Drawing a bead on past links
WESTERN Australia-based nurse Michelle Mitchell said it was a huge thrill to fire her grandfather’s old rifle — the first time it has been used in almost 50 years.
Ms Mitchell never met her grandfather, former Darwin police inspector Louis Clandon Hook, who was killed in a car accident at Pine Creek in 1967.
But a recent posting to the Top End has helped her piece together some strands of her family’s history.
Ms Mitchell’s desire to find out more about Inspector Hook led her to the Darwin Rifle Club, where her grandfather had been captain in the 1950s.
At the club she met Bob Dyer, who had kept Insp Hook’s 104-year-old Lithgow Lee Enfield 303 rifle for the past 45 years.
‘‘I remember listening to a few stories about him,’’ she said. ‘‘I’ve never been to Darwin, but it’s been really exciting just to find everything, even knowing things are very different now.’’
She said her mother, who was 18 when Insp Hook died, was in Darwin during Cyclone Tracy. Despite hearing stories about Tracy, she wasn’t worried about the arrival of Cyclone Alessia.