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On the 3rd of March 1942 Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft operating out of Kupang, Timor attacked the Western Australian town of Broome. At the time the port was full of refugees who had fled the Japanese assault on the Dutch East Indies. One of the last aircraft out was a Dutch airlines Dakota DC-3 named the ‘Pelikaan’. It was piloted by a Russian Ace Captain Ivan ‘Turc’ Smirnoff, who unbeknownst to him carried a fortune in diamonds which originally were sent to Bandung from Amsterdam to avoid falling into Nazi hands. Now to avoid capture by the Japanese they were bound for the Commonwealth Bank in Australia.

Captain Smirnoff was approaching Broome, just as the Japanese attack force was departing and was attacked by Zero fighters and crash landed on a remote beach. The diamonds subsequently disappeared. This episode is an interview with Juliet Wills, Journalist and author of ‘The Diamond Dakota Mystery’ the amazing story of the missing Dutch diamonds and the 1942 Broome attack.

William Dampier was an English Pirate, author and explorer. He published numerous books including ‘A New Voyage Around the World (1697) which was a unique blend of adventure and natural history which made him a popular sensation. He was the first English person to explore the coast of Western Australia in the ship HMS Roebuck which was the first Royal Navy expedition solely dedicated to science and exploration.

The Monte Bello Islands have a unique place in Western Australian history. They form an archipelago lying approximately 130KM off the Pilbara coast and in the 1950s they were the site of 3 British nuclear weapons tests called ‘Operation Hurricane’ and ‘Mosaic.’

The old Swan Barracks and Central Drill Hall is located in Northbridge, Perth Western Australia. It was built to support the citizen militia forces in WA.  Listen to the podcast at: