I awake each day, fearful of the fact that we are edging ever closer to the inevitable invasion of Taiwan by China. A column in the NT News ‘US red alert on China … war machine gearing up’ (21/4) added to my foreboding. The start of this war cannot be far over the horizon and because of alliances, will quickly engulf the whole of SE Asia and the Pacific.

With Darwin being where Darwin is, and with the ever-upgrading of defence training and facilities, I stand in the yard, look at our home, look at the surrounding neighbourhood, and wonder when (not ‘if’) it will be reduced to smouldering rubble by a missile or barrages of missiles directed at our city.

We are reasonably well prepared and ‘aware’ of cyclones. However, Darwin, Palmerston, Nhulunbuy (where fuel storage is anticipated) and Alice Springs (with Pine Gap being front and centre of Chinese interest) and other towns and communities will need bomb shelters and missile refuges. Our state of readiness for protection from environmental desecration and shattered infrastructure occasioned. by war, is zero out of ten. I fear war that will envelop our region is imminent, and we are far from ready.

The Bombing of Darwin in 1942 will be minuscule compared to the damage that will be wreaked on Darwin in the 2020s. I contemplate the years ahead with apprehension and worry for my family and indeed for the whole of our Territory and Australian community.