Migration

 

It's a long time since I've heard Gaelic spoken in a church, gentle reader, but I had that experience on Sunday.

The last time was August 1980, when my bride and I were visiting the Irish Republic and we went to mass in Cork. Forty five years is a long time, and viewed from the perspective of the marches a few weekends ago, we've actually gone backwards in this country in our views on migration.

Yesterday was celebrated as Migrant Sunday in our local parish, and speakers of different languages, all migrants, read the prayers of the faithful in their own tongues. 

Thus we heard Irish, Spanish, Swahili, Pidgin, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Fijian, Arabic, and Bahasa Indonesian. 

The fact that one of the speakers was native Irish, and physically indistinguishable from the bulk of the population was especially significant. 

My father, a descendant of Irish migrants used to describe being called a "dirty little tyke" as he was horse whipped by an Orangeman in Warwick back in the day.

This in a relativelly conservative regional city like Toowoomba, could be considered remarkable, but it isn't. These people are members of our community, welcomed and contributing. Unfortunately migration is frequently used as a dog whistle by those who are happy to use fear and bigotry as their ticket to political influence. 

That was very clearly demonstrated in the recent marches.

Perhaps our Filipino parish priest expressed it best with a garden metaphor. 

He noted that the magnificent floral displays witnessed in our carnival of flowers are comprised of a wide variety of diverse blooms, and this diversity is largely responsible for the spectacle. 

Same Same, But Different (USA & Australia)

Pic courtesy EF.com

I'm surprised, gentle reader, at the outrage generated by the speech given to the United Nations by the incumbent POTUS.

We share democratic values with the Americans, but we certainly don't share democracy. About a third of them don't vote, and those that do are often pretty ignorant of anything beyond their district.

Nothing expressed on that occasion at the UN should come as a surprise to anyone who understands the USA. It's revealing to look at a few statistics gathered recently about American culture. They explain the bizarre platform that drives what currently masquerades as the GOP.

Gallup Polling indicates that 67% of Americans identify as Christian. Of those, 33% are Protestant. Of those calling themselves Christian, the Pew Centre found in 2021 that within Protestantism, evangelicals continue to outnumber those who are not evangelical.

Currently, 60% of protestants say "yes" when asked whether they think of themselves as a "born again" or evangelical Christian, whilst 40% say "no" or decline to answer the question.

Now Evangelicals hold pretty rigidly to some core concepts. They include a belief in divine healing, and by a wide margin, evangelical leaders surveyed reject the idea that human beings and other living things have evolved over time due to solely to natural processes.

As recently as 2005, the issue of the teaching of Creationism in public schools was before the courts in Louisiana. It was declared unconstitutional, but recent surveys show that between 12 and 18% of high school biology teachers teach it as a valid scientific alternative, or give mixed messages by endorsing both Creationism and Evolution.

In other words, a fair slice of US voters, particularly in the South, have been taught anti-scientific theory at school.

So Americans are prone to accept a range of simply preposterous notions because they basically know no better. Twenty-three percent of Americans have never left their shores, and as a consequence have little understanding of foreign cultures or value systems.

There are other more pragmatic reasons for the dissemination of the opinions expressed by the POTUS. They include the necessity to gain and hold attention, the capacity to pick up on prevailing social anxiety, and a mercantilist view of the world.

All of these factors coalesced on September 23rd. They revealed the gulf between the values held by mainstream Australia, and those who elected the 47th President.

Such an individual would never be elected in this country, due to the strength and stability of our democracy. We have, in this country, the blessed trinity which underpins it.

This blessed trinity includes first of all, compulsory voting, introduced in 1924, obliging governments to deliver ballots into every citizen's hands. which ensures complete civic participation, legitimacy, and majority consensus. 

Then there is preferential voting (1918) which eliminated vote-splitting, ensured representative majoritarian electoral outcomes, responded to popular preferences, and encouraged policy dialogue amongst both niche and broad political interests.

The institutional element of this trinity is the Australian Electoral Commission (1984), which professionalised and depoliticised electoral management, provided impartial electoral management, and maintains voter rolls and facilitates fair redistributions.

None of this should be taken for granted. If ever it is, we would deserve the dysfunction and chaos we observe across the Pacific.

