Civilian Heroes In Medal Fight

MORE THAN 60 years after the end of World War II, two Victorians who helped build a secure telephone line from Brisbane to Port Moresby are battling to receive a medal for their service. Albert Dunner and John MacGregor, both 86, were civilians working for the Post Master General's Department when they were called on to recover unused telegraph cables from Bass Strait and lay them beneath the Torres Strait and Gulf of Papua in 1943.