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from the publisher GREG T ROSS Hello and welcome to the latest edition of The Last Post. The Last Post Magazine has been praised nationally and For the second year running we have produced a special internationally since it was mid-year edition. This year, after the success of our July launched in 2011 and is designed 2018 Health edition, we have worked with the Australian War Memorial to bring about this Places of Pride issue. by Kirstie Wyatt from Wyatt Creative. Kirstie is a freelance Places of Pride is an Australian War Memorial initiative graphic and web designer and can and is designed to bring to national attention the location enhance your marketing to get the and photos of every war memorial across the country. results you want in your business. Also, as a follow-up to April’s Japan-Australia Anzac Day edition we have part two of that included within 0419 035 000 the pages of this issue. It includes a letter from Japan’s [email protected] State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr Toshiko Abe, a look at the Japanese Film Festival, a piece by David Moreton from Tokushima University and a look at Cowra’s Cherry Blossom Festival in September. Part of the transition into adulthood for many young Australian’s in the late 1960’s was listening to the radio, eagerly awaiting to hear their favourite artist or song. Many had a collection of favourite artists, such was the avalanche of quality popular music at the time. Part of the American push, which had resulted from the “British invasion” earlier in the decade, was The Young Rascals. Having gained inspiration from The Beatles, as many did, Felix Cavaliere and his young New Jersey group began writing their own songs and pretty soon they had found a manager and a record deal. Between 1966 and 1968, The Rascals reached the Top 20 nine times. Quite extraordinary, as was their music. A lot of love was being created through the airwaves. In 1967, their hit, Groovin’ went to number one. The boys had made it. In this edition I interview Felix in an amazingly insightful chat about the group and the times. Also, I interview Australian music legend John Williamson, author Lainie Anderson and walking/ calmness advocate, Jono Lineen. Yes, on the airwaves there was lots of love but not so in the late 60’s in IndoChina with the Vietnam War. One of the strongest memories for Australian involvement in the prolonged war was The Battle of Long Tan, fought in a rubber plantation in Phuoc Tuy Province in South Vietnam in 1966. Now, the movie on that battle, directed by Kriv Stenders is a major feature in this edition. The Last Post and publicist Di Campsie and with the help · The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) acknowledges the of movie advisor and legendary battle photographer central role of the Navy protecting our vital sea lanes and Tim Page arranged for TLP readers to see a preview borders, in both peacetime and times of conflict screening of this amazing movie a few weeks back. If you haven’t seen the movie, it’s an acclaimed reflection of an important part of Australia and Vietnam’s history. · The MUA also acknowledges and salutes the role of the merchant fleet in supporting the Navy and pays We have stories from James Fitzroy, Michael tribute to the many civilian seafarers who have lost MacDonald and others. In Sport, a look at Bowls their lives in supporting the defence effort Australia’s Australian Open by Steven Skeet. · The Navy and the domestic civilian fleet remain The Last Post reaches new heights with each edition as active partners in supporting and facilitating and it’s due to the parts played by all of you. Yes, Kirstie Wyatt from Wyatt Creative and I put the Australia’s shipping dependancy as an island nation magazine together but without content we would have nothing. And where does that content come from? · The MUA looks forward to continuing to work closely with Navy on the many synergies that exist in Navy You. operations and commercial shipping operations G r eg For more information go to www.mua.org.au THE LAST POST – 2019 SPECIAL EDITION ‘PLACES OF PRIDE’ 1 foreword ROB MANTON DIRECTOR, VETERANS SA It is said that the past is a foreign country. One of the challenges we faced as we commemorated the centenary of the Great War was to remember the world as it was then, not as we choose to recall it now. Today we struggle to understand the stoicism and patriotism that allowed Australians a century ago to accept casualties on an almost unimaginable scale. There was no all-pervasive 24/7 media, no embedded journalists with access to live feeds via satellite – although there is a strong argument to be made that Australia’s Official war historian, Charles