Bugging classrooms with Julian Assange: A classmate remembers

One of those boys, Nigel Somerville went on to a career in the military. The other was Julian Assange, who gained notoriety when he published classified US Government documents on WikiLeaks.

The classroom was at Goolmangar School, near Lismore, and the boys' shared love of electronics meant they quickly became friends at the small school of about 28 kids.

Nigel is quick to point out the surveillance of the teacher had the blessing of the principal, Mr King, but he was not surprised when decades later, Julian hit the headlines.

"He was a smart kid," Nigel said. "He was very good at maths and he was interested in a few things that I was interested in - things like electronics."

He concedes he may be responsible for leading the covert bugging of his teacher.

Nigel and his sister Penny recall the principal had an unusual style of encouraging learning.

"Mr King encouraged all sorts of innovation in our schooling. He was the best teacher," Penny said.

She remembers Julian coming to the school that was a mix of kids from farming and alternative families - not unusual given it's 15 minutes from post-Aquarius Nimbin.

"We called him 'Jules', and he seemed like a pretty typical quirky kind of hippy kid", she said.

"He didn't seem out of the ordinary to what we already had in the cohort."

Nigel vividly remembers being introduced to the concept of seaweed sandwiches by Julian.

"I gave it a go," he says. "Because you had to. Steak and three veg to seaweed was interesting."

Nigel also remembers being the sole invitee to a Julian's tenth birthday party.

"It was a sleep-over event in Terania St, Lismore. There were a lot of puppets around," he said.

"His grandfather gave me a lift home. He was the dean of the College of Advanced Education."

Nigel also won a school raffle, winning a kite made by Julian's mother.

"It had some fairly funky eyes on it, I remember that," he said.

Unfortunately, after years of flying, the kite was thrown away.

Penny remembers Julian leaving just as quickly as he arrived, and didn't hear about him again until the WikiLeaks scandal broke.

Penny said her mum, Jennifer, a well respected former newspaper journalist, pointed out to her that Julian was one of their former school mates.

Nigel, however, had become aware of the actions of the WikiLeaks founder through his work in electronic surveillance, and wasn't surprised by the scandal.

"I had heard of WikiLeaks, and heard this guy was running the show. I wasn't super-surprised," Nigel said.

When asked about his thoughts on Julian Assange's imminent return to Australia after agreeing to a deal with the US Government, Nigel said, "it's about time."

"I was always a bit cranky about what he went through. He was basically the fall guy. It was easy to pin it on him.

"As soon as he released it (the classified information), and I believe he sat on it for three months, all the major news agencies released it anyway. It was a bit crazy.

"It was an interesting part of my life," Nigel said of his friendship with Julian. "You never expect that sort of thing to blow up as much as it did."

People on the Northern Rivers had supported Julian Assange's bid for freedom for years, and in 2020, Lismore became the first New South Wales council to call for his release.

Today, Julian Assange is on his way home.