It is a RAAF B24 Liberator, A72-81, of 24 Squadron. It was shot down 75 years ago in Soemba Straight, west of Timor, on April 6, 1945. It was one of nine Liberators that attacked a Japanese cruiser force. Another 24 Squadron Liberator, A72-77 was also shot down.

Of the 22 men in the aircraft, only three survived. They were WOFF Shilling of A72-81 and WOFF Vickers and SGT Sayer of 72-77.

Not only did they have to escape from their burning aircraft and parachute into a rough sea, but the first Catalina to pick them up from the sea was also destroyed by enemy aircraft.

The survivors landed at RAAF Darwin nearly 18 hours after they had taken off from Fenton airfield.

The names of those who perished are recorded on the Roll of Honour at the AWM. Their sacrifice is also recognised at Adelaide River War Cemetery, Northern Territory.

My father, the navigator in A72-81, was one of the 19. I had intended to take my daughter and son to the Northern Territory on April 6 to honour the grandfather they never knew. COVID-19 intervened.

I dare not go to the memorial on Anzac Parade to lay a wreath as I would like to do.

Although I was only six, I well remember my mother, then living (with my younger brother and me) with her parents in Queensland, receiving the telegram advising her my father was missing in action.

I only learnt what happened when I read WOFF Shilling's story in George Odgers's Air War Against Japan 1943-45 when I was at RAAF Officer Training School in early 1966.

I know things are tough at the moment but it would be nice to see the ACT Government maintain the urban environment. Despite lodging a request through "fix my street" many weeks ago, the grass throughout Evatt, and I am sure a lot of other suburbs, is at waist height in some places. Please get the mowing teams back in action.

Also, it would be nice to see a moratorium and/or a reduction in caravan registration costs (with the ACT one of the highest charging jurisdictions for this fee in Australia) considering we are unable to travel at the moment.

Thank you, Jenna Price, for your optimism ("Time to love the one you're with", March 27, p27).

Jenna, I knew you would have the answer. Certainly I knew you would find a way to connect COVID-19 and sex. Good to know that Pornhub have "made its premium content free for the next month". As for "Zoom sex and intermittent connection" I have no words.

My greater concern is missing physical contact with my grandchildren. Yes, we FaceTime: I can see their smiles, curls and positive energy in action, but I miss holding them. I can see that the youngest grandchild has learned to crawl in the weeks since I have seen him and the older children are certainly more active and articulate.

Each grandchild is smiling, happy, and blissfully unaware of all the worries their parents are juggling. My backyard trampoline is dusty and still. The Duplo and Lego bricks are neatly packed in the correct boxes. The Matchbox cars are parked. The remote control car has not revved or whizzed an inch and the two wheeler bikes, with and without trainer wheels (bought on Gumtree from other doting grandparents) are languishing in the shed.

Yes, I have a pile of books to read, unfinished projects that need attention, letters to write and endless on-line experiences just waiting for me to connect but really, all I want to do is hold my children and grandchildren.

Jenna, you have to be right, "this will be over soon".

With many Canberrans probably planning the usual Easter migration to the coast, Sydney, or to visit grandma in the bush, we can anticipate a flattening out of new coronavirus cases in the ACT.

Don't get too excited though. The bounce back will be close behind when they return, having mixed with everyone else escaping their dreary lock-down.

What a shame we cannot just do what we are being told to do and stay at home; your real home, not the holiday cabin.

Parliament is of supreme importance to community confidence we have a democracy ("Parliament is essential and should be sitting", John Warhurst, April 2, p19).

However it will be hard for the current Prime Minister to allow Parliament to perform its role as he has been flexing his autocratic muscle. He seems to like his one-man-band style of government.

It seems that, as well as the postponement of a budget to October, the annual appropriation bill has been forgotten.

The speeches are propaganda: the appropriation is the legal mechanism by which government is authorised to spend taxpayers' money. Only the appropriation is essential.

It would be quite fun to have a Liberal/Coalition government sacked for spending without Parliamentary authority. But it would be much better for the community for government to allow Parliament to fulfill its role.

