Chapter 8

I had taken a taxi to the airport when I had left, and had called Randall from Sydney, so wasn’t surprised when he was waiting for me when I strolled into the terminal. He came over with a smile on his face and kissed me.

“Nice outfit, makes your eyes pop.”

“Take a deep breath, love. I’ve had this on since Darwin.”

“Ribboned and named, I see.”

“Yep, mine to keep as a reminder.”

“Did you do anything interesting this time?”

“Other than destroying an old car from three miles away with a field gun, flying from Adelaide to Perth in a maritime patrol, interviewing sailors in a submarine somewhere deep in the Indian Ocean, and sinking an illegal fishing boat with a fifty-calibre machine gun, you mean?”

“Can’t wait to see the shows. There’s a pile of post for you at home. Paulines’ been going through it and leaving you some to look at. She got Wollongong to send down a box of photos and she’s been signing them.”

“What! Forging my signature?”

“No. Signing her own name on pictures of her. They showed the Wiggle show last week and she’s basking in her fame. There’s a box of pictures of you when you get around to it.”

When I had picked my bag up, he took it and held my hand as we went out to his police car, parked in a ‘Police Only’ spot. Suddenly, I was happier. There were things that I had done that they couldn’t imagine, but they had done things that I had missed. I would have those gaps in my memory forever, the spaces filled with my own adventure.

We stopped at the high school as the students came out, Pauline surrounded by girls and a few boys. I watched as the one that had been at our house gave her a hug and a kiss, and then she bounced over to the car and got in the back.

“I see that you picked up Lara Croft, Daddy.”

“Enough of that, young lady, or I may start asking you about the boy who kissed you.”

“Why, hello Mummy. Did you have fun?”

“I did, and you’ll see how much when you see the shows. How are you handling the celebrity status?”

“It’s all right, so far. There are a few that praised me to high heaven, but only to get me in a good mood to help them with their maths.”

“You’re learning early that there are some who only want you for something. Did you help them?”

“Of course. A girl needs as many friends as she can get.”

Instead of going home, Randall pulled up outside a restaurant.

“I can’t go in there! I smell and I’m not properly dressed!”

“It’s a private party, my darling, to welcome you home after completing a strenuous and dangerous project. Come on in, they’ve all seen you in worse.”

I got out of the car. He took one hand and Pauline took the other to make sure I didn’t run away. As we walked in, there was a big cheer, and several came over to give me a hug. The whole crew were there, along with a lot of our regular guests for our BBQ parties. I had to giggle when I saw a bunch of pull-up banners scattered around the room. There were some from each early show, one showing me in full battle kit on the way to the Rain Forest, with a Blackhawk behind me. Another had me being jerked into the air with the helicopter above me. All of a sudden, I was glad that I was still in fatigues and didn’t smell good. It was now part of my character.

There was one, taken at Williamtown, with me up a ladder, with one leg in the cockpit of the F-35. I called out.

“Are these your work, Bernie?”

“No, Carol. They’re first examples of authorised ABC pull-ups. I’m told that they’re quite excited with what you’ve done so far. Did you wrap it up with the last trip?”

“We did. Moyra has made Lieutenant and is serving on the Canberra. She’s really happy in what she’s doing. I got given this kit and filmed the last segment at the helm of a patrol boat on the way back to Darwin from Ashmore Reef.”

“How long before they took over the wheel?”

“About an hour. The captain was showing me how to follow the right bearing and told me that I was a natural sailor.”

“You do tend to smell like one.”

“Hey! That’s the smell of honest toil and a trip home from Darwin via Sydney. I was thinking of patenting it, if I could get it in a bottle.”

Before we sat down, a number of Paulines’ friends arrived with their parents, so making it into quite a big party. I ate a nice meal and only had a few drinks. I didn’t last long before I started to flag, so we left them partying. We went home and I stripped off, then just dropped onto the bed and went to sleep. It had been a long day at the end of a long month.

Sometime in the night, I had to have a pee. When I got back to bed, Randall was smiling at me with a small tent in the sheet. I needed the shower even more in the morning.