It's an Ill Wind

 

Pic courtesy Military History & Heritage Victoria

Australians called up during the second National Service scheme (1965 -72) have been to a large extent whitewashed out of our history. 

Those 15381 who served in Vietnam have to some extent been redeemed by a cultural shift assisted by the Welcome Home March in October 1987, and John Schumann's "I Was Only Nineteen", albeit fifteen years after the last of us left Vietnam. Better late than never, I suppose.

The forty thousand plus who did not serve in Vietnam have never really been recognised nor adequately compensated, but there is a smaller cohort who did contribute significantly to the peaceful independence of Papua New Guinea in 1975.

These were the "Chalkies", or Nashos who were called up as teachers, assigned to Education Corps, promoted to rank of sergeant, and shipped to New Guinea to teach Papuan members of the Pacific Islands Regiment. The rapid promotions put many regular soldiers' noses out of joint, but these men did a low key but significant job in enculturating unifying values into members of what is arguably the most significant institution in PNG.

Remember that native Papuans come from very different environments in that country and speak 840 living languages which makes it the most linguistically diverse country on the planet.

Into that diverse mix were sent over three hundred young Australians, who had worked as teachers for twelve months post call up and were then conscripted and trained as members of one of the most effective jungle fighting armies in the world. They were tasked to create and provide a meaningful and relevant curriculum to Papuan soldiers.

Given the peaceful outcome of PNG  independence, despite dire predictions of conflict such had developed in ex colonies such as Kenya, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Angola, that contribution should be recognised, fifty years down the track.

As a personal note, if I had been allocated to Education Corps, which as a teacher was my preference, I may have spent the rest of my brief and unspectacular army career contributing something useful.

I should, I guess, be grateful I got home from Vietnam in one piece, unlike two hundred other Nashos killed, and thirteen hundred significantly wounded.

Remember the Chalkies.

It's an ill wind. 

 

As It Was For So Many

Reposted from Australian Peacekeeper and Peacemaker Veterans Association -

Some stories are written in the quiet ink of ordinary life. Others are cut short by the fire of history.

Private Ian William Kingston’s story belongs to the latter.

He was just twenty years old when he was killed in action in South Vietnam on 3 September 1969. A soldier of the 6th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (6RAR). A son of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. A young man whose life was taken before it had truly begun.

Before the Army gave him a number, Ian had a home. Born in Nambour on 27 April 1949, he grew up under the sun of the southeast coast. He worked as a bank officer, his future shaped by routine, community, and the ordinary promise of a young life.

But like more than 63,000 others, his future was decided by chance. The birthday ballot called his number. The Army called his name. And the quiet order of his life was replaced by the chaos of a jungle war.

In May 1969 he joined 6RAR. Within weeks he was thrust into Operation Lavarack, where the battalion fought 85 separate contacts in just over a month. For a young conscript, it was a brutal baptism of fire.

On 3 September 1969, three months into his tour, Ian Kingston was killed in action in Bien Hoa.

He never returned to Nambour. He never finished the life he had only just begun.

Ian’s story is not just that of a soldier. It is the story of a son, a friend, a young man taken too soon. A life redirected by the lottery of marbles, ended on foreign soil, and remembered still.

Because some stories remind us that the true cost of war is not measured in battles won or lost, but in futures that never had the chance to be lived.

Lest we forget.

Rod Hutchings

Australian Peacekeeper and Peacemaker Veterans Association

An Ongoing Tragedy

 

                        Pic courtesy Norwegian Refugee Council

I've avoided blogging about Israel and Palestine, gentle reader, because it's difficult to see through the avalanche of propaganda from both the Israelis and the various Palestinian spokespeople.

Digging for the facts behind this conflict (which in its current form has endured for my lifetime - I was born in 1947, one year before the state of Israel was founded), is not straightforward, but I'll give it a shot.

The British, through the Balfour Declaration, published in November 1917, proposed the development of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. It's worth reproducing the text - 

His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

Note the reference to the civil and religious rights of "existing non-Jewish" communities in Palestine.

The British had captured the territory from the Ottomans, and the Australian victory at Beersheba was a turning point in  this campaign. Success at Beersheba was a significant moment in the broader Sinai-Palestine Offensive, which continued for almost the entire duration of the war, and which had begun in January 1915 with the Ottoman raids upon the Suez canal.

