Sky was the limit for Archie Shields

Tongala honoured Sir Doug’s time with the club by naming a lane into its recreation reserve after him.

Sir Doug went on to be a pastor of the Church of Christ faith and an activist for his people. But his biggest and most prestigious public honour came in 1976 when on the nomination of the then South Australian Premier Don Dunstan he became the Governor of South Australia.

He was the first indigenous person to serve as governor of an Australian state and the only indigenous person to hold vice-regal office.

Another former Tongala footballer — who never received the publicity or accolades he earned and deserved — was a man called Archibald Shields.

Born in Kyabram in 1914 Shields, affectionately referred to as Archie or Arch, grew up in the challenging years of the Great Depression, but his family was still able to provide him with a sound education.

He was a talented young sportsman who excelled at football and played with Tongala Football Club in the early 1930s.

By 1937 he was employed as a teacher with the Victorian Department of Education, and was starring at weekends as a key forward for the Teachers Training College football side.He was so good in his role as a goal-kicking half-forward Carlton recruited him.

But after two years with the Blues and 19 senior games in which he kicked 19 goals, war was looming and he volunteered for active service.

This put him on a path to an auspicious wartime flying career with the RAAF Meteorology Service.

During his pilot training course, Shields developed a real interest in the science of meteorology, which he would follow for the rest of his life.

Shields graduated as a pilot officer early in 1940, a year after World War 11 started.

He secured a posting to the RAAF Meteorology Service in Dutch (West) Timor, and began flying specially equipped aircraft (usually twin-engined Hudson Bombers) that collected weather data vital to strategic planning.

Shields had a number of close shaves during bombing and strafing attacks by Japanese planes, but survived to be promoted to squadron leader.

The closest of his closest shaves has been told by author Tom Trumble in an absorbing book called Rescue at 2100 hours — the untold story of the most daring escape of the Pacific War.

Trumble is a cousin of former Geelong Football Club premiership captain Tom Harley and his book centres on the escape of their grandfather Bryan Rofe with 25 of his original command of 29 from Japanese-occupied Timor early in World War II.

Trumble also recently released a podcast with the Australian War Memorial called Trapped recounting the amazing escape.

By 1944 Shields was a senior member of a joint Australian-American reconnaissance, planning an air support network known as the First Tactical Air Force. It successfully planned and co-ordinated all the airborne operations for the amphibious landings at Tarakan, Brunei and Balikpapan in the last months of the war.

For his outstanding contribution to all of these successful operations, Shields was mentioned in dispatches.

At the end of the war, Shields joined the weather bureau, and in 1972 was awarded a MBE for developing Australia’s cyclone warning system.

He continued his fascination with the vagaries of weather and joined the Bureau of Meteorology in Brisbane. He worked there until 1954, when he was appointed deputy director of the bureau in Hobart.

In 1959 he was back in Brisbane as deputy director and fine-tuned his excellent warning system through a number of destructive cyclones, including Ada, Althea, Dinah and Wanda — the last of which caused the record Brisbane floods of 1974.

Shields retired from the bureau in 1977 and spent the later years of his life contributing to Rotary clubs.

Friends, however, said Shields always claimed his greatest community service came with his 19 games for Carlton.

Married to Marjorie and the father of four children, Shields died at the St Andrew's War Memorial Hospital, Spring Hill in Brisbane, on August 25, 1995, aged 81.