RINGO Newsletter
RINGO Newletter is the Official 2RAR Association Newsletter that gets distributed every 4 months to all financial members via email or mail. To ensure that you remain connected please advise of updated email address so that RINGO can be passed on.
It is the Associations preferred method that RINGO is sent to members by electronic means.
IF you have not received your RINGO and you are a financial member then please contact the Assocation at [email protected]
History of 2 RAR RINGO:
RINGO was originally published as an official magazine but later became an underground or unofficial newsletter. It was first published in 1966 on Exercise Phoenix by a serving 2 RAR soldier SSGT Hoare.
The name coming from the Battalion tune "RINGO". After the EX concluded, the then CO, LTCOL Rofe, decided that RINGO would be the official unit magazine. Since its inception, RINGO has been published at irregular intervals and has no laid down directives as to what may or may not be published.
RINGO was initially produced in Enoggera in 1966. Subsequent editions were then produced during service in South Vietnam and back in Townsville.
Just prior to 2 RAR linking, in 1973 the last Ringo produced at the time quoted:
"Let us not be too tearful as "RINGO" will be the same as the Phoenix and rise out of the ashes in the future. The Ringo publishing company will just be having a spell and at the appropriate time will publish another paper for the unit,
After linking as 2/4 RAR, RINGO was again risen out of the ashes but under the new name ‘The Samichon’ in the 1990s. The Samichon was produce on and off during this time before famously being brought back during 2 RARs deployment to INTERFET in East Timor. These editions now became more popular in particular during operations where new editions would be produced in subsequent deployments to East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The last known publication of "The Real Samichon" concluded in 2016. This is the last time the sometimes official and other times covert magazine was produced ending the un/official magazine from the Battalion.
History of the Association RINGO Newsletter:
The 2 RAR Association was formed in 1989 at Twin Towns. QLD and its communication paper was called ‘The 2nd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment Association Newsletter’. By 1992 it had become Incorporated and INC was added to the name,
In 2000, the first edition was produced by Bob Downey and was now called ‘The 2 RAR Association Chronicle’. In 2006, two ‘Interim Newsletters’ were produced by the Secretary Ric Hollingdrake, and this now saw South Vietnam veterans taking positions on the Committee. The following newsletters produced by Ric were called ‘The Second Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment, INC Newsletter’. Then in 2013 with most positions now made up of South Vietnam Veterans, the Newsletter was renamed ‘Ringo’ which now continues. The South Vietnam veterans ran the Association and the Newsletter till 2020 in the Brisbane area.
The 2 RAR Association RINGO Newsletter continues to this day and are sent out every 4 months to financial members of the Association usually around Mar - Jul - Nov each year.
This Newsletter is the Official Newsletter of the 2 RAR Association, INC and is not related to the RINGO or The Samichon that were produced by Battalion members mostly during deployments overseas. Over 160 Association Newsletters have been produced during this time.
The Association encourages veterans to provide their story of service to be published in RINGO and any feedback on articles that they would like to see added to each edition
