Farewell of Frank and Arantxa Alcorta Red Ruby Chinese Restaurant Nightcliff

23 February 1996

Farewell of Frank and Arantxa Alcorta by friends and colleagues held at the Red Ruby Chinese Restaurant Nightcliff. Francis Xavier aka Frank Alcorta was born a Basque migrating to Australia in 1960 “without a word of English, ten shillings in my pocket, a pair of strong shoulders and a willingness to work hard”. He prospected for opal, shot dingoes and kangaroos for bounty, built fences and did odd jobs in cattle stations in outback Queensland. Same year he joined the Australian Army; 4 years on 18 August 1966 he stepped off an APC into a swarm of enemy soldiers at the edge of a rubber plantation in Vietnam. He has been described by the ADF as "a legendary veteran of the Battle of Long Tan" with two operations by the Australian Army in Iraq named after him. Frank was Mentioned in Dispatches (MID) but controversially denied a recommended more senior bravery Award. Later he completed tertiary education at post graduate level and became an accomplished author. He wrote ‘A Trip to the Stone Age’ about his expedition across PNG from Vanimo to Daru “the first solo expedition across PNG”. Frank later became a teacher in Darwin, went on to be Press Secretary to the NT Chief Minister Paul Everingham. He wrote further books about the Top End, including ‘Explore Australia’s Northern Territory’. He went onto become News Limited’s senior political correspondent until his retirement in 1996. Father of 2 daughters married to Arantxa (since deceased). Frank was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia 2013 for ‘service to veterans and their families, and to journalism’.



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