It was good to be in my own shower, luxuriating in scented soap and body wash, with my own shampoo and conditioner. I had slept late and was alone in the kitchen when I went through, wearing good underwear and a nice dress, but still in fluffy slippers. I got myself breakfast and read the paper to catch up with local events.

I went into the spare room, where I now had a desk, and saw a big pile of envelopes. Before I worked on them, I had a quick look in Paulines’ room to see her official fan picture on her wall, alongside one of us from the ‘Cruising’ show. Back in my office, I opened envelopes and read letters. Some had been pre-opened by Pauline, but there were some that I needed to use the letter opener on.

I started a pile that was just fan ravings, then added a pile requesting a photo. Then there was a small third pile, which was from people wondering if they could buy an amplifier. There was a very small pile from our friends back home. These were answered first, with a generic letter written on the laptop and printed a few times. I had envelopes, so added the letters and addressed them for posting in town.

The box of pictures had been opened and it was one from the show. The ABC had thoughtfully put in a pack of envelopes the right size. It took me until lunch to sign the pictures with individual messages, get them in the envelopes and address them. I saved the personal letters but bundled all the others for shredding when I felt in the mood.

The requests for amps was something else again. I made myself a healthy lunch and called my old shop to talk to the new owner. I made an appointment to see him in the afternoon. After I had cleared the lunch dishes, I loaded the car, made myself presentable and went into town with a basket full of postage. At the Post Office, the woman behind the counter grinned.

“More of your daughters’ fan mail?”

“Not this lot. These are all mine. It appears that the two of us have got popular.”

She weighed the UK postage and counted the fan mail, then gave me a total price for the lot, telling me that they would add all the franking when they had a few minutes. Leaving there, I went to ‘Newmans of Nowra’ to talk about the amps, that I had brought with me, along with the schematics of the circuits. He was keen to be part of this, as it appealed to his own electronic bent. I gave him the contacts for getting the case made in quantity, and the price I had paid.

By the time I left him, he was going to set up a business called ‘Newmans Sound’ and would manufacture as many as we got orders for and come to me if there was any request for specials. I retained the ownership of design, and he would pay me four hundred per sale, while he carried the manufacturing costs. He looked up similar units online and we saw that I had sold the first three for a song. We decided that the new sale price should be fifteen hundred, which gave him a good profit margin.

I went out to the car with him and brought in the other eight, plus the bunch of requests for him to answer. He put my card into his EFTPOS machine and deposited three thousand six hundred into my account. Before I left, he wanted a selfie with me, and to sign his boxed set of the ‘Cruising’ show.

I just had to go to the shop and buy my own. I expect that the ABC may ship me some for promotional distribution, but I had a desire to own one of my first series, as a recognition that it was me and my daughter in there. I then dropped in to see Bernie.

“How are you, Bernie. Sorry that I squibbed out last night, but I was bushed.”

“So, Wonder Woman doesn’t have miraculous powers of recovery.”

“I’m no Wonder Woman.”

“I’ve seen some of your last big trip. To me and the crew, you’re a total wonder. I mean to say, jumping out of a plane was easy compared to being pulled out of a Hercules on a line.”

“It had one redeeming factor. I couldn’t chicken out. The bloke behind me gave me a hug after we’d landed. He was my minder, telling me where we were aiming for. Matthew should have got the last recordings by now. I expect that Sydney couriered them down.”

“He’ll give us a call when he’s got the shows together. I expect that he’ll aim to get another five shows to make it suitable for a TV series. It will have to be vetted by the Government as not giving anything away. By the way, I’ve got the boxed set of the ‘Cruising’ series. Can you sign it to the best cameraman that you’ve ever known?”

I was smiling as I drove away. I was back among my family and friends, back into normal life as a wife and mother. I went to the main shopping area and just wandered, looking at nice things while stopped several time for selfies. For now, I didn’t mind, but it could get tedious.

