Blog
War in Broken Hill
It is an unusual place in Australia for one of the first ‘battles’ of World War I to take place. Broken Hill is a long way from the Australian coastline and a very long way away from Europe. Nonetheless anyone visiting Broken Hill is quickly informed of how on New...
Bomber Command aircrew: and the ‘real’ Great Escape.
The 1963 film The Great Escape was considered a classic war film. It featured a stella Hollywood cast, none more famous than Steve McQueen. The film ostensibly told the story of the escape from Luft III of dozens of Allied Prisoners-of-War (POWs), most of whom were...
Katherine Stinson
KATHERINE STINSON was born in Alabama in 1891. That likely was the least amazing thing she did because her achievements were soon remarkable by world-wide standards. Stinson wanted to go to Europe to study music and return to teach piano. To accomplish this, she...
Dr Phoebe Chapple (Captain QMAAC)
It could be tough growing up in a family of high achievers. Her father was Headmaster at Prince Alfred College, Adelaide. A brother was a Cambridge University, England, graduate and now lecturer in engineering; another brother also a graduate of Cambridge, was taking...
Amazing Woman: Mary Lindell
Her real name was Ghita ‘Mary’ Lindell, preferred name was Gertrude Mary Lindell, but her code-name was ‘Marie-Claire’. Some knew her as the Comtesse de Millville or Comtesse de Moncy. Another title was ‘The Nazis most wanted woman’. She was the fearless woman who...
Remarkable Women: Molly Sasson
She was Dutch/English/Australian, her name was Molly Oliver Sasson. Her ancestry is as clocked in subterfuge as her life. Some say she was born in England; others report the Netherlands. Some say she was educated in the Netherlands some say otherwise. Some say at the...
WOMEN PIRATES AND SEAFARERS: present but removed from history.
If you key the words, ‘Women Pirates’ into the web you will immediately be shown skimpy, supposedly sexy outfits that one can purchase to indulge your own or another’s fantasy. Trying to find the truth in an expunged history takes a little more digging. Maritime...
Henri ‘Digger’ Heremene
He simply arrived at their airfield, a little shy to begin with but then hunger drove him to bravely enter the accommodation of Australian Flying Corps, 4 Squadron. He was small, his clothes had too many holes to keep out the winter chill and he didn’t speak a word of...
Fury To Hell
Albert ‘Bert’ Adrian Stobart was born on 11 April 1921, in Sandringham, Victoria, to John and Beatrice. Initially hoteliers in the gentle green English countryside, his parents migrated across the world to the strong colours of Australia. The family moved to the...
May 1942, Submarines in Sydney
On the evening of 31 May 1942 allied warships flying the flags of several nations moved gently at their moorings in Sydney Harbour. HMAS Canberra was nestled off Farm Cove close to the iconic bridge. From Canberra’s decks the US heavy cruiser Chicago was visible in...
Roma, Queensland, bottletrees, and the brief for the Queen.
It was 2000 and I received an assignment from the Department of Veterans Affairs, to write a ‘brief for the Queen’. It certainly would be a good addition to the CV, if indeed I was allowed to cite it as such (alas I wasn’t). The assignment nonetheless sounded...
Just a Simple Post Card #2
It came in the post, and it was wonderful, a pretty lace postcard from a terrible war. ‘A Kiss from France’ for a mother. He remembered her birthday but given the irregular mail and distance the card had to journey around the world Sapper Horace Mervyn Herrod (6672)...
Just a Simple Post Card #1
Victor Charles Friberg was born to Anders and Amelia Friberg of ‘Mootala’, Locksley Road, Ivanhoe, Melbourne, Victoria. The family enjoyed a stable middle-class lifestyle thanks to the furniture manufacturing business Anders had established. Victor entered the family...
A LEGEND BY THE NAME OF VIVIAN
It was a Midshipmen and Cadet Mess Dinner at the Australian Defence Force Academy in the late 1990s. I was teaching History and Strategic Studies at UNSW at ADFA so was asked to attend as a guest with my husband. These mess dinners were to instruct aspiring Australian...