing,

their spirits should be
hanging around that area

where they were killed
or murdered.

After life, we believe
we still roam our country.

Sometimes, we do see them...

but they are all spirit now.