My thanks also to those dear friends who offer both encouragement and assistance of the most practical kind in their various areas of expertise: James Laurie, Sue Greaves, Michael Roberts, Colin Julin and Susan Mackie-Hookway.

Many thanks to my publisher, Beverley Cousins; my editors, Catherine Hill and Alexandra Nahlous; my publicists, Jessica Malpass and Karen Reid, and the entire hard-working team at Penguin Random House Australia.

For assistance with research, my warmest thanks to Anne Jackson, who shared with me her childhood memories of wartime Townsville and was most generous in lending me wonderfully insightful material, including a copy of her personal memoir Bits and Pieces of My Life.

I’d like also to thank the many helpful people of Townsville. In particular those at the Townsville City Library who provided such a wealth of historical data: Debra Close, Simone Rostenne and Robyn Maconachie.

The staff at the Army Museum of North Queensland: Coby, Allen, and others.

Kim and Rod of the Museum for the Performing Arts in Townsville.

Local historian, Ray Holyoak.

And on a more personal level, my old friend Danny Meares, whose restaurant Watermark became the headquarters for my research trip. Oh, that such an office with food and views like yours could always be at the ready – sincerest thanks, Danny.

Among my research sources I would like to recognise:

‘It Was a Different Town’: Being Some Memories of Townsville and District 1942–1945, compiled by Gai Copeman and Diane Vance, Thuringowa City Council, 1992

A Majority of One: Tom Aikens and Independent Politics in Townsville, Ian Moles, University of Queensland, 1979

‘Australia 1942: The Most Dangerous Year’, Heather Brown, The Australian Magazine, Nationwide News Pty Ltd, 1992

The North Queensland Line – the defence of Townsville in 1942, Ray Holyoak, Honours thesis

Wings Around Us, Rodney G. Cardell, Amphion Press, 1991

North Queensland WW11 1942–1945, P.D. Wilson, Department of Geographic Information, 1988

Townsville at War, 1942: Life in a Garrison City, Darryl McIntyre, Townsville City Council, 1992

While the Music Lasts: Life Stories, compiled and edited by Helen Menzies, and including the short story ‘World Wars One and Two’, Anne Jackson, Hilliard Hudson, 2016

About the Author

Judy Nunn’s career has been long, illustrious and multifaceted. After combining her internationally successful acting career with scriptwriting for television and radio, Judy decided in the ’90s to turn her hand to prose.

Her first three novels, The Glitter Game, Centre Stage and Araluen, set respectively in the worlds of television, theatre and film, became instant bestsellers, and the rest is history, quite literally, in fact. She has since developed a love of writing Australian historically based fiction and her fame as a novelist has spread rapidly throughout Europe, where she is published in English, German, French, Dutch, Czech and Spanish.

Her subsequent bestsellers, Kal, Beneath the Southern Cross, Territory, Pacific, Heritage, Floodtide, Maralinga, Tiger Men, Elianne, Spirits of the Ghan and Sanctuary, have confirmed Judy’s position as one of Australia’s leading fiction writers.