Over the last few days I’ve been pretending it’s 1942 in Melbourne.

It was a weird time back then. Singapore and Phillipines had fallen to the Japanese and there was a general sense of impending doom. The prime minister of the time, Curtin, inspired Australians to serve and that was the time, the war came to Australia.

The impending threat of a Japanese invasion (certainly the Japanese were doing sneaky reconnaissance of our ports) and a sudden influx of American GIs into Melbourne evacuated from the Phillipines meant “shit got real” for us here.

Melbourne was also experiencing a brown out at the time – the only other time we had curfews was during 2020 with the Covid crisis.

In my head, the Covid lockdown and the threat of the Japanese invasion are melded as one. Two striking situations that had all Melbournians uncertain and buckling down at home.

I bought the book “The Quiet Heroes of the Southwest Pacific Theatre: An Oral History of the Men and Women of CBB and FRUMEL” over the weekend and read it all. I was fascinated by these men and women who worked in the Top Secret signals and communications branch during World War 2: the Code Breakers – Australia’s Bletchley Park.

I read it over the weekend – an oral history of the traffic analysts and cryptoanalysts (code breakers) of the signals coming from the Pacific. It brought their situation, the environment and their work alive for me. I’m so glad the authors had captured these oral histories otherwise they would have been lost.

In the background, I listened to 1940s music and by immersing into their stories, the photos and videos of Melbourne in 1942 as well as the music, it does make you realise just how different our society is today from back then. However, I also look at it with some fondness as at times it seems innocent. A different era.

I don’t know why I’m compelled to this time in history. Maybe it’s just knowing that our little suburb played a HUGE ROLE in changing the tide of the war in the Pacific.

Knowing that I lived on the street where the listening station picked up the signals from the Japanese fleet that identified their plans for the invasion of Port Moresby to our north; and then the Allies thwarting these with the Battle of the Coral Sea that decimated the Japanese Navy, I feel a need to keep it alive somewhat. To never forget.

These men and women went without reward, acknowledgement or recognition due to the secret nature of their work. Only once the materials had declassified some 50 years after WW2 were they acknowledged and by then many had passed on.

If their stories were made into some kind of story or film, then more Australians would know about this and be connected with their local history.

Otherwise, these too would simply disappear.

There are many times that I wish I had a Time Machine to go back to this time and just observe the people and look at how Melbourne has changed. Instead, I need to fire up my imagination and assume a lot of things.