Proserpine... that's well towards the north of Queensland...
I've never been there, but there are sugar cane fields along our east coast from northern New South Wales all the way through to Cairns, maybe 1000 miles with sugar dotting the scenery.
A lot of Italian migrants worked those farms in the thirties and forties, cutting by hand in the heat. Little trains on railways with only 2' between the rails chuffing along to the mills with their loads... mills with smoke disgorging into the blue sky as they burned the unwanted residue to make steam to run the mill.
They probably met in Townsville, which is very much a military centre here. But there were many other military bases set up during the war, especially airfields to disperse planes so they'd be safer from attack.
94, eh? An Aussie living in New York these days turns 93 next month. He won the Australian Grand Prix in 1939, a real hero and a brilliant driver. His family came out from NY this time last year and closed his business (put him out of a job!) and sold everything up so he could go live with them. In October he's due to come back to be guest of honor at the 70th anniversary of that great win he had in his little supercharged MG. He averaged something like 82mph for the distance too, over a course made up of public roads... google 'Lobethal' and 'Tomlinson' and you might find out more about this aged gentleman who still today can address a crowd and tell them to the nut and bolt how he prepared that car and won that race.
