The First Koala in Space

The First Koala in Space is a random collection of memories of retired journalist John Lombard. Born, 'bred and buttered' in Ireland, John escaped to Australia in 1966 as a 23-year-old economic refugee in search of a new life.

He found it initially in Melbourne, in Canberra, in Singapore, then as the first resident Australian correspondent in Moscow, where he opened a bureau for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1988.

He writes of his education at a private school in England which led seamlessly into a life-long love affair with France and the French way of life. Another more difficult love affair with Russia and the Russian people followed.

John writes of his personal travels as a journalist covering historic events in the former New Hebrides, now Vanuatu, and the former Portuguese territory of East Timor, which as Timor-Leste became the first new sovereign state of the 21stcentury.

He recounts drinking with the great grandson of Charles Dickens, making two visits to Chernobyl, in Ukraine, scene of a major nuclear disaster, and two visits to Norilsk, the world's northernmost city inside the Arctic circle and home to some of the largest nickel deposits on earth.