PublishedBooktopia Editions, February 2017 |
ISBN9781742235141 |
FormatSoftcover, 352 pages |
Dimensions23.4cm × 15.3cm |
The Royal Australian Air Force base at Butterworth was Australia's largest and most enduring overseas military garrison in post-war Southeast Asia.
Home to the majority of Australian airpower for over three decades, Butterworth was also home to a vibrant Australian community. From 1955 until 1988, spanning the end of the British Empire and the start of the Cold War through to real engagement with Asia, more than 50,000 Australian servicemen and their families rotated through the Penang region of Malaysia for two-year tours of duty. These men, women and children lived full lives during their deployment, a bastion of Australianness in the midst of Malays, Chinese and Indians.
Kampong Australia explores the complex political genesis of the RAAF presence at Butterworth and shows what everyday life on and around the base was like. It charts the official policies and practices that framed the Australian encounter with the people and places of Penang, drawing on the recollections of those who were there.
This evocative and
at times personal
book shines a light on the complex, uneven and dynamic history of the Australian military presence in northern Malaysia and shows what it was like to be there.
Bill is one of the founders of Boffins and has been involved in selecting the books we stock since our beginning in 1989. His favourite reading is history, with psychology, current affairs, and business books coming close behind. His hobbies are reading, food, reading, drinking, reading, and sleeping.
My oldest brother served in Malaya in the Australian army during the emergency so this book took my interest. Although it’s about the RAAF base in Butterworth, it’s a fascinating story of Australians based overseas in the last days of the British Empire, of the Cold War, and of course the rise of an independent Malaysia. A perfect gift for anyone associated in some way with the 50,000 Australians and their families who served there between 1955 and 1958.
