Telling the Story of Weary Dunlop

by Keith Flanagan

In 1985 former POWs from every state in Australia came on the Weary Dunlop Tour to retrace the journey they had taken with him from Java to work as slave labourers on the Burma-Thailand railway in 1943.

Journalists from WA and the Eastern States sent back day-by-day reports. It was part of a wider campaign organised by Keith Flanagan to make Australians aware of the man many now regard as the greatest Australian of all time.

In the following 16 years, with the help of other former POWs, Mr Flanagan organised nine more tours and initiated the Weary Dunlop-Boonpong Exchange Fellowship which helps four young Thai surgeons come to Australia each year to work on advanced techniques with Australian mentors.

He has written a short account (7,000 words) of those years and those who took part in "Telling the Story of Weary Dunlop". It is sometimes amusing, sometimes sad, even a little angry. He has had a 100 copies laser-printed and spiral bound.

They are available for $10 plus $2 postage (payable by cheque) from:

Keith Flanagan, 19 Constance Street, Darlington WA 6070.

Email: quietlion@bigpond.com