I am very concerned about the risks of COVID-19 for asylum seekers and refugees. Those in detention, both offshore and onshore, are particularly at risk.

Their health has often been compromised after years of incarceration. I know that there are already proposals to release some prisoners.

Detainees should be released immediately in order to prevent a further spread of the virus and to minimise the high level of risk to them.

On Monday, March 23, Parliament passed legislation to increase income support and extend its coverage. Asylum seekers, and other people on temporary visas (including international students), were not covered.

The minister has the power to extend coverage to any group. He should do so.

While south coastal communities have every reason to be fearful of COVID-19 because of their demographics, I think their fears should be directed at their fellow New South Welshmen rather than at Canberrans.

There is, as yet, no strong evidence of community transmission of the virus in Canberra. Canberrans going to the coast are highly unlikely to be taking the virus with them.

There has been a lot of community transmission in NSW. A possible perverse outcome is Canberrans holidaying in NSW could pick up the virus and bring it back with them. That's probably the better reason for Canberrans not to visit the coast.

Jeff Bradley, (Letters, April 2) the 93-year-old reigning constitutional monarch and head of state for Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom is (sensibly) lying low at Windsor Castle.

I can imagine the uproar if Queen Elizabeth II were "let loose" and had to be restrained as she banged her handbag on hospital doors demanding to comfort the sick and dying".

Helen M Goddard wrote to note the lack of letters supporting Jenna Price's opinion piece ("I will not be lectured on toilet paper by this man", canberratimes.com.au March 20), Letters 27 March p.12.

I fully support Jenna Price's opinion. I also am one of the many who have health issues which depend on having a reliable source of toilet paper.

Others may be critical of so-called hoarders, but are unaware (or uncaring) of others' genuine medical needs.

Arthur Hardy asks (Letters, March 20) why our politicians aren't sharing in the pain of coping with the hardships being imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

He need look no further than Victor Diskordia's letter in that edition. When it's all over they will have a level of control that they hardly dared dream of. And we'll sit still for it.

The coronavirus will be the least of our worries as we emerge into the Brave New World.

Jeff Bradley wonders where the Queen is (Letters, April 2). As her 94th birthday approaches, one hopes she is self-isolating.

There are too many kneejerk draconian measures of doubtful efficacy being used to deal with the pangolin pandemic. Temperature sensing technology should be used to screen people in public spaces, across borders and in toilet paper queues. We need effective ways to identify the carriers who walk among us.

Holidaymakers, and their fat wallets, were desperately wanted until now in "fire-ravaged" regional areas. Now they are bastards to be kept away to avoid burdening local medical services or introducing the virus. Make up your minds! Domestic tourists are apparently now marionettes at the beck and call of regional areas.

Carol Pountney's letter ("Tough for all", April 1) discussing complaints by returning travellers holed up in hotels at taxpayer expense, reminded me of Popeye, a hero of my younger days, who said "things are never so bad that they couldn't be worse". Where there's life, there's hope.

The pot is calling the kettle black. J R Ryan (Letters, April 2) why aren't you staying home and exercising in your home. If everyone walked the lake regularly, like you do, there would be hundreds on the foreshore.

Can you imagine the noise and fury from the right if a Labor government had introduced a $130 billion "JobKeeper" package on top of the measures already announced? "Rank socialism" they would scream.

Once this crisis is over the government should implement the NBN as originally proposed by Labor. It is now clear the sub-standard system inflicted on us by the Abbott government isn't up to the task with so many people now working from home. Our society is now heavily dependent on a reliable, speedy, internet.

When The Canberra Times reported the ACT Budget was going south, I thought Andrew Barr had finally decided to give money in an election year to the region of Canberra that he has traditionally ignored. Alas, I was wrong.

A recent letter writer bemoaned the use of "signalising" to tell us that new traffic lights would be installed in Holt. On consulting our Oxford English Dictionary (Third edition, 1944) I discovered this verb was used as early as 1654.

Does Scott Morrison still believe in miracles? His election must now seem like an answer from the Delphic oracle.

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