
On Gallant Wings
On Gallant Wings
Helen Edwards
Riveted Press, 2025
288pp., pbk., RRP $A17.99
9781763526051
Darwin, December 1941. Even though her dad is a navigator for the RAAF and is stationed somewhere overseas, for 12-year-old Ava the war is a distant thing and she goes about her daily life with her mum and older brother Fred, playing with her best friend Kazuo, whose dad was born in Japan, and raising her pet pigeons. She lives by her own self-imposed rules and rituals and her greatest delight is watching the progress of her new chick Essie, her favourite pigeon, who is already showing signs of leadership, ready for her first flight early. while dodging Billy the Bully is her greatest fear. Life is okay, under the circumstances – until it isn’t.
Fred lies about his age so he can join up and “do his bit” and is to be sent to training camp shortly; Pearl Harbour is bombed by the Japanese and Kazuo and his family are sent to an internment camp, even though both Kazuo and his mother were born in Australia; and then Darwin, itself, is bombed and Ava and her mum barely escape with their lives. Forced to evacuate, Ava and her mum join the other families in making the long and arduous trip south to stay with Grandma Dot and Grandpa RaRi in Lake Boga near Swan Hill, Victoria, a town as different from Darwin as it could be. And such a change means a new set of rules -including the one about making no new friends because everyone leaves anyway. Yet despite the difference in location, the war follows Ava, both in reality as a secret Catalina flying-boat maintenance base is built on the lake and her mother joins the WAAAF and works at the base, and in her head as the sights and sounds of the bombing continue to haunt her. Infrequent letters, heavily censored, keep her in touch with her dad and Fred who is now with the Signals Directorate working with Essie and the other pigeons in preparation for deployment to New Guinea and despite her rule not to make friends because friends leave and heartache follows, she teams up with Pete, Jenny and Stevo and with school and swimming in the lake, watching the Catalinas and the pelicans, there is a semblance of normality again. That is, until her life is turned upside down when Kazuo appears in the dead of night having escaped from the family internment camp, terrified of being send to the single men’s camp where Japanese prisoners of war will see him as a traitor to their nation. Ava is torn between helping him and living by her rules of telling no lies to her grandparents… Can she find a way through her ethical dilemma so she doesn’t break her grandparents’ trust, can keep Kazuo safe and yet remain true to her self?
Written by Ava, and interspersed with those precious letters, this is an intriguing and engaging story for independent readers about a little-known period of Australian history. While even our youngest have a sketchy knowledge of why we commemorate ANZAC Day, the wars and the conflict and upheaval they caused, are fading into the memories of even their great-grandparents now and the stories of the children’s lives of the time are disappearing. Life before the internet is tricky to remember, let alone life before television, and so a war fought in a time when soldiers had to roll cable out through the jungle and rely on carrier pigeons for communication is almost unimaginable and so this is an important story for giving today’s readers a glimpse into a life that was very real for their great-grandparents, and ultimately influenced who they, themselves, are. (My own grandchildren proudly volunteer as flag bearers each ANZAC Day at the Australian War Memorial, commemorating the service of their great-grandfathers, grandfathers and other family members, continuing that contribution to community through their Scouting activities.) Meticulously researched, it also fills in gaps for those of us who are older but whose parents chose not to talk about their wartime experiences – too raw, too scary and too incomprehensible if you weren’t there and didn’t live through it. It may even spark an interest in investigating personal family histories, or perhaps the story of someone whose name is etched on the town’s war memorial.
As well as Ava’s own experiences, there are also broader issues that can be discussed and explored such as the automatic internment of those Australians deemed to be enemies because of their heritage; the secrecy surrounding the devastation of Darwin; even the impact of PTSD on children and how seemingly unrelated events can cause triggers. More general teaching notes following these themes and others, including the uncensored letters, are available here.
Through Essie, Tommy and the other pigeons, we also learn about the role they and other animals have played in wars -so many more than Simpson’s donkey – and those with an interest can not only read about the Dickin Medal which was awarded to Essie, but can also read more in Pidge’s Poppies and Wear a Purple Poppy.
Given the unpredictability of today’s world, the 24/7 news cycle and television and the internet bringing the world’s conflict into our students’ lounge rooms, many are feeling great anxiety about their future so want to escape into fantasy adventure where they have the power to control events, but with carefully selected historical fiction such as this, we can show them that previous generations have faced just as dire circumstances and come through – challenged and changed, but resourceful and resilient – and that there is hope for them too. Humanity will prevail.

“Rat on wings”: the little pigeon that won a gallantry medal