Evacuated from Darwin with his mother, sister and three brothers aboard the MV Montoro before the Japanese first attack , Eric Lee , who died recently, resulting in a huge funeral , was a jovial raconteur with seemingly endless yarns about wharfies and colourful characters and events . He regularly met with a small group in the noisy food hall at Casuarina , Darwin , and the Nightcliff shopping centre , where bygone days were discussed , passers by asked for racehorse tips.
One member of the group was frequently chiacked about the time , he firmly declared , he had a close encounter with a UFO ; he would be asked to repeat details of the episode from time to time to liven proceedings over cups of coffee and tea .
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| Fred Corpus |
This blogger sat in on several such gatherings at both venues . A person who chatted with Eric was barrel-chested Fred Corpus , slow in gait, on a walking stick, who carried in his wallet a photo of himself as a young man in a diving suit when he was a famous hard hat pearl diver , mentioned in several books . In the Senate in October 1952 it was recorded that Corpus and Joe Hunter fished four tons four hundredweight of pearl shell in one neap tide , thus breaking a pre- war record set by the Japanese . One year, during the Broome Festival of the Pearls , , Fred Corpus was the Shinju Matsuri Patron who visited the luggers .
A member of the Northern Territory Genealogical Society, Eric Lee told me he was seven when evacuated from Darwin in January 1942. He regarded the voyage as a n exciting adventure , the vessel , escorted by mine sweepers , calling at Thursday Island, where relatives took the family for a car tour . On January 27, all civilians on Thursday Island were given notice to be evacuated the following day on the Zealandia and Ormiston for Brisbane . The Zealandia was bombed and sank with the loss of three lives when it returned to Darwin .
When the Lee family went ashore during the Montoro stopover in Townsville he experienced jelly , which he regarded as wonderful tucker , for the first time , a fan for life . In Brisbane , the family stayed at a place where the woman who owned the property had given instructions to hang out a white sheet in the event of an invasion as she wanted nothing to do with the Japanese.
While in Sydney they went to Luna Park and that night the Japanese launched a midget submarine attack on the harbour .
At the age of 17, Eric returned to Darwin and got a job as a wharfie , pretending to be a year older . His love of jelly was such that he used to take jelly crystals to work , mix some with water and put it in the frig to set for smoko .
During our discussions , I raised the subject of the well known Darwin civilian who had been incredibly brave during the bombing of Darwin, driving his truck up to the wharf , saving many lives , on the waterfront and in the harbour , who later in life had abducted and sexually assaulted a five year old girl , the court proceedings I had covered . Eric , who knew the man , shook his head from side to side , put his hand up to his head .
We discussed and compared notes over an incident in which a man, who had obviously had a heavy Saturday night and just wanted to sleep it off, fired a shot at a wretched neighbour in Fannie Bay who was out mowing the lawn early on the Sabbath .
We discussed and compared notes over an incident in which a man, who had obviously had a heavy Saturday night and just wanted to sleep it off, fired a shot at a wretched neighbour in Fannie Bay who was out mowing the lawn early on the Sabbath .
