'Just look at this', Daisy thought to herself as she opened the kitchen cupboard that was under the sink. The silly cupboard was now hanging by the bottom screws. The top screws had somehow pried loose over years of constant use. She scrambled around the floor and found the two lost items. 'Now where is that screwdriver? It's not in the house toolbox. It must be in the shed'.
Daisy left the kitchen and opened the screen door. 'My, it is a hot one today', she thought as she stepped off the large veranda, brushing flies from her face. The red dirt beneath her sandalled feet kicked up a little dust as she quickly made her way toward the old tool shed. Mongrel, an old Queensland Blue Heeler, was lying on the path in the sun, his tail swatting flies every now and then. Daisy looked at his twitching form and mumbled to herself, I feel a bit like ol' Mongrel today. Look at 'im layin' there dreamin' 'bout when 'e used to be the best cattle dog 'round these parts. Now ''e 'ardly got the energy to swat them damn flies'. She tugged open the door to the tool shed, giggling to herself, thinking about the boss's reaction if she laid down on the job. Daisy stood still for a moment till her eyes adjusted from bright sunlight to the dark and dinginess of the shed. She moved a few things about, upsetting a few spiders, which she brushed away, intent on finding the tool box. 'Ah, here it is'. While searching for the screwdriver she came across something else. 'What's this thing? Some sort of coin', she thought. Daisy turned the coin over in her hand. It was difficult to make out which coin it was because it was covered in rust. She rubbed it on her apron she was wearing, but that didn't help much, so she applied a little spittle and rubbed it again. 'Nope, needs a bit more muscle than that', she thought as she popped the coin in her apron pocket, retrieved the screwdriver from the rusty tool box and headed back to the kitchen. Daisy scrubbed the coin over the kitchen sink with a scouring pad. It wasn't a coin after all. It was a 1945 victory medal. 'Well how about that? How did that end up in a rusty ol' tool box, in a shed, on a sheep station, way out 'ere?' Daisy was astounded at her find. She held the medal, turning it over and over in her hand. One side of the medal displayed a man (not in regular army uniform) holding a rifle above his head, behind him was the country of Australia. The words 'Victory Medal' were stamped at the top and the date at the bottom was 1945. The other side of the coin had, what appeared to be, the Pacific Islands. There was a sailing vessel with waves under it and on the bottom of the medal was a large whale. Daisy decided to hide it away in her favourite hiding place amongst her few belongings. She quickly entered her small room behind the pantry and retrieved her precious old biscuit tin from under her single bed. Inside the tin were letters from her father in Sydney, a few eagle feathers that had belonged to her mother, a bracelet that a shearer boyfriend had given her before he moved away, and now she placed this special coin in her tin. She placed the lid back on her 'treasure box'; the faded picture of a galah on the top swam before her eyes as she slid the tin back under her bed.
The story behind the medal started out with a young man eager to enlist and fight for his country. He was thirty two years old and his name was Jacky Wanjini. He left his only child (a daughter) safe on the sheep station. He explained to her, in great detail, that he had found good work in Sydney, 'just for a few years'. Then they could buy their own piece of land. There was another young man, about thirty three years of age. that would be linked to Jacky and his name was Jimmy Nambono. Both men enlisted in the Australian Army and trained in New South Wales. They were not known to each other, they were from totally different areas of Australia. The Australian Armed forces were desperate for volunteers to fight in Papua New Guinea. It was becoming a fearful problem area for the forces. Native Australians were quite welcome and were also expendable.
Two other men important to the story behind the Victory Medal were in Sydney, on the dock. Private Russell Smith was kissing his beloved Julia goodbye. Private Jeremy Haines was heading up the gangway excited to begin the campaign against the Japanese. The private on the dock spoke to his betrothed:
