By the winter of 1939, defence chiefs in Canberra were grappling with how to galvanise an under-prepared Australia. First concerns were with Nazi Germany, with whom we were soon at war, and the potential for German naval raiders to attack Indian Ocean convoys. Busselton stood out as a site from where reconnaissance aircraft could patrol sea lanes. Airstrips were carved from bush and farm paddocks southwest of the town, hangars and administration buildings erected and a radar station sited on Cape Naturaliste.
Author Tim Blue looks at the impact of the Second World War on the people of Busselton with recollections of the fighting men and families in the southwest that show life in wartime, from sacrifices and sadness to triumph and joy.
Available in paperback.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tim Blue has been a long-time print and broadcast journalist in Perth, Sydney and overseas, working with the ABC, commercial radio and television’s Channel Nine and SBS.
Growing up in Busselton, he was intrigued by a nearby RAAF airfield and a little-known secret radar station on Cape Naturaliste. It prompted him to delve more into the wartime life and experiences of townsfolk and region in WWII.
Drawing on official records, newspapers, letters and interviews, here is a rich lode of recollections on how the town and its rural neighbourhood overcame the hardships and heartaches of wartime.