The front page story in Darwin's Sunday Territorian on April 28, headed HERITAGE LOCKOUT ,claimed the developer of land at Lee Point, subject of demonstrations , was denying public access to a listed WWll site vital in the defence of northern Australia.
It quoted an angry and fuming person, Rob Wesley , described as a history buff, who had worked on the land years ago when it was part of the vital Berrimah Farm field research centre.
The report went on to refer to him three times as Mr Wesley. The name sounded familiar ...could the former sod buster have been related to well known Darwin agronomist and longtime activist, Robert Wesley-Smith?
Related ? The person quoted was actually Robert Wesley-Smith,80, also known as Rural Rebel Rob. He is currently writing his memoirs under the very title RRR , having earlier written an E-book about his involvement in the battle for East Timor's freedom.
Inexplicably , the paper had de-hyphenated him .
In his emails , Rob Wesley features , his many recipients immediately identify him as Robert Wesley-Smith, certainly not in the buff.
It is possible that the newspaper blooper was due to the fact that on receiving many emails about the contentious Lee Point development , an area in which threatened birds reside, somehow did not immediately identify this Rob Wesley bloke.
Asked to comment on his name having been chopped ,Wesley-Smith, who recently underwent a medical nip and tuck in a vital area, said he had not recently changed his name by deed poll in the hope of receiving a large inheritance. Furthermore, he had always been a bit suspicious of jokers with hyphenated names.