A few weeks later, in the July holidays, I was back with Pauline and the crew filming more of the second series of ‘Cruising’. Matthew had been contacted by several celebrities who had seen the ‘Wiggle’ episode and wanted the chance for a little fun and fame. In the ten days, we were able to finish the last shows, doing up to four interviews a day. He told me that we had a lot more who wanted to have a chat, but they were out of our target area. He wondered if Ultimo would have us going further out for series three and beyond.

Pauline was reveling in meeting famous people and being able to ask her questions. Each visit could end with her either playing a guitar as accompaniment, or singing a duet, after our discussion about their lives and loves.

In August, Bernie and I flew to Canberra, to join Emily, Sir Edward, and Matthew to show the PM, the Minister, and a room full of military men the entire ADF series. As it was a total of ten hours, we would be showing two hours a day, over five days. We all assembled in the viewing room in the Parliament. After each show, there was discussion on anything that showed something secret.

Each day, we had a list of things and faces to blur on the final transmission, mostly in the later shows where we had filmed in the Poseidon and the submarine. They were all happy with the shows other than that, and my sign-off at the helm of the patrol boat created a lot of smiles. When we left Canberra, we had a written authorisation to screen the shows, as well as a printed notification that they were created with the full support of the ADF.

The PM wanted us to show the first five before Christmas, with the last five in February and March. During January, I was booked to go to Europe with the Minister. Randall was to be seconded to the security detail and there was a seat for Pauline. We would be talking to European builders of drones and the Eurofighter. We would end up with a one-hour show that would follow the announcement that the PM would give about our future purchases, after our last show of the ADF series. Bernie would join us to keep the project quiet and ensure a good coverage.

I met up with Moyra again in October. It was not a social visit. The Canberra had been deployed off of Western Australia when there had been an earthquake in East Timor. Bernie, Matthew and I were flown to Darwin and picked up by helicopter to be taken to the Canberra. I filed reports for the ABC, in my navy fatigues, from the carrier. There were several from the medical unit in Perth on board, as well as a dozen Blackhawks with an army support unit.

It was a busy few days at the start, and I was able to get short talks with a lot of military people who wouldn’t have normally given a reporter the time of day. On the fifth day, the three of us were kitted out in battledress and taken to the worst of the damage by Blackhawk. We were able to film reports from ground zero and send them to Sydney by satellite. We were on the ground, with the rescuers, for a week until other teams arrived and took over. I did a final report with shattered buildings behind me, and we were flown back to the Canberra.

With the urgency over, we sailed closer to Australia and the army left, with all their gear, in the Blackhawks, heading for their base at Darwin. I did another report, from the almost empty deck of the carrier, to say that we had been ready to help, and had saved lives. Behind me, stretchers were being loaded on to navy helicopters for transport to the hospital in Darwin. The last few seconds of the report, Bernie focused on one of the helicopters taking off. We stayed on board until the next day when there would be room for us on a flight. We had dinner with the captain, who congratulated us on doing our job while staying out of everyone's way. Matthew laughed.

“We had Carol with her experience to tell us where to set up, and when to move, sir.”

“Yes. I had heard that she had spent a bit of time with us.”

I grinned.

“Wait until the TV shows start, next Sunday. It’s ‘Carol and the ADF’ and the first show is my two weeks at Creswell. It got scarier from then on.”

We had breakfast in the officers’ wardroom, with Moyra and some of her colleagues, and then we were loaded onto a helicopter and dropped off in front of the terminal at Darwin airport. It was a bit different from arriving by taxi.

As we walked into the concourse at Sydney, we were greeted by Emily and Sir Edward and taken to Ultimo. There, we were congratulated by the upper management for our concise, yet informative reports, that showed all the horrors but didn’t dwell on them. They were particularly happy with the interviews with the medical personnel. I told them that I had met most of them in Perth.

We were given dinner and a night in a hotel before the two of us caught our flight and Matthew took the shuttle down to Wollongong. On the way home, Bernie turned to me.

“It’s funny how things happen, Carol. If you hadn’t wanted to do that show about the Melbourne, we wouldn’t be sitting here after the most interesting weeks of my life. We were looked after like we were part of the ADF and given opportunities to film in places that other stations are going to be totally jealous of.”

“Was your heart beating faster and the adrenaline rushing about?”

“It was, but there you were, in my viewfinder, calm as you like.”

“You forget that it was only an extension of what I had done for those ten shows. I had been through a lot of similar situations this year, so knew what was going on around me. Only war correspondents would know how I now feel.”

“Do you realise that this may get us an award. I think that I heard Sir Edward say that there will be an email sent out.”

“I’ll need to buy a new dress. That award is quite posh, isn’t it?”

Bernie dropped me at home, and I went in to have a soothing bath. When Pauline arrived home, she gave me a big hug.

“Mummy, Welcome home. We saw you reporting on the news. That must have been exciting.”

“It was, and a bit scary to see what the earth can do when it gets angry.”

She went off to do her homework and I turned on my laptop to see the expected email. I went to her door.

“Sweetheart. We have an invitation to go to Sydney for the big media presentation night The ABC have been nominated for a Walkley Award. We’ll have to go shopping for fancy long dresses. I believe that it’s a good meal and a bit of razzamatazz.”

“That could be fun. Can I have a session in a salon?”

“We’ll both be doing that, probably on the morning of the event. We’ll be in a hotel for the night before and the night of the show. I’ll check to see if your Daddy can come as well.”

I rang Emily, who told me that there would be seats for the three of us and told me where we would be staying. It was a week or more away. She said that they had been nominated for the Explanatory Journalism award. That Saturday, Pauline and I went to see our favourite dress shop, where we tried on many wonderful dresses, finally picking one each. We got discount after being photographed in them, with the matching shoes and clutches. Which would adorn the shop, seeing that we were now both local celebrities. On Sunday night, we watched the first episode of “Carol with the ADF’.

The afternoon before the show, the three of us took our four-door to the Rex terminal, noting the big hole in the ground that would be the underground car park for the new international terminal. All three of us had garment bags and I had booked us better seats than usual, which included hanging space.

When we arrived in Sydney, Hugo was waiting for us with a car and driver. We were taken to the hotel and were checked in. We had dinner with Sir Edward and a couple of other executives and had an early night. Next morning, we had a walk in the Domain and avoided talking about the evening. The Walkley’s were the peak of journalism awards, for all aspects of the media, from print to digital, and the prospect of being there was a little daunting. Emily joined us for lunch, along with Matthew and Bernie and their wives. We would all be on a big table with the station bigwigs. To me, this was looking suspicious.

In the afternoon, all the girls in our party were in a salon, being looked after. I met some of the women behind the powerful men and they all told me that I was wonderful. They also doted on Pauline, saying that they loved the ‘Cruising’ shows, suggesting that we may be back in the city for the AACTA awards next February.

Looking dapper in his new suit, Randall escorted us to the stretch limo that had been provided to take us to the event. Although it wasn’t televised live, there were cameras from every station there to record our arrival. Once past the reporters, we were sat at the table as the room filled up.

The meal was small servings on big dishes, and the wine flowed. After a short monologue from the presenter, we were into the awards. It started with awards for printed media, and I agreed with most of the decisions. Then we got to TV awards, finally getting to our nominated one, Explanatory Journalism. There was a list of nominees, including the ABC for ‘Jinx Ship or Majestic’. We all sat, with bated breath as the envelope was opened,

“The winner of the 2039 Walkley for Explanatory Journalism is the ABC with ‘Jinx Ship’!”

Sir Edward rose and gestured for me and Matthew to follow him. He accepted the award and then gave it to me to hold while he made his speech, praising me for the story concept and presentation, and Matthew for producing such a magnificent hour of riveting television. We all went back to the table to accept our hugs and kisses.

Later in the night, we were in the All-Media part of the show when the emcee got very serious.

