Stretch Yourself
From "High Hopes", published by Lime Tree Books, and available from Big W and all good bookstores, or order direct from BrumbySunstate
Value Your Time
From "High Hopes", published by Lime Tree Books and available from Big W and all good bookstores or order directly from BrumbySunstate Distributors
Keith Norrish OAM ... hero of Brigade Hill
Keith Norrish OAM
We lost another remarkable Kokoda veteran yesterday when Keith Norrish OAM passed away in Perth aged 95.
Lt Keith Norrish, a Western Australian who served bravely with the renowned 2/16th Battalion, was wounded in the legendary attack at Brigade Hill.
He had previously fought with the 2/16th in the Middle East and was wounded fighting against the Vichy French in Syria. He recuperated in Australia before rejoining his unit for the Kokoda campaign.
At Brigade Hill, Keith was caught by a burst of Japanese machine-gun fire. He owed his life to a steel mirror his friend had given him shortly before the attack and to a wad of 17 letters he had received from his future wife Peg and his family that morning.
Keith stuffed the mirror and the wad of letters into his left breast pocket before the charge. When he ran into the machine gun burst, the mirror deflected four bullets down into his stomach muscles, another punctured his lung and damaged his pericardium and a six deflected into his bicep muscle.
That was the start of a remarkable six-day journey of survival as, after being patched up with field dressings, he was forced to walk back down the Track to safety, aided only by a young Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel.
Keith couldn’t lie down during the walk because his lungs were filling with fluid so he slept propped up against a tree or draped over a bush walking staff fashioned by his young Papuan ‘guardian angel’.
He eventually made it back to a Casualty Clearing Station where doctors operated and sent him on an arduous journey back to Australia.
Amazingly, Keith recuperated once again and transferred to the 2/22nd Battalion and saw further service in the Aitape-Wewak campaign in New Guinea.
Keith was Co-Patron of his beloved 2/16th Battalion and a revered figure in Perth at the Anzac Day march.
Lest We Forget.
HE NEVER LOST A FORWARD SCOUT
The old veteran's tears fall freely.
He has come to farewell his old comrade, a man who saved his life more than 70 years ago in the jungles of Kokoda.
They are manly tears and Owen Baskett sheds them unashamedly as he raises his arm to salute the passing casket of his old commanding officer, Capt Bede Tongs.
In November 1942, Owen Baskett was a 21-year-old Digger serving in the 3rd Battalion's 10 Platoon. Bede Tongs was a 22-year-old sergeant who had just taken command after his platoon leader was struck down by a Japanese sniper at Templeton's Crossing.
"I've idolised Bede ever since," says Owen. "He took such care of his men and never asked them to do anything he wouldn't do himself.
"Bede never lost a forward scout. That's a remarkable achievement in a campaign where their life expectancy was measured in days, not weeks."
Bede Tongs was such an outstanding leader that he was later commissioned an officer in the field and was awarded a Military Medal for his bravery at Templeton's Crossing.
There, typically, he refused to put his men's lives at unnecessary risk. Instead, under heavy fire, he crawled up to a machine gun which was holding up his platoon's advance and silenced it with a hand grenade.
Bede led his men through the rest of the campaign with similar care and compassion until he was eventually medically evacuated suffering from malaria, scrub typhus and dengue fever.
Both men returned to civilian life, married, raised families, played prominent roles in their communities and led rich lives into their nineties. They kept in touch and recalled those perilous days over quiet beers. In 2012, 70 years after the battles, they returned to Kokoda together and farewelled their long-departed comrades.
Now Bede finally joins his mates and Owen bids him Godspeed with a soldier's farewell.
Captain Bede Tongs OAM MM, Kokoda hero & Kokoda Track Foundation Ambassador
Captain Bede Tongs OAM MM, who passed away peacefully yesterday morning aged 94, was one of the heroes of the WWII Kokoda Campaign in PNG in 1942.
In recent years, as an Ambassador for the Kokoda Track Foundation (KTF), Bede worked ceaselessly to keep the Kokoda story alive and to improve the lives and futures of the descendants of his beloved Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels, his comrades during the Kokoda campaign.
Bede spoke at schools, RSLs, clubs and functions around Australia – always accompanied by his beloved and devoted son Garry – and visited PNG many times, always taking a keen interest in the work of the KTF and delighting in meeting Papuan New Guineans of all ages.
In 2013 at the age of 93, Bede brilliantly delivered the 2013 Ralph Honner Leadership Oration in front of a 350-strong capacity dinner in Sydney.
Bede was a wise and compassionate man with a remarkably active and nimble mind right to his final days. I have never met a Digger to match Bede’s extraordinary detailed recall, not only of his time on the Kokoda Track - where he remembered actions down to the minute - but also right through his final years when he retained an amazing capacity to remember people’s names and their personal stories.
