One of my more bizarre moments whilst in the Navy, was when I was posted to Darwin, HMAS Coonawarra. I went up before the wife & kids, and subsequently spent some time living in on the depot, in the Snr. Sailors mess. It was at the bar, on a Saturday, just off the aircraft, and getting to know my way around, when my attention was drawn to two fellows at the bar who were talking to each other in Morse code. Dit da, da dit type of stuff. No one seemed to think this was unusual. Upon asking what appeared to be a " normal " person, I was told :" oh them, they're spies from Humpty Doo TS. Only don't call them spies, especially in Darwin, or you may get a tap on the shoulder from ASIO. "

I mentioned this to the WO during my post in procedure. He gave me a lecture on the do's and don'ts of serving in Darwin, which included the same message about mentioning 'spies'. Turns out when the Brits left Singapore, the biggest intelligence gathering installation in Asia was closed , and the brand new Transmitting Station Humpty Doo was built. Most of the linguists moved to Darwin, and Humpty Doo became the largest listening post in our part of the World. Every radio message from Indonesia to Siberia could be listened in to and translated, I was told. However the WO said, there are no spies in the NT, and Humpty Doo is merely a TS , got the message.? Darwin was different in many ways, indeed one of the best times in my naval career. But I'll never forget the spies talking in Morse code.


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