Bean, was the first embedded journalist, albeit without the live feed. Reports from the front were transmitted by what we irreverently refer to today as ‘snail mail’ or at best, by telegraph. Casualty notifications could take weeks if not longer. Beyond the undoubted sense of loss, the First World War gave us many things: a re-defined sense of ourselves and our place in the world; national pride in the fact that our essentially classless society emboldened soldiers to challenge authority and question decisions; above all, it reinforced our sense of mateship. Fast forward almost 100 years and an Ex-Service Organisation Mapping Project, conducted in 2015 by the Aspen Foundation noted that the Australian Charities and Not For Profit Commission (ACNC) had 3,474 charities registered that had nominated veterans and/or their families as a specified beneficiary of their organisation. It also identified 2,780 specifically ex-service organisations nationally. All of these organisations want to have a voice and want to be heard. When we serve it is all about team. There is no I – it is ‘we’. As a collective of organisations seeking outcomes for those who have served we need to get better at more singular strategic messaging. We need to speak with one voice. We need to be cooperative not competitive. Like those who served before us, we need to be mates. On December 16, 1918, Winston Churchill wrote: “We must look forward one hundred, two hundred, three hundred years, to the time when the vast continent of Australia will contain an enormous population; and when that great population will look back through the preceding periods of time to the world-shaking episode of the Great War, and when they will seek out with the most intense care every detail of that struggle; when the movements of every battalion, of every company, will be elaborately unfolded to the gaze of all; when every family will seek to trace some connection with the heroes who landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula, or fought on the Somme, or in other great battles in France…” We need to heed Churchill’s words and continue to look forward, together. Only together can we best serve those who have served. 2 THE LAST POST – 2019 SPECIAL EDITION ‘PLACES OF PRIDE’ contents ‘The Last Post’ magazine is owned and published by GTR Publishing, a subsidiary of B4E Pty Ltd, 42b Broomfield Crescent Long Beach, NSW 2536 MANAGING DIRECTOR & PUBLISHING EDITOR Greg T Ross FEATURES 4 Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan 8 Japan / Australia Part Two ART DIRECTOR & GRAPHIC DESIGNER 18 Places of Pride 40 The Battle of Britain – Wing Commander Mary Anne Whiting, Kirstie Wyatt PHD, RAAF History + Heritage Branch 0419 035 000 42 Live From The Moon [email protected] 44 The Thin Blue Line Far From Home – James Fitzroy 46 A glimpse of 1919 Australia – NFSA ADVERTISING 48 A big, blue aiming mark – Justin Brown www.thelastpostmagazine.com 50 A hidden hero in the family – Di Morrissey 52 Interview – Lainie Anderson, author Long Flight Home SUBSCRIPTIONS 56 The Short Sad Life of Shirley Butler – Michael Macdonald 58 How good to you have to be… – Michael Beashel www.thelastpostmagazine.com www.isubscribe.com.au www.magshop.com.au ARTS au.zinio.com 60 Interview – Famed singer-songwriter, John Williamson 66 Interview – Former Young Rascals singer-songwriter, Felix Cavaliere ENQUIRIES 72 Tony Joe White, A Remembrance – Michael Macdonald GTR Publishing 72 Remembering JP Hedigan – David John Gillard 42 Broomfield Court Long Beach 2536 NSW 0419 165 856 HEALTH www.thelastpostmagazine.com 74 Interview – Walking and calmness advocate Jono Lineen and his new book, Perfect Motion 78 Domestic and family violence and affordable home shortage pushes thousands into homelessness – A story from Mission Australia 81 Micro-submarines for cancer treatment – UNSW 82 StreetMed, health check for the homeless Front Cover: – A story on the amazing work by Chris Cleary and StreetMed Travis Fimmel in ‘Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan’. Photo: Jasin Boland TRAVEL 85 Homeward Bound – The Return of a US Naval Aviator 92 Balmain – A look at Sydney’s iconic inner-west suburb SPORT 96 Fun, Sun & Bowls @AusOpen 2019 – Steven Skeet facebook.com/thelastpostmagazine THE LAST POST – 2019 SPECIAL EDITION ‘PLACES OF PRIDE’ 3 ‘Danger Close’ is the new Australian made movie about the Battle of Long Tan. Going down to the set, an open piece of reclaimed swamp now home to a Tiger Moth aero club, was like going back to the ‘Nam; no not to today’s Viet Nam but the ‘Nam of yesteryear with all it’s fears, fancies and follies. It was both fearsome and awesome, technicolour surreal, which you only get to see as a microcosm to record frame by frame.