Terry Fuller

Hi all,

After a few years of visiting the site I am finally getting around to this.

I had two trips to Penang as a kid. The first arrival was in ’71. Wow I still remember the smell as we were taken from the Base to hour home just off Jln Gajah.

I remember our friends and host family taking us from our house to theirs for a late supper that night, driving for ages. Twisting and turning through what seemed tiny laneways. Then when it was time to go they simply walked us across the road.

I remember goat herders wandering along the road with their flock. Mary “Hello Mem” the egg lady. The friendly guys from RG store. The Holy Donut Man and the Shoe Repair man plying their trade from the bake of a push bike and the bread man with his little coconut slices.

We were relocated from our 2 storey red floor tile home to a bungalow at 75d Vale of Tempe Rd. Getting to school was a jump over the fence between the 1st atap and the assembly hall. This was made so much easier when a tree from the school fell on the fence.
My classes at RPG were with Mr Ellem and Mrs Kloosterman. I don’t remember much about school then except setting up one of the other boys with a radio request on RRB from a fictitious girl. I met him later in life when he was a RAAF Medic, I’m glad he didn’t remember.
I also remember being in Cubs at the Hostie. I was the first to be awarded the new ‘Link Badge’ to replace the ‘Leaping Wolf’ no one knew much about it so I wore both badges.
Joeys was definitely the club to be in, I joined more sports there than I knew existed. And of course there was the Penang Swimming Club. Here the memory gets foggy again, especially with who I knew.

The second trip was much more memorable, we returned to Penang only 2 yrs after we left. Many of the people that had recently arrived when we left we still there, it was almost as though we had never left.
This time we were in Tanjong Tokong. No3 Road 3, it was a five minute walk past Fettes Park to the Hostie and a quick bike ride to the pool.

Too many memories here to list. Does anyone remember Heike Schule, my girlfriend from Germany?
I spent heaps of time on my bike, all over the island. I also returned to the jap forts and got up to all sorts of no good with locals and friends. Most of which almost horrify me now, but then it was pure adventure.

I joined the RAAF, my sole intent was to get to Penang again. I did, just in time to help lock the gate and turn out the lights in 1997 when the Base was closed as a Support Unit and made a Detachement.
The place was so different, but the people were the same. It was hard to believe that the locals that I knew still remembered the family, although many mistook me for my Dad.

Now I live in Brisbane, I have two boys aged 21 and 14. I am soon to remarry.

Now if you remember the school bell boy drop me a line, I will write back – even if it takes a while.