Following Remembrance Day, Gary Hardgrave on 4BC Mornings speaks with Camp SMEAC founder Tim Cuming about how veterans converted a trashed 50-hectare site into an all-volunteer community offering emergency rehabilitation, medical care, and retraining to address the veteran suicide crisis. 

Cuming reveals their battle against systemic bureaucracy and funding shortfalls to self-sustain their operations, while passionately condemning the nationwide wave of vandalism targeting sacred war memorials.

Following Remembrance Day, Gary Hardgrave on 4BC Mornings speaks with Camp SMEAC founder Tim Cuming about how veterans converted a trashed 50-hectare site into an all-volunteer community offering emergency rehabilitation, medical care, and retraining to address the veteran suicide crisis. 
Cuming reveals their battle against systemic bureaucracy and funding shortfalls to self-sustain their operations, while passionately condemning the nationwide wave of vandalism targeting sacred war memorials.

Tune in to 4BC Mornings, weekdays from 9am-12pm.

Tune in to 4BC Mornings, weekdays from 9am-12pm.

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4BC Mornings with Gary Hardgrave

How one veteran turned an abandoned campsite into a lifeline for homeless soldiers

Join Gary Hardgrave on 4BC Mornings weekdays from 9:00am

Join Gary Hardgrave on 4BC Mornings weekdays from 9:00am

FULL SHOW: Listen back to 4BC Mornings with Gary Hardgrave, Friday November 13th, 2026

This week's edition of the Wokey Pokey!

After a devastating breakup and corporate burnout in 1995, 29-year-old Brisbane local John Ahern sold everything for a one-way ticket to post-apartheid Africa, only to face charging elephants, active landmines, and armed militia. 

His impulsive journey took a deadly turn in Kenya when a stranger drugged him with a piece of chocolate on a bus, landing him behind bars and caught in a capital punishment trial - a harrowing survival story he has now captured in his new memoir, The Last Bus to Lamu.

After a devastating breakup and corporate burnout in 1995, 29-year-old Brisbane local John Ahern sold everything for a one-way ticket to post-apartheid Africa, only to face charging elephants, active landmines, and armed militia. 
His impulsive journey took a deadly turn in Kenya when a stranger drugged him with a piece of chocolate on a bus, landing him behind bars and caught in a capital punishment trial - a harrowing survival story he has now captured in his new memoir,&nbsp;The Last Bus to Lamu.

How one veteran turned an abandoned campsite into a lifeline for homeless soldiers

4BC Mornings - Highlights

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