Wendy James never saw the Bombing of Darwin, but for her and others, the pain lingers

Eighty-six-year-old Wendy James will never forget seeing the newspaper headline “Darwin bombed”, even though she was just six at the time.

Weeks earlier, she had waved goodbye to her father Stan Secrett on Stokes Hill Wharf, one of 2,000 women and children who were evacuated from the then-remote Top End military outpost after the outbreak of World War II.

“We were left in a terrible state. We didn’t know if dad had been killed. No-one knew the death rate,” Mrs James said on the eve of the 79th anniversary of the Bombing of Darwin.

Australian war-time authorities kept many details of the attack secret at the time, deeming that disclosing casualties and damage would aid the enemy.

Three weeks after the first air raid on 19 February 1942, Mrs…