There’s a most poignant memorial in Broome that has been installed since my last visit 7 years ago.

Statues have been erected and inscribed with stories of the bombing of the Catalina Flying Boats during the Second World War.

The Catalinas were transporting refugees from what was then the Dutch East Indies to safer grounds further south. While moored at the Broome jetty Japanese fighter planes dropped their bombs and the stories inscribed on the statues are told by survivors and their rescuers. They are very moving accounts of the mayhem, destruction, courage and bravery at that time.

The statues have a ghostly appearance on the foreshore at Town Beach and remind us of a little known part of Australia’s history.