So you could say, gentle reader, that Australia has an historic stake in the Middle East. 

The British terminated their mandatory power (granted in 1922 by the League of Nations) in 1947, and the UN General Assembly recommended partitioning Palestine into two states - one Arab and one Jewish. The two-state solution is hardly a novel idea.

The Arabs rejected the plan, but the Israelis ostensibly accepted it, and declared the independence of the State of Israel in May 1948 at the end of the British mandate.

The situation collapsed into civil war between the nascent state of Israel, and bordering Arab countries. During this conflict, 700,000 (about 80% of the Arab population) were driven out of territory won by Israel and weren't allowed to return. The Arabs called this event the "Nakba". Starting in the late 1940s, about 850,000 Jews, mostly from the Aran world, immigrated to Israel.

All of these facts of history simply underline the irreconcilable differences between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and don't provide much hope for peace.

Based on my lived experience, the situation has the smell of Vietnam about it. Around that conflict, we saw the great powers pick a side and prolong the conflict until it had killed 57,000 Americans, 521 Australians, and millions of Vietnamese. The Americans attempted to bomb their way to victory. That didn't work. The Israelis seem to be doing much the same.

The USA seems to back Israel come what may, but most of the free world, including Australia, has not lined up with them. 

I can see no resolution. In a perfect world, a stabilisation force would be sent to control the Gaza strip, and the Israeli settlements would be terminated, as they are a form of trickling invasion, but the likelihood of this is impossible.

And the military incursion will continue, Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians will continue to die. 

Perhaps the only possibility of peace resides with the collapse of the Netanyahu government. 

  

Fitout Progressing

Politics is depressing, so I'm blogging about cars....

Lost and Found - An Ancestor

 

Kate Ryan's name on the Erin Go Bragh's passenger list

Like most us when we retire and have time on our hands, I've done some basic research on ancestry.

What I know is that my father's family descends from Irish immigrants, and what my father and his family believed is that they came out in the mid eighteen hundreds at the height of the Irish potato famine. 

The enduring family story, handed down by my father, was that one ancestor (presumably named Whittaker) arrived on the migrant ship, Erin Go Bragh, and subsequently married a fellow passenger, a Kate Ryan, and settled in the Drayton area. 

The problem is that there is no documentary evidence of this, as a search of the passenger list of the Erin Go Bragh, the boat my dad assumed brought him here, did not show a Whittaker. There was, however, an eleven year old girl, called Kate Ryan, on board.

One of my nephews who was also curious, did some research through Ancestry.com and came to the same conclusion, i.e., that there was no marriage between Kate Ryan and any fellow passenger.

This left an intriguing puzzle. Who was this original arrival, and when did he get here?

A different nephew who lives now in Singapore, has discovered a newspaper report which at the same time deepens the mystery, but sheds new light on the original family story.

This story, in the Toowoomba Chronicle on 31st August 1897, reports the death of a George Whittaker, (born 1837 in Kilkenny, Ireland) who was apparently my father's great grandfather. Dad's father was also called George, and according to the report, had six sons and three daughters. One of the sons was called John, which may explain a family tradition of naming the youngest son John, with no second name.

My dad was called John (always abbreviated to "Jack"), and had no second name, which always seemed curious to me.

The family belief that does stand up is that a Katherine Ryan, was aboard the Erin Go Bragh when it arrived in Moreton Bay on August 2nd, 1862. The passenger list does indeed identify a Kate Ryan who was eleven years old on arrival.

Whilst this report debunks the belief that the original Whittaker was aboard the Erin Go Bragh when it arrived in 1862, It does not dismiss the possibility that  George Whittaker married Kate Ryan. 

Back then, it would not have been out of the question for Kate Ryan to be married at age seventeen, which would have been 1868, by which time George Whittaker would have been thirty one. Family history has it that Kate was working as a housekeeper in a presbytery, and if the local priest was supportive, such a marriage would not have been unusual.

The new mystery is how George Whittaker arrived in Australia in the first place.

Obviously, further research is necessary.

And that's just my father's side....

Real Sovereignty

Polling on subs. Pic courtesy Lowy Institute

An article by Peter Varghese in the "Pearls and Irritations" weekly is worth a read.

Varghese, now Chancellor of University of Queensland, has a distinguished career as a diplomat and public servant, from 1980 until 2016. 

He served as diplomat in Vienna, Tokyo, Malaysia, and India and completed his public service career as secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2016. 

He has served in both Labor and Coalition administrations, and was appointed Senior Adviser (International) to Prime Minister John Howard from 2003 to 2004.

From 2004 to 2009, he was Director-General of the Office of National Assessments, an Australian government intelligence agency which reports directly to the Prime Minister. 

In other words, he knows what he's talking about when it comes to international trade and security, and strategic intelligence.

His essay makes the case that Australia can and should defend itself by itself, and that the old alliances have changed to the point that they are now irrelevant. He points out the advantage of our geography. He sums up Trump's administration very clearly - 

More likely than not, Trump's presidency will be judged by history as venal, incoherent, and driven by a penchant for manufactured drama.

He urges self-reliance, and points out that Trump is a naked transactionalist with no regard for historical alliances. He suggests that the US may withdraw from AUKUS, which he suggests would be a good outcome, in that it would force our government to quickly develop and implement more effective force projection.

Whilst he's not as clear as Hugh White in terms of his rejection of nuclear submarines, his thinking is similar, in that he advocates higher defence spending, and building our relationships with Asian countries to our North.

The rapidly changing situation is most likely the reason for the Albanese government's abundance of caution in relation to Trump. Perhaps ignoring his volatility is not a bad strategy.

Trump is nothing if not attention-seeking, and my teaching experience reminds me that ignoring attention-seeking behaviour works pretty well.

We live in interesting times...

Senior Driving

 

What the stats say. Pic courtesy of ABC news.

A recent tragedy in Victoria has highlighted the issue of senior drivers and safety.

This is personally relevant, gentle reader, as at age 75+ I need an annual review of my licence. In my case, my GP demands a optometric assessment. This doesn't bother me, and I reckon he's simply being thorough.

He is, or should be, expert on my general health as it relates to driving. He's been my GP for about thirty years.

I first rock up to my optometrist who provides a through assessment (including skills relevant to driving such as state of visual perception). Armed with that, I head to the GP who checks me out for muscle power, coordination, cognitive function (including attention, comprehension and reaction time). He is in the best position to compare any decline in functionality because he's been observing me for thirty years.

He then issues me with a signed chit which I laminate and carry in my car. Interestingly, my state issued driver's licence, both plastic and digital, carries no reference to this. I guess that's because my age is obvious, and my date of birth is on the licence.

It seems strange to me that Victoria doesn't follow this process. Perhaps that's under review.

To be honest, I'd have no objection to compulsory testing once a driver is 75. The medical assessments don't necessarily translate to the real world behind the wheel.

I've done, over the years, three different training programmes. The first was to make sure I was up to the task of training teachers to drive the various
Toyota Coasters my schools ran, and the other two were sessions in Mount Isa and Toowoomba respectively dealing with driving in the outback.  

Coaster

At age 78 I'm still learning, although much of that is about mastering the various driver assistance technologies installed in modern cars. To be frank, I'm not sure that they help. Touch screens really should be outlawed in favour of buttons.

Once you have learned where the buttons are, you don't have to take your eyes off the road to activate them. Touch screens - not so much....

Quarantining Care

 

Pic courtesy UQ research.

Disgust and outrage as a response to reports of child abuse in day care centres is completely understandable.

It is also justified, but I strongly doubt that the disgust and outrage will, in the long run, make any difference.

A possible royal commission is offered as a solution, and tightened regulation and enhanced supervision will no doubt result from this tragic set of circumstances.

Unfortunately these measures can be dismissed as knee jerk responses, and they follow whenever a vulnerable section of the community is abused. This holds for seniors, people with disabilities, unemployed people and refugees.

The NDIS is a novel institutional response which has tried to put one specific minority in a position if power when it comes to decisions about quality of life, but it has its own failings. Unscrupulous individuals have used it to fill their pockets.

Frankly, I don't see much difference between fraudulently cashing in on a scheme like NDIS, and paying child care centres taxpayers' money through the CCS scheme.

