Our Freddy at the 'most significant political demonstration to ever take place in Illawarra.

As i already know Fred Wong was a politically active member of the NSW Chinese community, and along with other 'wharfies' protested the sale of pig iron to Japan at the Port 'Kembla Picket'.

This information takes our subject out of the mass of information surrounding his Sydney based activities into the clearer world of regional events. My first thought was; The Illawarra Mercury!, it must have some articles on the protests at Port Kembla so that i can find out a bit more about it. ......So off to Wollongong City Library i go.

Well this is my first experience of using microfilm, and unbeknown to me you can't wonder up tot he library with no real idea of the date of the event you are looking for and expect it to pop up on the screen. In fact the Librarian had a good giggle when she realised that i didn't actually know which month this so called picket happened in (well all the books just gave a year!). After some further research, however i made an informed guess that as the picket started in 1938 and the 'wharfies' were back to work in 1939, it must have taken place in December of 1938.

So here i go ploughing through 'News from England'....'Women's column' and 'Dapto doings' to find some relevant information.