From Melbourne to Mudgee is a long way but this biography, like its writer, was born in Melbourne - and both are now in Mudgee.
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"I was a nine-year-old, just escaped from three years in boarding school in Geelong," Tony Macdougall recalls.
"When I found myself in Melbourne living next door to Australia's most famous naval hero and his family - Vice-Admiral Sir John Collins, who was famous as wartime Captain of the cruiser HMAS Sydney when he had led her in 1940 through more than 80 actions without losing a single man in battle.
"He was by then Chief of Naval Staff, the top post in the Navy, and from my earliest years I can remember what a warm-hearted man he was - and an impressive one, particularly when he departed for his duties each morning in full uniform.
"I hadn't seen anything before that was as impressive as a vice-admiral under full sail. Since my schooldays I've had a fascination in naval history and during a life in publishing I kept a hopeful lookout for a biography of this famous man, as John Collins' life encompassed almost a century of Australian naval history and he had lived through some of the most dramatic episodes of the Second World War.
"But none appeared. So, many years ago, I asked his widow and his daughter if they would allow me to write his biography, using any personal papers he had left. But being a naval officer, he had kept nothing - making it a rather hard task for a biographer.
"It helps to explain why the book has taken twenty years to research and write whenever I could grab time between writing or producing other books, but the end result reveals what an outstanding man he was, and the book has grown from 240 pages to almost 600."
Collins was in the first Class of Midshipmen to graduate from our Naval College in 1916 and after leaving command of his beloved Sydney, which was lost in battle several months later, he commanded naval forces in Malaya and Java during the savage Japanese onslaught of 1941-42.
He was grievously wounded in 1944 in the battle off the Philippines, became the RAN's top sailor, finishing his career as a diplomat, and living to the age of 90.
"He has been described as the Royal Australian Navy's greatest son and his name is commemorated in the RAN'S strike force - the Collins-class submarines; this would have made him smile; as a young officer he wouldn't bear the thought of serving in submarines," Tony said. "He loved the open air, the wind and the stars."
Tony Macdougall is married to the glass artist Veronica Burns who was born in Mudgee and they've lived in the town for 10 years.
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