With My Little Eye: The incredible true story of a family of spies in the suburbs by Sandra Hogan

Author:Sandra Hogan [Hogan, Sandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non-Fiction, Biography, History, Intelligence & Espionage, Australia
ISBN: 9781761061158
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2021-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

While the women chatted and watched and waited, Dudley took ‘Jack’ fishing in the river, in a small boat with Mark. Mark was a quiet boy, and he didn’t disturb them; these days he can’t remember what the men spoke about. Jack was a country boy—he had started his career as an apprentice blacksmith in Siberia—and Dudley loved the Australian bush. Perhaps they talked about farming as well as fishing. And both of them had made or mended guns when they were young, so they may have chatted about guns and ammunition. Or perhaps they were silent, as fishermen often are. Jack’s English was not as good as Peewee’s and it was a strain for him to speak in English for too long.

In the evenings, Jack and Peewee could be together upstairs, but Peewee often slipped down to join the Dohertys for dinner while Jack went to the pub. She didn’t like being at home when he came back drunk and she felt comfortable with Dudley, Joan and the children.

Surfers Paradise was seen as a raunchy, happening sort of place at the time. There was a new local fashion of people going to the pub in their pyjamas and people were both more casual and more exotic than in Brisbane. But it was still a small town and it is interesting to wonder what the locals would have made of this gruff Soviet, drinking heavily and talking loudly in a mix of Russian and English—especially as his face had been in the newspapers regularly over the previous few years, and Cold War fears were still alive.

One night Jack was very drunk and got lost on his way home from the pub. He knocked on the door of somebody else’s house, then panicked and told them who he was. The neighbours told him how to get back to the house, but they rang a newspaper as soon as he’d left. Jack does not seem to have been a very good spy. Joan was certain then that it was his wife who had the brains, and who was the real catch for ASIO.

Dudley got a phone call from another agent who tipped him off that the press was on their trail. The agent told him to go to a safe house in Redcliffe, a bayside holiday town just north of Brisbane city, but to lose the press who would be following in a car.

Both families had been living out of their suitcases. Sue-Ellen still lives out of her suitcase when she goes on holidays—she grew up thinking that’s what you did. They quickly heaved their luggage into the two ASIO FJ Holdens, and divided the families into two groups, making sure the Petrovs were separated. Joan didn’t drive at that time, so there must have been another ASIO agent there to drive the second car. Having ASIO agents around, even on holidays, was nothing special.

The distance from Surfers Paradise to Redcliffe is 110 kilometres, and normally it would take two hours of careful driving to get there.

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