The PR Blog

The Adelaide River Stakes is the name given to the mass exodus of people prior to and following the Japanese air-raid in Darwin on 19^th February, 1942. Thanks mainly to an ill-informed statement by a former Governor General, Paul Hasluck, that it is a story full of shame for our national persona, but it is a myth.

The truth is that with much closer examination it was anything but a shameful episode in our most serious year of peril. The propaganda disseminated by the government of the day was based on inadequate information, over-the-top censorship and a failure to take the population into its confidence. 

The faults lie with a succession of failed civilian and military administrations which, like the behaviour of most politicians, was a deliberate trail of cover-ups and refusal to admit fault.

The raid on Pearl Harbour failed to catch the US carrier force which was still at sea. It also failed to destroy the oil storage facilities that would have crippled any ability to send a pursuing force. The Japanese strategists knew that the obvious place for an American fight back to be based was Australia. It rapidly consumed the Dutch East Indies and the island of New Britain which was part of the PNG mandated territory awarded to Australia by the League of Nations.

On 10^th December, 1941 the tactics conceived by Yamamato and Nagano were again proved correct when Japanese aircraft sank the British battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse off the coast of Malaya. At the same time Guam was captured from the Americans.

The Adelaide River Stakes is the name given to the mass exodus of people prior to and following the Japanese air-raid in Darwin on 19^th February, 1942.

Thanks mainly to an ill-informed statement by a former Governor General, Paul Hasluck, that it is a story full of shame for our national persona, but it is a myth.

The truth is that with much closer examination it was anything but a shameful episode in our most serious year of peril.

The propaganda disseminated by the government of the day was based on inadequate information, over-the-top censorship and a failure to take the population into its confidence.

The faults lie with a succession of failed civilian and military administrations which, like the behaviour of most politicians, was a deliberate trail of cover-ups and refusal to admit fault.

This is a story that might seem to be long winded to focus on a single event in 1942 but in order to correct the imbalance that persists, even today, in the interests of completeness it is necessary to look back to the source of Japan’s belligerence in WW2. It is a long story that will appear in several episodes.

'So we marched into the sea and when we got out to about waist level they then machine gunned from behind."

The words of the sole survivor of the horrific massacre of  Radji Beach on Banka Island off the coast of Sumatra. 

On 16 February 1942, Japanese soldiers machine-gunned 22 Australian World War II Army nurses and killed 60 soldiers and crew members from 2 sunken ships. 

From the 22 Nurses shot on that day, there was only one sole survivor, Sister Vivian Bullwinkel.

Valentine's Day. The time of year when love is in the air, and florists start seeing dollar signs. But have you ever stopped to wonder how this holiday of hearts, flowers, and overpriced chocolates came to be?

Legend has it that Valentine's Day traces its roots back to ancient Rome. There are a couple of different origin stories floating around, but one involves a Christian martyr named St. Valentine who was executed by Emperor Claudius II for secretly marrying couples against his decree. 

Another tale suggests that Valentine was a rebel saint who defied the Emperor's orders and continued to perform marriages in secret because, well, love conquers all. 

St. Valentine, the mysterious figure at the heart of Valentine's Day, has captured the imagination of romantics and historians alike. While the details of his life are shrouded in mystery and legend, his legacy as the patron saint of love and affection has endured through the ages.