“There were many stories that had been nominated for the two categories of ‘Coverage of a Major News Event’ and ‘News Reporting’ during the year. However, there was one major event, only last month, that caught the judges' eyes. Over the course of two weeks, or more, we saw reporting every day from a disaster zone that eclipsed all others. The two awards, this year, go to the ABC for the coverage of the East Timor earthquake! We have all three of the team here tonight, Carol Chivers, Bernard Turner and Matthew Delaine, come on up and get your awards.”

The two guys escorted me to the stage to great applause. We were given the awards and the microphone beckoned. I gave the award I was holding to Bernie and stood at the podium.

“Ladies and Gentlemen. We did not expect this, tonight. On the HMAS Canberra, and on the ground in East Timor, we were only doing our jobs, to the best of our abilities. It was fortuitus that I had spent time with the ADF making a series that began recently. I have been on many ships, flown in fast jets, and trekked the rain forest with the army. During that time, I was accompanied by a serving officer of the Navy. She was in a position on the Canberra to make our time aboard much easier. During our reports, I spoke to the medical teams. I had already interviewed those same medicos for the series, so they were happy to give me time. Going to the disaster zone, we flew in a Blackhawk with a crew that I’d flown with before. We were given every help on the ground until international rescuers arrived. Our reports could only have happened with the exceptional camera work of Bernard, here, and the final reports that Matthew produced, on the run, before we sent them to the satellite. I was just the speaker. It was these two and the ADF that produced those stories. Thank you all.”

We had a group hug on stage, then went back to the table, who were all standing for us, along with many others in the room. We sat down and I took a drink of my wine before both Randall and Pauline hugged me. She had a grin.

“Wonder Woman becomes Humble Mum!”

I had to laugh as she picked up the award that I had put on the table. She stroked it, lovingly.

“Will we be up for awards at the AACTAs next year, Mummy.”

“Maybe. The ‘Cruising’ shows had good viewer numbers, and the fan mail is still coming in. Who knows, you may be nominated for the ‘Emerging Talent Logie’.”

She giggled and blushed. The night continued and I was looking forward to going back to the hotel. Many on our table were very merry. Sir Edward had gathered all three awards, telling us that the organisers would supply replicas for the three of us and the originals would grace the awards cabinet in the Ultimo reception.

I was fading when we reached the final award, the Gold Walkley for Journalism. The emcee had the envelope as she stood at the microphone.

“Ladies and Gentlemen. The Gold Walkley is not given to the best-looking journalist. Nor is it given to the one who has had most spots in the media. It is given to the one with great presentation under stress, an enquiring mind, and the ability to see things we don’t.”

She opened the envelope and took out the card.

“This is exactly the person who I had thought would win. A person who has given us stories that have entertained and informed. Moreover, they were stories that shifted the government into new directions. The winner of the 2039 Gold Walkley is Carol Chivers!”

Our table stood as one as I sat there, stunned. Sir Edward came and helped me out of my seat and escorted me to the stage, where I was given the top accolade of the night. I was pointed to the microphone.

“Ladies and Gentlemen. This is a total surprise. I don’t have a prepared speech, so I’ll just revert to ‘Humble Mum’ as my daughter called me a while ago. I am thoroughly humbled by this award. I have to thank the ABC, and Sir Edward, for taking me on and giving me the opportunity to pursue a couple of things that had given me pause for thought. I thank my whole crew for their support, mainly Bernard and Matthew who have been my rocks. I thank my husband, Randall, and my daughter, Pauline, for putting up with me locking myself away to do research and then getting on with their lives while I was away making the shows. Most of all, I thank the organisers of this event for making this the best night of my life as a proud ABC employee, the best media company in the country. Thank you all.”

Sir Edward was smiling as he escorted me back to the table, my knuckles white with my grip on the award. After that, it was a whirlwind of hugs, kisses, backslaps and a modicum of jealous looks from the old guard who expected more from the night. I finally gave up the award to Sir Edward, after he had promised me that I would get it back with the replica to be shown at Ultimo.

I was still in shock when we were taken back to the hotel. I helped Pauline cleanse and get into her nightie, and she was asleep as I kissed her forehead. I went next door to our room, where Randall and I helped each other undress and he gave me an award of his own.

Marianne Gregory © 2026