Carefree War

by Ann Howard

  A friend Jean from the Riverina was booked to go to PLC in Pymble, but as the war worsened, her parents opted for PLC in Goulburn instead. Another friend Heather, had cousins evacuated from their inner Sydney suburb to live with them. Girls from farming families who had been sent to Sydney schools were brought back to the Goulburn area. Numerous girls who were day pupils at Sydney schools were sent to board. My main recollection is of St Gabriel’s College, Waverley, coming and being accommodated at the old Bishopsthorpe. The monks there had been transferred or joined the armed services as chaplains. With clothing rationing, nobody could insist on school uniforms being correct and we became quite a mixture of colours, patterns and tartans.

  The papers reported two girls, whose father was a miner in New Guinea, had arrived with their mother in Goulburn.

  Jacqueline Parker went to Bathurst as a boarder:

  I am now 79 years old and was sent to a country Boarding School from my fee paying school in 1942 after the submarines came into Sydney Harbour, together with my sister, who was seven years older. I asked my mother why we were going and she said, ‘Because it’s safe’. Our mother was a cutter at Central Station. My sister never forgave my mother for sending her away. She hated the restrictions - like they always read your letters before they were sent. She reckoned mum just wanted to go to work and have us looked after. My sister was l4 at the time and only spent one year there. I was seven and spent three years there. The Boarding School was at Perthville, just outside Bathurst and it is still there, not as a school, but still has boarders there. It belongs to the Black Sisters of St. Joseph. It was the first time they took Sydney girls there as it had country girls only till then and we were always known as the Sydney girls. There were about 15 of us and we met up at Central Station and travelled together. We had three pieces of fruit a week - we had to write our name on a paper bag for the fruit. We had to eat everything that was put before us. It was not an unhappy experience, but I definitely missed my family and was happy when I was allowed to come home permanently.

  Another major move was that of Scots College to the property Karralee, Bathurst. During 1941-42, air raid shelters were constructed to accommodate 600 persons, at a cost of £1,460. They were soon in use and they relocated, the new property eventually becoming Scots School Bathurst. A hundred old boys were now in the military, with twenty-seven killed and another forty missing or prisoners of war. Schoolboys turned quickly into servicemen as many of the sixth form left the College only to enlist for the war. There were twenty changes to staff during this time, they either served in the forces, or helped with war work, ranging from electrical installations to interpreting German films.

  King’s School, at first facing the possibility of the school buildings being requisitioned, obtained Tudor House at Moss Vale, for their prep school.

  Pupils at Shore College, North Sydney had a remarkable experience. The school is high up, near the Harbour - a lovely setting, but vulnerable. In December 1941, Shore School Council decided much to parent’s relief to purchase a branch school for Juniors well outside of Sydney. The Headmaster inspected properties from Yass to Katoomba and decided on a two storey hotel at Mount Victoria, previously a hostel for Lithgow munitions factory workers, for £6,500 (a pub with no beer). There was concern about faulty electrical wiring and old plumbing, because if there was something dangerous, small boys would find it and there was a lot of hard work to get it opened in February 1942, when 83 pupils and 75 boarders moved in, with every bed occupied.

  The boys made their beds and cleaned their rooms. Cold showers were taken daily, with a hot bath weekly. Clean shoes were encouraged and when the local paper shop suddenly obtained a supply of Kiwi Boot Polish, it was inundated with boys.

  A haircut meant cycling 5 kms to Blackheath, even in winter. The whole school ran 1.4 kms daily before classes. The boys walked in a crocodile every Sunday to St Peter’s Church and provided the choir. They fought with the local public school boys, and won. Pocket money went on sausage rolls for a penny halfpenny, sausage rolls threepence at Mrs March’s tuckshop. The boys sang ‘We like Mrs March’s Apple Pies’ to the tune of Colonel Bogey, much to everyone’s delight. They slid down hills on pieces of tin and everyone caught measles. (An extra nurse had to be employed!).

  Jim White:

  I have broken my glasses while playing with sledges … one boy would get on his bike and tow the sledge down the hill. When he got up enough speed, he would try and tip the boy on the sledge off. Once I turned two summersaults and nearly busted my neck.

