TOLD for the first time, the story of the Peter Badcoe Club, 1ALSG, Back Beach, Vung Tau, South Vietnam. Amid the mayhem of the war, the Australian Army took over a beach and built a refuge where the Diggers could put aside their weapons.

IT was Australia’s own stretch of the South China Sea, where the soldiers had surfboards, the lifeguards had guns, and everybody had a good time. There was a swimming pool named after a prime minister who drowned, and a bar named after a remarkable Victoria Cross winner.

THIS book has brought together stories from the men who built the club and worked there, the men and women who went there, and never-before-opened Army records. Packed with classic photographs -- most in colour -- from the veterans themselves and the Australian War Memorial archives. By Queensland writer Stuart Scott, author of ``Noosa: Surfing the '60s’’.

THIS is a 128-page softcover book, B5-size (24cm by 17cm). First edition, 2009: Only 1000 have been published.