John Tomlinson , radical social worker, poet , environmentalist , campaigner for the oppressed , a foundation member of the Northern Territory Civil Liberties Council , died recently , without the world noticing , certainly so in Darwin where he had been a prominent, controversial figure.
A keen fisherman , he named his boat Yellow Peril so that he could , with a chuckle , report over the radio that the Yellow Peril was again nearing Darwin and wanted permission to enter Australia's front door. He was in the group arrested in Darwin Harbour for trying to run medicine and supplies to East Timor during the Indonesian invasion.
A keen fisherman , he named his boat Yellow Peril so that he could , with a chuckle , report over the radio that the Yellow Peril was again nearing Darwin and wanted permission to enter Australia's front door. He was in the group arrested in Darwin Harbour for trying to run medicine and supplies to East Timor during the Indonesian invasion.
John is shown above with another fishing outfit in later years , the boat bearing various posters and slogans . Employed as a senior social worker in the Welfare Department , Darwin , in l973 , he soon became renowned for his fearless activities and comments . He was involved with another well known activist , agronomist Robert Wesley-Smith , who was also arrested at gun point in the attempt to run aid to East Timor .
Yellow Peril, Wesley-Smith told this blog , was a 14ft Clarke outboard . On a fishing trip aboard the said notorious vessel they had once gone aground at Shoal Bay and were stranded for hours .
A controversial two in one book Tomlinson wrote about shortcomings in government services in the Northern Territory included photographs of him in a melee with arresting police, the caption saying it was the author assisting police in their investigations .
His publications included People's Poems and Songs and Reflections of a Fool and Other Poems.
See johntomlinsoncollectedworks.com.
Tomlinson, right , in a taped session with journalist Peter Simon in Wesley-Smith's rural abode in Darwin . Somewhere in the cluttered shelves in the background was believed to be a Princess Grace of Monaco Medal Wes had been awarded for his long running involvement in the East Timor struggle .
An avid supporter of a universal scheme to reduce global poverty , Tomlinson attended overseas conferences and spoke on the subject . He taught at university in Queensland , sold a boat there, moved to Sydney with his partner , Penny Harrington , where, ill since February with a chest infection , breathless, he died from apparent lung cancer on April 6.
