A group of Vietnam War veterans, led by an Outback survival expert known as the Bush Tucker Man, has illegally occupied a remote part of northern Australia.
The small band of veterans is demanding the establishment of a retreat for ex-soldiers who still carry the mental and physical scars of their wartime experiences and are prone to high levels of suicide.
The retreat, which even has a military-style codename, Project Pandanus, is the brainchild of Major Les Hiddins, who served two tours of duty in Vietnam and rose to fame in the 1980s as the presenter of a television series called The Bush Tucker Man.
The popular programme followed Major Hiddins travelling around Australia's remotest areas demonstrating the delights of 'bush tucker' - food found growing naturally in the wild.
Major Hiddins, 55, who will be discharged from the Australian army reserve next week, said: 'The idea behind the retreat is to give our blokes somewhere to go where they don't have to be under the eyes of a national park ranger or anyone else in authority.
'A lot of them got terribly knocked about during the war and they're dying much earlier than the World War II veterans.'
About 20 veterans are living at the camp, situated on a vacant cattle property in the wild and rugged Cape York peninsula, in northern Queensland.