Hero, big spender for a state, begins to cool his heels

Press, 12 April 1989, Page 21

Hero, big spender for a state, begins to cool his heels

During the national two-week manhunt which ended with his capture in a Perth suburb on April 5, the one-time hero who called himself Johann Friedrich probably became Australia’s most discussed fugitive since Ned Kelly. Almost every day brings a new revelation about Friedrich, who has the Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to the community and who transformed a Victoria state benevolent society . into an international search-and-rescue Organisation. It became an almost paramilitary force with an array of highpowered, high-tech equipment — including a yellow submarine — apparently modelling itself on the TV puppet adventure series “Thunderbirds.” But allegations of doctored accounts, spying and speculation about links with the C.I.A. have been levelled at Friedrich. The latest and perhaps most damning suggestion comes from West German police who say his photograph bears a strong resemblance to a Bavarian embezzler called Friedrich Hohenberger who vanished in 1974 shortly before his employers, a road maintenance company, discovered they were $260,000 poorer. Friedrich always dates his arrival in Australia via New Zealand as 1975.

than the fact that his rescue organisation was close to the military and so well equipped that it was supposed it was secretly funded. Liquidators closed down the Victorian Division of the National Safety Council of Australia late last month with the immediate loss of almost 400 jobs, and the most recent assessment of its outstanding debts is about $3OO million, the biggest creditor being the state bank which lent $l5O million. This figure is expected to get bigger as more loans are discovered from foreign banks. According to one member of the board, Friedrich had a happy knack of persuading banks to be generous by getting them to peruse a false debtors’ ledger he had concocted showing all the money owned by regular clients. There is, to say the least, confusion about how much Friedrich got away with personally. Some people think that $6O million is not too high an estimate. Others are convinced they are not dealing with a master criminal but a Walter Mitty. According to them, Friedrich, who has. three children by his Australian wife, saw himself at the head of the kind of international rescue operation that might have been modelled on “Thunderbirds.” It ended up with more aircraft than some Third World air forces.

He found an engineering job ' and an Australian wife at a remote mission station where he is best remembered for drilling the Aborigine labourers like infantry. Recently a gentleman with a blacked-out face appeared on a TV programme here and confessed that he had assisted Friedrich in what appeared to be espionage. He claimed he was the pilot of a light aircraft which had made several unauthorised low-level sorties over sensitive military installations throughout Australia while Friedrich took dozens of photographs. This tended to hit on the head speculation that the German had worked for the C.I.A. or the Australian secret services. These rumours started a couple of years ago and appear to be based on nothing more tangible

One of its more exotic acquisitions was a midget submarine painted bright yellow. “He was borrowing from Peter to pay Paul,” explained Maxwell Eise, a retired industrialist who was president of the eight-man board which was supposed to oversee Friedrich’s activities. “I used to

COLIN SMITH writes from Melbourne about the man of mysterious background who set up a “Thunderbirds” - style rescue service which has run up debts of $3OO million.

get under his skin because I used to ask basic questions like ‘Where’s the money coming from’?” A bald, chunky figure with a full beard, he found it hard to make small talk and said very little about himself. He said he had been born at a small mining town and cattle station in northern South Australia to German parents who had resettled in Germany where he had studied civil engineering.

His employees respected him for his hard work — seven-day weeks were quite common — and his courage. In 1981, a year before he took over as head of operations, he was given an award for the part he played as a helicopter crewjnan in an offshore rescue.

included spotting marijuana plantations. The board was so pleased that by 1986 Friedrich had been made chief executive and was able to get on with the financial side of things without bothering the heads of the distinguished retirees above him. Now almost all the restraints were off, and Friedrich could not stop spending. The yellow submarine came on board. A pilot whom Friedrich admired was suddenly presented with a Porsche. There were plans for a huge air-sea rescue simulator tank to be built where winchmen would,practise plucking survivors from foaming seas.

In the space of six years Friedrich fulfilled his dream. He turned the Victoria Division of the N.S.C.A., which when he joined them as a humble site safety officer in 1977 had one aircraft to its name, into ’an international search, rescue and fire-fighting force. It had a fleet of 32 aircraft, and negotiations were in progress to buy four small military transport planes from Spain. Apart from the yellow submarine, it operated a mobile redecompression chamber for divers suffering from the bends. There were paramedics trained to jump with Alsatian tracker dogs strapped to their chests. There were high-speed self-righting rescue boats, a training yacht, horses for bush rescue and nine carrier pigeons. He arranged for some N.S.C.A. aircraft and crews to Spend the Australian winter fighting bush fjres in Canada. There are also firefighting contracts with France, Corsica and Spain. In Australia itself the N.S.C.A. had taken on an almost paramilitary aura. This is something Friedrich encouraged by making snap uniform inspections and ticking off people with long hair, much to the amusement of the considerable number of ex-service men in the organisation, a few of them American and British. Boxes of service rifle ammunition have been discovered at the N.S.C.A.’s old headquarters in the country town of Sale about 150 miles from Melbourne. Friedrich won a contract worth almost $7 million to provide air-sea rescue cover at three Australian Air Force bases. He also liked to make helicopters available for police work,

When the auditors began to raise doubts, Friedrich doctored their reports so that it would look as though the accounts had been passed without qualification. However, Maxwell Eise remained suspicious. He began to mount his own investigation and came up with one important discrepancy. On the handwriten curriculum vitae Friedrich had given the council when he was made chief executive he stated he was born on September 9, 1945, at Mount Davies, which he had misspelt as "Davis.” On his marriage certificate he declared he had been born in Munich on September 9, 1950. Even then Eise did not suspect the worst. He thought Friedrich might simply be an illegal immigrant. . Friedrich, or Hohenberger as he is known to the West German police, was seen on March 21 at a motel on the border between the states of Victoria and New South Wales. He was seen carrying several N.S.C.A. duffle bags. It was not known what was in them,

The Governor-General’s office in Melbourne has let it be known that if Mr Friedrich is not an Australian citizen he will be stripped of the Order of Australia.

Copyright London Observer