ADCA - Australian Defence Colleges Association

YOLLA JOURNAL

The ADCA has published an annual journal, Yolla, since 1972.  This journal is distributed to all Weston Creek graduates and Directing Staff, Defence libraries, The National Library of Australia, Canberra-based Defence Advisers and Attachés, and Australian Defence Advisers and Attachés overseas and the Patron and Vice-Patrons.

The ADCA Journal ‘Yolla’ contains information on significant events at the ADC, Alumni achievements, Alumni gatherings in Australia and overseas, select papers by Course members and promotions and other relevant upated information on graduates.  The journal have provided a valuable historical record of the College/s and is a valuable means of keeping overseas members in touch with events at the ADC and with Association affairs.

The Editor of Yolla is a voluntary position undertaken by a member of the Association.  For many years the Editor was Jerry Bishop who did an excellent job until his retirement in 2003. A new volunteer Editor, Mr Brian Hewitt, was not found until 2006 and a journal was published that year. The intention was to publish annually however, this was not possible in 2007 and the next edition was not published till July 2008.

WHY YOLLA?

The Yolla was originally the avifauna emblem of the Joint Services Wing (JSW) Association and not of the Wing itself.  It was put forward at the JSW Association Annual General Meeting held on 8th December 1971, when the selection of an emblem for the Association was still unresolved.  Although the supporting Agendum included no attribution to its author, an item published subsequent to the decision to adopt it as the emblem of the JSWA suggests that it was based on a paper by a renowned ornithologist of the time, Dr D. L. Serventy (then late of the CSIRO).

In July the following year, the first students from other than Australia and New Zealand were inducted at Weston Creek and the JSW was renamed the Australian Joint Services Staff College (JSSC).
Hence Yolla became not only the emblem but also the name of the journal of the renamed JSSC Association.  It continues in those roles as the journal name and emblem of the Australian Defence Colleges Association (ADCA).

Its selection was championed by one of the Joint Services Staff College’s earliest Directing Staff, (the late) Captain Peter Rees, RAN (graduate of JSW Course 3/71 and DS for JSW Courses 4/71 to 5/72 and JSSC Course 6/72).

Its scientific name is Puffinus tenuirostris, which is capable of knotting most tongues.  Fortunately, it has several more common names including Short-tailed Shearwater and Tasmanian Mutton bird; but the one which the Association chose to use was its aboriginal name - Yolla.

It is a bird which is not only uniquely Australian, in that it breeds only in southern Australia (including the offshore islands of southern New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia - but primarily the Bass Strait islands), it is also unusual for its prodigious maritime patrols throughout much of the North Pacific (as far as the Bering Strait), its habit of nesting underground, and its assiduous care of its young.  All of which make it eminently suitable as the emblem of the graduates of an Australian Joint Service institution.

It is the emblem which appears on the cover of this journal, the Association’s tie, and is also available for sale to members as a sterling silver lapel pin.

DOWNLOAD

2006 YOLLA PDF

2008 YOLLA PDF

2009 YOLLA PDF