While brave Ukrainian civilians have been filmed making petrol bombs- also known as Molotov cocktails - to use against the monstrous invasion force ordered in by deranged Vladimir Putin , a flashback to a desperate time in Australia .
Answering the call to join up and fight during WWl , a scruffy, scrawny- looking , bearded young man , with literary aspirations , turned up at a Townsville recruiting centre . To get there, from way up Cape York Peninsula, where he had been wandering since 1912 , seeking work and riches through prospecting and sandalwood cutting , involved an epic , dangerous journey .
To get to Townsville , he walked overland, waded across croc infested rivers , stowed away aboard two vessels in Cooktown , one found to be heading back north , not south.
The person determined to join up and fight was Ion Idriess , destined to become a prolific writer of popular books about Australia ,the Torres Strait and New Guinea .
He went on to fight at Gallipoli ,Sinai and Palestine , keeping a diary along the way . After the war , he travelled far and wide within Australia gathering material for his popular books , a number dealing with the Northern Territory, such as Nemarluk-King of the Wilds , Lasseter's Last Ride and Flynn of the Inland .
Idriess spent much time in Darwin and gained colourful information from Northern Territory Mounted Police officers, especially Constable Ted Morey.
During WW ll , the Japanese attacking Australia, Darwin bombed, in l942 , he wrote what was called The Guerilla Series with advice for civilians and young men signing up on how to fight invaders . These were : Shoot to Kill, Sniping ,Guerilla Tactics ,Trapping the Jap, Lurking Death and Scouting . Today Idriess is remembered by one of his books ,Back O' Cairns , on a Cairns CBD walkway .
