In 1999, myself, the wife and kids went to Melbourne for a holiday. We nearly bankrupted ourselves doing it, but sure you only live once. 

Anyway, the guy we were staying with was a Derry man, David Connolly, who had emigrated in the 1960s and, to put it mildly, was a bit of a character.

One day he must have been bored so he suggested we drive to Queensland for a bit of craic. Sure it was only 1,100 miles up the road…

And off we went. 

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It was a warm day, and driving on a road that literally didn’t have a single bend was both tiring and boring so we decided, after about four hours, we needed to get off the highway and stop for a coffee at the next village. 

I can’t remember its name now but it really was in the middle of nowhere. 

We went into this café where there was an absolute giant of a man behind the counter. He was about 6ft 9in tall and 30 stones.

That alone made it memorable, but that was just the first thing. 

During our conversation he explained that he was of Italian origin and asked where we were from. 

When we told him Derry, or that he might know it as ‘Londonderry’, he immediately remarked that he knew of the place. 

He said: “There were two guys from the RUC in Londonderry in........

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