There is a fundamental flaw in taxpayers' money being paid to parents and caregivers for a service which in Australia in 2024 is simply essential.

Forty years of experience in special schools, where the most vulnerable children are supported, taught me that child protection is fundamental. This was in a publicly funded organisation where the motive was learning, not earning. As soon as an organisation supporting the vulnerable is run for profit, it creates the risk of putting that profit ahead of care. Care and protection are simply incompatible with making money.

This very simple proposition ought to be obvious, but given the history, it clearly isn't.

Any organisation created to care for children cannot safely be used as an earner. After all, profit depends on minimising costs and often cutting corners.When Child Care organisations become investment vehicles, it becomes obvious where the priorities lie.

There is one very simple solution. We need legislation that outlaws care for profit. If we haven't learned that from the tragedies that have dogged aged care and child care, we never will.

The child care industry should be nationalised. That is the only sure way of quarantining it from the profiteers.

The Follies Revisited

 

Pic courtesy Political dictionary

Those of you, gentle reader, who are of an age that remembers the war in Vietnam, will recall the Five O'Clock Follies.

This was a daily press briefing that was given by the US military in Saigon (most often at the Rex Hotel) providing a consistent narrative of success in the conflict.

We all remember how that worked out.

I've always believed that Americans, whilst members of a supposedly well educated community, have  a blind spot when it comes to understanding history. 

This blind spot, when coupled with what is called American exceptionalism and nationalistic fervour,  distorts their appreciation and understanding of historical fact to the point where very little of what is officially published is credible.

One of the clearest examples of this was reporting during the Follies of the destruction of the Ho Chi Minh trail. Certainly, the trail (basically a series of dirt tracks) was bombed incessantly, but what was destroyed were a series of these tracks. The VC simply created a new detour, often in hours or days, and the flow of armaments and personnel would resume.

The more primitive the infrastructure, the easier it was to rebuild it. Eventually the American public saw through the notion that "destruction" was temporary rather than permanent, and along with the shock of the 1968 Tet Offensive, they withdrew whatever support they had for the war.

I'd be very surprised if the long term outcome of the attacks on Iran will be any different. 

Elsewhere

 

The media/political/international relations scene is depressingly chaotic.

With that in mind, I'm confining my blogging to more cheerful content until things settle down - if they ever do.

Start here.

History Rhyming in Images

 

Los Angeles 2025

This post, gentle reader, is a montage of images.

Half were photographs taken in Europe during the second world war.

Auschwitz 1944

The other half were taken in Los Angeles during the last couple of days.

Los Angeles 2025

They're posted without comment, except to point out that in each case one minority group was targeted by government.

Berlin 1943

Warsaw 1942

Los Angeles 2025

During World War Two those targeted were Jews.           

During the last few days, the people targeted are undocumented immigrants.

You can come to your own conclusions.....

Malice or Bitterness?

Pic courtesy CAWA

No doubt, gentle reader, you came across the reporting of shouts of abuse directed at a Welcome to Country introducing this year's Anzac Day dawn service at Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance, and at a similar ceremony at King's Park in Perth.

It seems that there was a degree of organisation behind the Melbourne disruption, but the Perth incident was not planned.

Cries of outrage were heard from a range of sources, both directed towards the disruptions, and the place of Welcome to Country rituals at Anzac Day commemorations generally. Ex-service community social media networks lit up, again displaying strong feelings and abysmal ignorance.

The controversy highlights currents of malicious chauvinism that have simmered below the surface in this country for at least a century.  

The first of these currents relates to Anzac Day. The day is simply a commemoration after all. It is not a celebration of national pride, or a glorification of the warrior class - whatever that is. The men who died are not honoured by the screams of outrage directed at the inclusion of Welcome to Country ceremonies. Their memory is demeaned by it.

Anzac Day belongs to the whole nation, and is essentially an inclusive tradition. Welcoming attendees to a dawn service is simply a manifestation of this.  

The ignorance revealed by objections to all Welcome to Country ceremonies, not just those on Anzac Day, is another issue entirely. In the first place, given that indigenous Australians comprised over five hundred  distinct clan groups, welcoming people to country occupied historically by that clan by an elder is an entirely authentic process.

