Description
Title: Australia’s Forgotten Volunteers – Interstate Railwaymen at the Top End of the Northern Territory during World War Two
Author: Harvey, J Y
Condition: Near Mint – Minor wear to dust jacket corner and very minor shelf wear to the lower edges of the boards.
Edition: 1st Edition
Publication Date: 1992
ISBN: 0909650306
Cover: Hard Cover with Dust Jacket – 264 pages
Comments: This book details the contribution made by railwaymen to the maintenance of the military forces during the Second World War.
Born in 1922, Jim Harvey’s interest in ‘things railway’ dates back to his school days when he first dabbled in model railways. In 1943, he journeyed to the Top End of the Northern Territory as a solider and during the subsequent 14 months as an anonymous member of the military garrison, he travelled on and studied the local railway know officially as the North Australia Railway (NAR). Jim became fascinated with this now abandoned railway and study of its history and changing fortunes became a life-long passion.
A culmination of his research came in 1987 with the publication of his first book ‘The Never Never Line: the story of the Northern Australian Railway’. In 1992 he later wrote this book ‘Australia’s forgotten volunteers’ in conjunction with the 50th Anniversary of the bombing of Darwin.
This book is about the contribution made by the railwaymen to the maintenance of the military forces, their devotion to duty and their heroism. During his research, Jim met many railwaymen from the state railway systems who volunteered to work on the NAR during the dark days of the war and he faithfully recorded accounts of their time spent in the Top End!