Rene 'Dikko' Dikkenberg
Dikko is a graduate of Port Moresby HighSchool and joined the Royal Australian Survey Corps in the early 1970s. His maths skills weren’t all that great but the recruiters seemed impressed by the fact that he can speak English, Dutch and Melanesian Pidgin. He went on 14 Mapping Operations and received the Australian Service Medal for service in Papua New Guinea. His surveying duties took him to where no white man had ever been and he lived amongst the head-hunting tribesmen in the upper reaches of the Nomad River. Following jungle paths he accessed their villages with 30 native porters behind him carrying his gear. Snakes and crocodiles and villages riddled with leprosy made for an interesting time.
He has served with the Army News for over 20 years. His cartoon strip ‘On The Ball’ was also in the Sports Pages of the Adelaide News and he illustrated the book ‘Understanding Cricket’, which sold out when first published in 1985 and again in 2006. He has drawn just about everyone including the Governor General. Radio also had its appeal and he wrote 12 radio serials which were read in peak time Breakfast Radio when the station had 40% of the listening audience or 400,000 people. On Saturdays he also did live radio broadcasts at the local football and a summary of the matches live to air.
Poetry has always been an interest and many of his poems have been published. The best known being ‘Silent Voices’ which appears on the title page of the book of the same name. For the last five years he has considered himself exceedingly fortunate to be associated with SASR.