As instructed by the Air Pacific agent I contacted the LAX Australian embassy, and was directed by a very kind Aussie girl to the ETA department of the Australian embassy, I think it stands for Electronic Travel Authority, or Visa. I told them my story, my father is 83, not in the best of health and I really needed to see him for the obvious reasons.
The embassy sent me a "request for ETA" form, that asked about twenty of the questions you may suspect, employment, email, phone ##, who was I visiting, blah blah.
I faxed it to the LAX embassy, and was promised within three days I would have a response.
The first lady said "If you have a common name there can be a lot of confusion".
Well my name is common, tho I am not.
Then I contacted the airline to tell them what was happening and after thirty minutes on the phone, they agreed to hold my confirmed flight to Brisbane for the three days the Australian embassy will take to (maybe) allow me into their country.
The embassy agents seem to find this problem quite common, their response was routine so maybe I will be allowed to visit my father and my Aussie brother and sisters by the US government.
I admit I was pretty upset to know that my passport ## was put on a NO FLY list.
Well see.
Three weeks in Australia and six nights in Fiji do have a certain allure to them.