 "Country" does not refer to Australia in this context, something entirely ignored by those who mistakenly believe they are being welcomed to 2025 Australia. Various ex-service organisations made a virtue of declaring that nobody had the right to welcome them to the country they had fought for, completely forgetting that none of these clans have ever claimed to represent the whole country.

Then there are those who take offence because the elders who conduct the ceremonies are usually paid for the privilege. I find that strange, given that one of the hallmarks of a successful capitalist community is its willingness to pay for ritualistic expressions of symbolism. 

It matters not whether putting money into a collection plate at a church service or paying for admission to a football match is payment for witnessing a form of social ritual, these practices are very much part of contemporary mores and have been for a long time.

Frankly, I believe that anyone who would object to a gesture of welcome has been very poorly brought up. As my mother would have said if she had been alive to witness these objections - "They need to grow up!"

  

Karma and the Voice

 

Image courtesy Om Swami

Karma (as it appears in the AI overview in my Google search) is defined as "the ultimate consequences of an earlier action. Essentially, good karma leads to positive outcomes, whilst bad karma leads to negative ones".

The Coalition had a dose of bad Karma on May 3rd, and I'll attempt a quick analysis which I reckon informs the result. I'm no political commentator, but there are patterns in the results that are pretty obvious.

Peter Dutton used the Voice referendum as a wedge to both unite his party with the Nationals, and discredit the ALP. In both those strategies, he was successful, and plenty of pundits forecast that his negative campaigning leading up to the referendum would be poisonous when the country next went to the polls.

So let's see if there's any truth to that notion.

Here's a list of seats that the Coalition lost to Labor -

Banks; Bonner; Leichhardt; Sturt; Bass; Braddon; Deakin; Menzies and Moore.

Quite a few of these seats recorded a better than 40% "Yes" vote in the Voice referendum. Here they are -

Bonner; Sturt; Deakin and Menzies.

Then we should take a look at the so-called Teal seats and other Independents recording better than 40% "Yes" in the referendum -

MacKellar; Warringah; Kooyong; Ryan; Curtin and Clark.

In fact, all of these seats with the exception of Fowler, Indi, and Kennedy, recorded a majority "Yes" vote.

The fact of the matter is that the strong swing recorded against the Coalition on May 3rd was led by voters who supported the Voice. The evidence is clear when you look at the electorates Labor won and the Independents held.

It's completely likely that they carried their disgust about Dutton's campaign to the ballot box.

What goes round comes round..... 

Update -

The Coalition has broken.

Remember how Dutton followed Littleproud in kicking Blackfellas.

More Karma?

A Cautionary Tale

Pic Courtesy Scamwatch

Until a few days ago, gentle reader, I thought I was scam-proof. I've always avoided the usual traps (clicking on links in emails, etc) and am security conscious to the point of hypervigilance.

Not so.

Two days ago, I had my card refused at the bakery early in the morning, so paid cash, wondering what was going on.

I had been home only a few minutes when my bank phoned saying there had been suspicious activity on my card (overseas transaction). Once they knew it was an unauthorised transaction, they gave me the option of cancelling my card, or letting me monitor transactions closely.

I chose the latter because I didn't want to be lumbered with using cash until a new card arrived.

Then, almost on cue, an email arrived, telling me to contact PayPal because there was unauthorised activity on my account. I checked the account, and indeed there was a transaction (purchase of antivirus software) that I had not authorised.

(I use PayPal to sell my book).

I phoned the number on the email, and then began a long conversation with someone who sounded South Asian, was very polite, and had all my details at his fingertips.

The problem was, he wasn't working for PayPal. He was a very sophisticated scammer who had set up a successful ambush. If I had checked the number when I logged into PayPal and found it was different, I would have realised what was going on, but I didn't.

Over about twenty minutes he kept me on the line whilst he claimed he was ensuring my account was secure. He wasn't. He was moving funds from my account using money transfer Apps which he convinced me to download to my phone, on the pretext that he would use them to test the security settings.

At this point I became suspicious, especially when he heard me talking to my bride, who by this time, was also becoming suspicious. He asked me who else was on the call.

I hung up, and phoned my bank. After the usual identity process, they put me through to their security team, who confirmed that $5000 in two separate transactions had been removed from my account.

