A well-known master of nonfiction storytelling delving into Australian history will be launching a compelling new book in Beechworth on Wednesday, 29 October at the Soldier’s Memorial Hall.
The author of several highly successful books Sydney-based Peter FitzSimons will talk about his latest work ‘The Courageous Life of Weary Dunlop’.
Mr FitzSimons tells the extraordinary story of the heroic young Australian surgeon Colonel Sir Ernest Edward “Weary” Dunlop, a former POW, and leader of Allied prisoners on the brutal Thai Burma Railway.
His courage and leadership were a lifeline for thousands of Australian prisoners-of-war on the infamous Thai-Burma Railway of World War 2.
Weary is most famous for his leadership in prison camps in Indonesia, and then on the Thai-Burma Railway.
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He stood up for the weak, put himself in the firing line, and earned the respect of all those he encountered.
Mr FitzSimons recounts of Weary’s World War 2 experiences are harrowing but capture Weary’s humanity.
Weary Dunlop was born in Wangaratta, grew up at ‘Summerlea’ on the outskirts of Shepparton and attended Benalla High School.
He won a £10 scholarship to study at the Melbourne Pharmacy College excelling in his studies gaining First Class Honours followed by a scholarship to study medicine at the University of Melbourne where he graduated with a Master of Surgery.
Weary Dunlop also made a debut playing for the Australia men's national rugby union team, the Wallabies in 1932.
Awarded a scholarship at the Royal College of Surgeons in England, Weary Dunlop had embarked on the SS Ormonde bound for London in 1938 with Word War 2 declared the following year.
Signing up, he was commissioned a captain in the Australian Army Medical Corps (AAMC) and sent to the Middle East, serving in Palestine, Greece, Crete, Egypt and Tobruk then sailed to Java with 3000 others to fight the Japanese.
Post World War 2 Weary Dunlop worked at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital while also having specialised clinics for returned soldiers.
Mr FitzSimons said his passion of history telling began from growing up with family connections to World War 2.
“I wanted to tell stories about history in the vernacular for Australians and as a narrator and wanted to have the stories in the present tense bringing the reader into the story,” he said.
He said with his first successful book about Nancy Wake he then embarked on the reliving of past Australian history with his books.
“Weary Dunlop was a beacon of humanity, and I loved how he said to Australian prisoners ‘we’re going to look after each other’.
"Eighty years later people remember and revere the life of Weary Dunlop,” Mr FitzSimons said.
Mr FitzSimons said when burying oneself in diaries and life documentation, the writer gets to know their subjects.
“Weary Dunlop was extraordinary, and I loved him as a man,” he said.
“He also played in the 16th game of the Wallabies against the All Blacks, and I was pleased to be playing in the same position when I was in the Wallabies team.”
Mr FitzSimons said it took about a year to write the book with the help of three researchers.
With a love of Beechworth, he said he looked forward to being back in the town.
Mr FitzSimons has been a journalist for the past 39 years and columnist with the Sydney Morning Herald and the Sun Herald.
Among his books are Breaker Morant, Burke and Wills, Monash's Masterpiece, Kokoda, Ned Kelly and Gallipoli, as well as biographies of such notable Australians as Sir Douglas Mawson, Nancy Wake and John Eales.
The event at the Soldiers’ Memorial Hall at 101 Ford St takes place between 6pm and 8pm.
