The women who camped on Stockton beach to protect the harbour from the bombs of WWII

Valerie Blackett had perhaps the most important wartime job in Australia.

A few days after her 18th birthday, Valerie Jean Blackett walked from Victoria Barracks to Central Station as an enlisted woman, bound for service as a gunner protecting the Newcastle Harbour from encroaching Japanese submarines and aircraft.

She remembers them looking like a gaggle of peacocks walking down the streets of Haymarket, some in high heels, some in flat shoes, some wearing hats, and "everyone calling out 'you'll be sorry!' all the way down to Central".