🎬 CUTTING ROOM FLOOR: We Chat To Peter FitzSimons! (Podcast Exclusive)

Join Jonesy & Amanda for an EXCLUSIVE (unaired) episode!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
My Heart podcasts here, more Gold one on one point
seven podcasts.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Playlists and listen live on the Free iHeart.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
App A former pow Keith Flanagan has said to us

(00:37):
he takes precedence over Ned, Kelly, farlapp Les, Darcy Simpson,
even Don Bradman as the greatest Australian hero of all time.
He was talking about Weary Dunlop and the fabulous Peter
fitz Simons has written a book about the amazing Weary
Dunlop and joins us now Hello Peter.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
Hello, Jonesie and Amanda, not in that order.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
For those who don't know the Weary Dunlop story. Who
was Weary?

Speaker 3 (01:04):
He was an extraordinary man. He was. He came to
fame as a doctor on the tie Rai away commander
of Dunlop Force, and he basically got his men together
and said, we are Australians. We're going to look after
each other as Australians. And he said that basically the
officers that we're getting a stipend from Geneva Convention, we're
going to put all of our money in a pool

(01:27):
and buy food for the for our own soldiers. One
of the officers said I don't want to do that,
where said, you're not listening to me. This is what
we're going to do. This is how we're going to
do it. On the other side of the river, British
battalion moved in and they used the British class system
where all of the all of the best medical care,

(01:47):
the best tents went as the British officers. And according
to Tom Urn, the famous parliamentarian, it was one of
the POW's there from six hundred of the marched in,
only fifty of the Brits marched out. And he believed
in the value system Wherey Dunlop and Tom Youren became
the mentor and quasai father of our Prime Minister Anthony

(02:09):
Alberanzi at least father figure. Right.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
How did he get the name weary again, I know this,
but I've forgotten.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
In the nineteen thirties they were known as Dunlop tires
were the big deal. So t yes, but it was
a wordplay of t i aris as he done Lop
weary Edward Dunlop tires, and so it was wordplay. Because
he was the most energetic bastard that ever lived. He
was doing pharmacy, he was doing medicine, he played rugby

(02:38):
for Australia, he got a scholarship to England to study surgery,
and then when he was in the war, he was
a ratip to Brook. And of course, as we say,
the hero of the Tibermer Railway, was he.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Just one of those characters that just the war brings
out something different in them? Was he just an ordinary
man who just rose to the top like this, Yes.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Absolutely, who did extraordinary things. One of the most extraordinary
episodes there was a soldier that was on a bed
and he'd lost both his he'd lost both eyes, he'd
lost two hands, and he'd lost one leg because the
mine had blown up. The Japanese came in and the
officer the Japanese officers shouted to one of his soldiers
to kill that man. Weary stoody in front of the

(03:24):
soldier on the bed the pow and said, any boynet
that goes through him has to go through me first.
And he constantly protected his own men. And the leverage
that he had over the Japanese were that they were
I feed ill treating the Australian POWs. They were only
giving them two cups of rice a day. They weren't

(03:45):
giving them anything sustenance, but they needed Weary to keep
those men alive, so they'd keep working on the Tyburnamer railway.
Time and again he demonstrated extraordinary courage.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
Wow, what happened after the war with Weary.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
He became He was the Australian of the year. He
was a famous surgeon. He was a famous advocate for
pow so he was an influence on mensies. He was
an influence on Whitlam and basically saying that the POWs
have given so much that those that come back should
be getting free dental care, free medical care. They need

(04:21):
to be looked after. And the POWs loved him so much.
I talked to his former secretary in the bureau or
the office where he worked as a doctor. Sometimes POWs
from all over Australia. Sometimes they would just come and
they'd sit there for the day because they just wanted
to be near Weary. Weary made them feel safe. Wow.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
What an extraordinary, extraordinary talent. And once again you bring
it to live, Pete. This is a great book. It's
available right now. The Courageous Life of Weary Dunlop. Anything
else has a house going, mate, you want us to
sell the house as well, we can do.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
That if you want. Funny, you should say that, what's
this space that's happening?

Speaker 2 (05:00):
I was going to come through and be a time waster.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
Thanks so much for having me whatter Lisa.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Okay, kids, that's it for today.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
Come back tomorrow for more of Jonesy and Amanda is
cutting room for