A prolonged conversation ensued, during which the bank agent sought as much detail as I could provide. It was a very thorough interrogation, and apparently useful.

The bank retrieved the funds overnight, but my card was cancelled, and access to my online banking denied until I could get the two devices I used (iMac and iPhone) certified cleaned. 

This involved cost and inconvenience, and the technician involved told me he was getting an average of five jobs a week cleaning and certifying devices which had been used by scammed customers. 

There are a couple of lessons. One is never to phone a number on an email, until you're absolutely certain it is genuine. It's easy to do so by checking the origin address on the email. I didn't - first time ever.

The other is to follow your instincts, which I subsequently did by terminating the call, but not before the damage was done.

I was very impressed by the thoroughness of the bank, and their persistence in securing the return of the funds. I'm not entirely sure how that was done. Readers may make suggestions through commentary.

I dodged a bullet...

In Memoriam

From left - Bob Hughes, Allan Aldenhoven and John Walker. (Pic courtesy AWM)

Today, gentle reader, is the fifty-fifth anniversary of B Coy, 7 RAR's encounter with a bunker system at grid reference 588698 near a feature which the operational maps called the "bone".

I remember it as if it were yesterday.

We had, as a company, a number of fleeting contacts leading up to the action which had indicated that VC were active in the area. It was the middle of the dry season, and access to water was an issue both for us, and whatever VC were around.

At the end of the encounter, all three platoons had taken casualties - 4 platoon one KIA (Bob Hughes), and one WIA (Karl Metcalf), 5 platoon one WIA (Colin Tilmouth), and 6 platoon (Graham Kavanagh) who died of dehydration on the 21st, the day before we hit the bunkers.

We had been inserted into the AO on the 19th April by patrolling all night along the dry creek bed of a stream called the Suoi Lho O Nho, led by Karl Metcalf, OC 4 platoon. Karl's navigation skills saw the whole company safely arrive in the AO. Most of us were exhausted at the end of the insertion, as we had stumbled for hours in the pitch dark along a rocky creek bed in close single file, fully laden with rations, water and ammunition, and immediately following a period of R & C at Vung Tau, when we'd drunk plenty of beer and other local concoctions. 

A number of men in my (5) platoon had collapsed by the time we arrived, and apparently the same was happening to other callsigns and Graham Kavanagh (6 platoon) had collapsed and became progressively weaker as time passed. I remember seeing a group of soldiers clustered around him as we passed through their position. He died of severe dehydration just before a medivac chopper turned up.

Graham Kavanagh's medical report. (Note misspelling).

Doug Gibbons (OC 5 platoon) had taken a half platoon squad out mid-morning on the 22nd to patrol along a dry creek, and it was a sentry from the bunker system that opened up on that patrol. Colin Tilmouth was wounded and choppered out, after Doug Gibbons retrieved him.

Colin (Charlie) Tilmouth

4 platoon,  led by Karl Metcalf, assaulted the bunkers, and the VC used RPGs to repel them. It was shrapnel from an RPG round fired into a tree that killed Bob Hughes. I was part of a half platoon group that remained as a blocking force on the banks of the dry gully whilst all this was going on. Looking back on it, it was only dumb luck that spared me, and others from my section, from participating in the assault. 

After an afternoon when artillery, a light fire team (Bushranger gunships), and USAF F-100s joined in to attack the bunkers, tanks were summoned. It took them the best part of the evening to turn up, and by then it was too dark to move on the bunkers. Apparently, the combination of tanks, infantry and darkness would not have been conducive to a successful assault.

Next morning the tanks moved in and destroyed the bunkers, but the VC had (wisely) decamped.

This was our first serious contact as a company, and the second time we had been under fire. The first time was when 4 platoon opened up on us on 13th March in a friendly fire incident when Paul Lusk was wounded. I was patrolling next to him at the time, and the incident remains firmly implanted on my memory. Being on the receiving end of a volley of M60 concentrates the mind.

So today, I remember Bob Hughes, Graham Kavanagh and Colin Tilmouth (who was repatriated to Australia, and died in 1990).

May they rest in peace, and their memory be honoured. 

Sed pro gratia dei.....