You gotta start any Australian pictures with the obligatory Kangaroo, so above is a big 'red roo' on the run, or hop, across the outback.

Exmouth is 850 miles north of Perth, in 1970 it was absolutely nowhere. Right is the road sign for the nearly entirely dirt roads, below the local outdoor sports fields.

On graduating from San Diego State College in 1968, (before its University days), the draft still existed. To avoid being a foot-soldier in Vietnam, I enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserves as an officer. This was facilitated by a neighborhood family friend who was an Annapolis graduate; and whose old roommate was now the head of the selection board for the USNR Officer Training School. My second assignment was to the US Navy Communications Station, Harold E. Holt, Exmouth, Western Australia. I was there from early 1970 to early 1971.

Right is the local drive-in theatre, the only theatre in 850 miles.

Using the skippys for bait, I'd catch snapper (above), spotted cod (below) and groupers (above right). These were all delicious fish and I'd eat fish most days of the week, and give many away to friends for dinners.

The Navy maintained a big pier near the point. I fished there most days. I'd start without any bait, catching the small skippys (below) with a plain, bare chrome-plated hook jigging in the light.

Above, t he beach at the point at the NorthWest Cape is one of the world's few nesting grounds for sea turtles. Here one comes on shore to dig a hole and lay a clutch of eggs.

Right are a couple of flocks of Cockatoos on the guy-wires to the antenna of the communications building. There are zillions of these things all over; they may be pets here, but in Western Australia they are pests which eat crops and poop everywhere.

These rather grainy, dull pictures were all scanned from old 35mm slides that have been in a box and moved with me since returning from Australia in 1971. I apologize for their poor quality, but then, I'm also happy that I have any reminders from those days at all. My tendency at that time and age was: 'there is no tomorrow....all for today'. So I was rather pleased to see some evidence of my stay there though not perhaps the best selection of pictures or well stored.