Born Bede George Donald Tongs at Narrandera NSW on 27 June 1920, he worked as a burr cutter and rouseabout before completing an apprenticeship as a carpenter in Canberra. He joined the 3rd Militia Battalion in February 1940, the unit that spent the longest time serving on the Kokoda Track.
A 22-year-old Sergeant during the Australian advance at Eora Creek-Templeton’s Crossing, Bede took control of his platoon after its officer Lt-Col Richardson was hit in the chest and was evacuated.
Bede positioned his men for an attack based on ‘fire and movement’ and ordered them to fix bayonets. Rather than expose his men to a frontal attack on the Japanese positions, Bede crawled along an enemy fire lane alone and destroyed a machine-gun position with grenades. His action opened the way for his men to take the Japanese position and earned him the Military Medal for bravery.
Bede led his men through to see the Australian flag flying again over Kokoda, arriving there on 6 November 1942. He served with the 3rd Battalion through the battles for Oivi and the beachheads before Bede was evacuated from the beachheads back to Moresby suffering from malaria, scrub typhus and yellow fever. He recovered and, after the 3rd Battalion was disbanded in 1943, Bede joined the 2/3rd Battalion, rising to the rank of Captain. He served in Korea in 1953.
In his Ralph Honner Oration Bede said: “I landed in PNG on 27th May 1942. I met these lovely Papuan people. There has been an evolution in the meantime, but all the time to me they are such lovely people and we can never thank them for how they helped us and died for us in those grim days of the Kokoda track campaign and beyond.”
Bede was an accomplished poet and wrote many poems commemorating the sacrifices of his comrades and the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels who fought and died alongside them.
Bede will long be remembered for his many kindnesses and his great understanding of the people of PNG. The Kokoda Track Foundation will name a wing of the Kokoda College Teaching College after him.
Vale Bede.
High Hopes ... Patrick's latest inspirational book
Small changes can transform our lives.
Patrick's publishing company, Lime Tree Books, has released his latest inspirational title, High Hopes, available nationally through book and gift stores and through BrumbySunstate.
It's the fifth in his It's Never Too Late series of inspirational books and continues his theme of aiming to provide a way for readers to put their lives on pause so they can find some perspective.
"Most of us race through life, unable to enjoy the present because we’re weighed down by the past or worried about the future," Patrick says. "High Hopes offers insights that will allow you to slow the daily rush and enjoy your life, moment by moment.
"High Hopes prompts us to lift our spirits by simplifying our lives, embracing our humanity, sparking our imaginations and inspiring ourselves and those around us."
High Hopes contains simple suggestions, supported by quotes of timeless wisdom, which give readers a chance to break out of their busy lives and lift their spirits.
Each page reminds us that we have the power to take control of our lives, to gather mindful moments, to listen to our heart’s whispers and to bestow kindness freely.
“The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.”
High Hopes gently helps us to examine where we’ve come from and to decide where we want to head. It offers thoughts that create surprising ripple effects in our lives, allowing us to make the small changes that can transform our futures.
As with all of Patrick Lindsay’s inspirational books, High Hopes shows that it’s never too late to live the life we’ve always dreamed of or to be the person we’ve always wanted to be.
“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.”
PNG'S NEXT GENERATION OF LEADERS
Mr James Hall, Minister-Counsellor, representing the Australian High Commissioner to PNG, Her Excellency Ms Deborah Stokes, today announced the recipients of the 2014 Archer Leadership Scholarships in Port Moresby.
The six winners of the year-long scholarships will benefit from an intensive suite of activities and programs in PNG and Australia, aimed at developing their leadership skills and abilities.
The scholarships, funded by a grant from the estate of the late Fred P Archer and managed by the Kokoda Track Foundation, aim to identify and foster an annual cohort of promising PNG leaders and will provide a range of opportunities and resources to enhance their leadership skills.
“The Kokoda Track Foundation has been providing scholarships to primary, secondary and tertiary students in the Kokoda catchment area since 2003,” its Chairman, Patrick Lindsay, said.
“The Archer Scholarships have allowed us to offer opportunities to students across PNG in our quest to help to find the next generation of the nation’s leaders.”
“The calibre of the applicants for the 2014 Archer Scholarships was again outstanding. We received applications from across PNG and the recipients were selected from a shortlist of 9 candidates, who were interviewed individually in Port Moresby,” Lindsay said.
“Candidates must be between 18 and 35 years old, be PNG citizens and of PNG heritage and be in their final year of tertiary study.”
The 2014 Archer Scholars are:
Masanu Debbie Akane, (Morobe, UPNG, Law)
Morrison Garth, (Markham, PAU, Environmental Science)
Theresa Gizoria, (Aitape, UPNG, Environmental Science)
Stephannie Kirriwom, (Madang, UPNG, Law)
Bruno Siare, (Central, PAU, Environmental Science)
Frederick So, (Kavieng, UPNG, Law){C}
Big year for Kokoda Track Foundation
2013 has been one of the Kokoda Track Foundation's most eventful years. We have made record progress on many fronts: our scholarships, our projects in education, health, community development and microbusiness, and our fundraising.