  Boys rode their bikes over an ‘assault course’, and to Little Hartley to buy apples, or to Mount Victoria Falls. They played cricket, went bush walking and rock climbing (with just a rope), picked blackberries, swam, competed in athletics, explored Jenolan Caves, played French cricket, marbles and saddle-m-nag. They shot rabbits with their rifles and sold the skins. Some Saturdays, they visited Blackheath cinema to see a film; Johnny Edgar and Sweater Girl were favourites.

  Robert Goldrick:

  My skills at billiards improved with ready access to the table at the hotel where we stayed, and my physical fitness was at an all time high because there were no motor cars.

  James Bretherton and Jim Creer:

  In mid-winter, our beds along with others were located on the first floor veranda. To keep warm in bed, we fought to see which one of us could ‘win’ a threadbare carpet to cover us to supplement the two issued blankets. It was so cold some nights we went to bed dressed in our uniforms over our pyjamas plus football socks.

  Michael Pringle:

  A standout activity of the school was a bushwalk. Lunch was a chop or sausage cooked over a fire, a hunk of bread and an apple, while somebody boiled a billie for tea. I recall at least two hikes down to the floor of the Jamieson Valley, and the hike back up, which left one’s legs aching. On one of those trips, lunch was by a billabong. Before swimming, the older boys had to kill a red bellied black snake so it wouldn’t share the cool water with us. The snake was then tossed onto an anthill.

  John Valder:

  One of the really great joys of being at Mt Victoria was that the school was practically on the busy main western line. We quickly became authorities on all the different types of steam locomotives. A more sombre memory I have is of us lining the Great Western Highway to applaud and encourage the young soldiers marching all the way from Bathurst to Sydney on their way to active service (and death in some cases). I can still hear the sound of hundreds of army boots hitting the bitumen.

  Ian Curlewis watched his father sail away in the Queen Mary. His mother and grandparents decided to move up to Leura, where his grandparents had cottages. He attended the Shore School for a term and then civilian fears of invasion subsided. His parents and grandparents moved back to Sydney but he stayed on as a boarder. He stayed for two terms, went back to stay with an aunt in Bellevue Hill and the Japanese submarine shelled Rose Bay. The shells must have gone right over his aunt’s roof.

  The boys seemed contented with their lot.

  Peter Raleigh:

  One very memorable ride was down Victoria Pass and across to Lithgow. As we climbed the hills out of Lithgow, we came across a anti-aircraft battery and we boys were most impressed. These guns were there to protect the small arms factory in Lithgow, where the .303 rifles were made for our troops. School assembly was held across the road from the main building. During winter, the ground was frozen hard so each morning we all ran around the block to keep warm.

  Peter Valder:

  We had free access to the local shops and walking up to the post office and general store on the Great Western Highway. It was always interesting to look at the local dingo pups and other native animals kept at a small zoo on the corner opposite the Imperial Hotel.

  Ross Playfair:

  Our family lived at Blaxland on the lower Blue Mountains at the time, so we did not go to Mount Victoria to avoid any possible Japanese attacks, but rather to enjoy the lifestyle and the environment.
Unfortunately we only had one snowfall during the year, but we made the most of it. My close friend, Roger Jefferson and I considered ourselves the bicycle specialists and checked the bearings and lubricated the other bikes and tried to adjust bent wheels etc.

  The boys dutifully wrote home to their mothers. Here are two letters from ‘Geoff’, (with his spelling intact):

  Dear mum,

  Yesterday there was a big mist and you couldn’t see two hundred away. Boyd fell off his bike and broke his arm. Don’t send any comics, for Mr Anderson said we were not aloud to have them. Ted has got swollen glans. We have sport today. We play on the colflinks or down the main road to a pitch which is about one mile away. Our holidays begin on 1st April to the 9th and I will be coming up to Amaroo. Please tell me Gran’s address.

  love Geoff

  Dear mum,

  We had a blackout last night. My choclats did not melt in the train and I have only had to or three so far. My heels are better. I have bought a lote of books. We went down to a cricet pitch yesterday and had a game. I would much rather be at Amaroo than at school. We have great fun watching trains. It is raining today and we can’t go outside. I do not want my paints. The food is OK.

  Love Geoff

  None of the boys regretted the years they spent in their mountain retreat.

  And Guy Fitzharding was very proud of the fact that he had gone to school in a public bar!

  Chapter 10

  Handkerchiefs and No Pets

  -The Evacuation of Torres Strait Islands, Northern Territory and Queensland

  My mother was terrified that a Japanese parachutist would come down near our farm while she was alone there.

