Short Stories & Articles

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Saving Mike a 3 hour drive each way, I elected to try the famous Greyhound bus on a trip to Dallas from Abilene to catch my flight. Fumbling with my phone… Read More

Listening to the Radio in Texas. 5,000 kilometres through Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Colorado is an auditory nightmare. There are hundreds of radio stations, many with a range of just a few miles, so there is constant searching for… Read More

Lang Kidby In the eternal struggle to put a Vegemite sandwich on the table occasionally, I have begun leading Around Australia flying trips for Mal Shipton’s GOANA Flying Safaris. Mal has been extremely successful in this operation and now owns… Read More

Lang Kidby The totally expected transport-arrangement debacle took place and the expedition finally got away just on dark, instead of the planned 6.00am departure. I had a 500-kilometre/12 hour journey in front of me, from Ujung Pandung (the old city… Read More

Lang Kidby There was no way my backside could have survived a 4,000km trip to Townsville and back in a Jeep so I started looking around for something a little more comfortable. Ken Hughes in Kingaroy had an ex-army 1942… Read More

Kar Kar Island is nothing more than a huge active volcano thrusting out of the ocean about 100 kilometres north of Madang, part of an extensive chain of volcanic islands extending from Indonesia to the Solomons. Several minor eruptions have… Read More

I first saw “Katibi” on a crude slipway beneath the volcano on Kar Kar Island north of Madang in New Guinea in early 1979. The lines of her 50’ hull were those of a large traditional yacht with a full-length… Read More

In February 1971 the call came to save the population of Northern NSW from inundation by the worst flood in 25 years and a huge effort was mounted by the Army and the RAAF, operating from Moree and Dubbo. As… Read More

With the opening of the final stretch of sealed road between Adelaide and Perth, in the mid 1970’s, an era of Australian transportation received its death sentence – The Truck Train, from Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie. Prior to this the… Read More

During nearly four years of continuous conflict between 1941 and 1945, New Guinea was a major theatre of operations resulting in a marine archaeologist’s wonderland, heavily seeded with hundreds of wrecks of ships and aircraft. Many exciting ours can be… Read More

I had earned enough money carting sand in the old Morris on South Stradbroke Island to buy myself a Landrover. It was a real beauty, an original RACQ 1948 service vehicle. We hand painted over the perfect RACQ cream because… Read More

Lang Kidby It is interesting how people’s paths cross. I have been following Geoff Vieritz great story about his Tin Can Bay days as a kid in the CMF. I also was in the CMF at this time as a… Read More

Lang Kidby Just some random thoughts on military vehicles – mostly just opinion. You know me “Often wrong but never in doubt.” Often one hears and reads statements that equipment for military use in WW2 was “throw away” or ‘one… Read More