In particular, the Ralph Honner Oration Dinner was a sellout and raised a record $120,000. We are very grateful to all to came along and made the night such a success.
We awarded another 330 scholarships and supported 40 schools with the educational resources they need to operate. We built the Naduri Elementary School and Enivilogo Elementary School and are now working on new classrooms in Buna, Sanananda and Manari which will take us over into the next year. Our 25 committed elementary teachers have continued to operate the schools along and around the Track – keeping them open and giving children in remote communities access to a high quality education. Likewise, our extraordinary health workers have operated the aid posts along and around the Track providing vital healthcare to very remote communities – often for the first time ever. Our programs in microbusiness, agriculture, food security and solar lighting have all grown throughout 2013 thanks to the generosity of our supporters.
But at the same time we've encountered some testing obstacles, particularly in our efforts to build the Kokoda College. A combination of logistic bottlenecks, dysfunctional bureaucracy and weather have temporarily slowed our progress in constructing the College campus.
Nevertheless, our selfless and tireless team - led by Gen and supported by Vera, Petra and Jonathan in Australia and Saii, Wampy, Grayson, Theo, and Elijah in PNG - has met the challenges. I must single out the wonderful work of Petra Arifeae and her husband Charles on the ground at Kou Kou village. They answered our call at the eleventh hour to rush to Kou Kou to take command of the College campus creation after the unforeseen withdrawal of our project manager. They drew on their wide experience - Petra as a school principal and Charles as an engineer - and they performed magnificently under great pressure. We owe them a great debt of gratitude and as the team now withdraws for the wet season we are optimistic with the progress that we have made in spite of the challenges and what 2014 holds.
The year in prospect is an exciting one.
We are determined that the College will be constructed and operating by the end of 2014 and we are on track to take our first cohort of teacher trainees in the middle of 2014. We will push ahead with building the campus while we continue to deliver our other vital programs.
Our Executive Director, Dr Gen Nelson, will be taking maternity leave from late January. We wish her and James well as they welcome their baby daughter. Gen plans to take a six-month leave period and then return to her role. It's a well earned break as Gen has managed her pregnancy during a tumultuous period for the Foundation. She has handled the pressure with aplomb.
We will miss her leadership and in her absence Bernie Egan will take the reins with our team all stepping up to share additional responsibilities.
Thank you to everyone who supported the Foundation in 2013. Your generosity has once again kept the spirit of Kokoda alive and in action. I wish you all a happy and peaceful Christmas and a healthy and prosperous 2014.
IS HMAS PERTH IN DANGER OF BEING LOOTED?
Starting to hear very disturbing rumours that of Chinese scrap-metal teams may have been looting WWII sunken ships in the Sunda Strait.
These ships, which include the Light Cruiser, HMAS Perth, the American cruiser, U.S.S. Houston, and a Dutch submarine, have been war graves since they were sunk during the Battle of the Sunda Strait on 1 March 1942.
The Perth was commanded by the great Captain Hector Waller who went down with his ship after it was torpedoed by Japanese subs. Of the Perth’s crew of 686, only 218 would eventually return home after the war, the rest were either killed during the battle or in its aftermath or died as POWs.
One persistent rumour has it that the Houston is already reduced to a pile of metal and the Perth is in imminent danger of join ing it.
Surely our senior Naval officer, Admiral Ray Griggs must pull out all stops to make sure the final resting place of so many gallant seamen remains a hallowed war grave.
MAKE THE MOST OF YOU
I’m excited because I’m waiting to hear that the first print run of my latest inspirational book, Make the Most of You, has arrived at the distributors.
It’s the start of a new approach to publishing: my version of what the Australian Society of Authors calls ‘authorpreneurship’. It’s my response to the changes in the publishing marketplace, in Australia and around the world.
Make the Most of You is the fourth book in my series of inspirational books. The first three - It’s Never Too Late, Now Is The Time and Be Happy - were published in Australia by Hardie Grant Books. The latest will be published by my company Lime Tree Books.
I’m well aware of the risks of going out on my own. The move is aimed at giving me more creative control and greater power to adapt in the changing publishing environment.
These books are sold in both bookstores and in gift stores here and overseas. They’ve sold more than 120,000 copies in Australia and a similar number offshore.
The books all try to give readers a chance to put their busy lives on pause so they can reflect on where they’ve come from and where they’re heading.
They also pose some deep questions: Who are you? Where are you headed? What could you yet become? What holds you back?
I’m hoping that I’ll be able to work with my distributor to spread the word on Make the Most of You so it can emulate the success of the earlier titles.