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COLD WAR ESPIONAGE IN THE SUBURBS
The Suburban Australian Widow Who Became a Spy
The story of Anne Neill
Anne Neill was a church-going, middle-aged widow from suburban Adelaide. She was also a secret agent for the newly-formed Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). This softly-spoken woman in her 50s was the first ASIO agent to enter “enemy territory”, i.e., the USSR.
By today’s standards, Anne looks quite old for someone in her 50s. Her white hair was short and curled. She wore floral dresses and beaded necklaces. A grandma. Anne’s ASIO handler referred to her as a “fluttery old lady”.
But there was a lot more to Anne than met the eye.
“In the 1950s, she played the part of the perfect housewife: inconspicuous and softly spoken, with a penchant for baked goods and community gatherings. But the middle-aged Adelaide widow was in fact one of ASIO’s most effective penetrative agents, known as a ‘sparrow’.” ABC Radio National
Anne believed in Christianity and the British Empire. She also believed in world peace, a belief strengthened after her husband, Roy, died prematurely from the gas poisoning he experienced during the First World War.
Anne was also fervently anti-communist.
There’s a red under your bed
With the end of the Second World War and the arrival of the Cold War, fear of communism in Australia reached obsessive levels. Communists, or “reds”, lurked everywhere. Honest Australian citizens needed to be vigilant.
The conservative Menzies Government (1949–1966) promoted this “Red Scare”. They supported America on pretty much everything when it came to the Cold War and anti-communist activities. Australia committed troops to the Korean War, and later, to the Vietnam War.
And 1950s Australia had extra cause for concern. The country’s proximity to Asia created fear of the domino effect whereby Asian countries would fall to communism country by country, eventually reaching Australia.