  – Mary Ford, in Queensland

  Prime Minister Mr Curtin stated, ‘The time has gone by for argument. The instructions of the Federal Government must be carried out.’ On 22 March, 1942, nine Mitsubishi G4M1 ‘Betty’ bombers of the Japanese Navy’s Tokao Kokutai, 23rd Koku Sentai circled over Katherine, disappeared, and returned to drop about ninety-one 60 kgs bombs. Eighty-four of these bombs were anti-personnel ‘Daisy Cutters’. Damage to planes at Katherine was minimal, but some Aboriginals were unfortunately killed. The special threat to Northern Australia by the Japanese from late 1941 resulted in the formation of several Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Units such as the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion. Irregular units like the 21st North Australia Observer Unit, based at Katherine, utilised local knowledge and skills of local Aboriginals. Thursday Island, 39 kilometres north of Cape York Peninsula was evacuated.

  Stella Sun:

  I was ten years old when we had to leave, and I feel guilty because I enjoyed it and felt it was an adventure. The women and children all left by boat. The islanders stood and sang The Thursday Island Song and we threw handkerchiefs with pennies wrapped in them for them to wipe their tears. We had to evacuate from Thursday Island in January 1942, as it was the military headquarters for the Torres Strait and a base for Australian and American forces. It had been our home since my grandfather came out in the 1880s as a pearling pioneer. He eventually returned to China and we took over his shop. My aunt brought up nine children there. Residents of Japanese origin or descent were interned. The residents did not return until after the end of the war and many ethnic Japanese were repatriated. The island was not bombed, maybe because it was the burial place of Japanese pearl shell divers, or possibly as there were Japanese residents on the island. Nearby Horn Island was heavily bombed. The Queensland government commandeered ships for evacuation. We were given half a day’s notice. Luckily we had an uncle who stayed behind and looked after everything. He bought up the discarded army equipment and sold it back to them.

  The Arnhem Land Region, around 500 kms from Darwin, unmapped land with resident Aboriginals, was feared a possible Japanese landing site. Japanese navy personnel had enquired about Aboriginals being used as a workforce in the past.

  Alice Springs, the third largest town in the Northern Territory, in the geographic centre of Australia, remained under civilian administration. The army took control of stock routes and bores on routes were increased and a meatworks and a piggery built to provide food for defence personnel in the Territory.

  In Darwin, Aboriginal women were evacuated but about 20 per cent of Aboriginal men, employed by the armed forces as woodcutters or at Fanny Bay jail, stayed. The last ship, the MV Koolama, hot and crowded, left on Sunday, 15 February, 1942 and later sank after attacks by Japanese aircraft. (There was an alleged mutiny resulting from these attacks).

  The Army was responsible for Darwin’s evacuees, but no clear plan was given. The place was a hotbed of rumour, the road south soon crammed with every kind of vehicle, wheels stirring up red dust. Queensland banks, from Cooktown to the border, had records copied and sent out west.

  Audrey Gross:

  My father was Manager of the Bank of New South Wales in Cooktown, from about 1938 until the bank was closed in about 1941. Most people were encouraged to leave Cape York. We ended up on the Sunshine Coast. Whether we were moved because of Bank or Federal Government policy I do not know. We had a car, and would have travelled at least to Cairns, however the Hayles boats were a big means of going to Cairns where we used to travel by coastal ships to Townsville and Brisbane. The Manunda and Manora were two ships that we used. I believe the Aboriginals on Hopevale, a Lutheran Mission, were sent to Cherburg, near Murgon. It wasn’t until about 1960s that they were able to return to their homelands.

  In Australia under Attack, Douglas Lockwood describes how his newly married wife wanted to stay with him and applied for an ‘essential’ job - she became an army typist. The author writes, ‘Fortunately she became convinced of the wisdom of leaving one week before the first raid.’

  When the bombing started the civilian population was given half an hour to collect a few belongings and leave the town in brake vans. Stockingless, with their tin hats, they left their homes and treasures, carrying parcels of food and blankets against the desert air. The first two nights, myriads of mosquitoes attacked them. They went to the railway terminal at Birdum, 300 miles south of Darwin, and were put in army trucks. The party passed through the Tennant Creek goldfield the following day, camping near an overland telegraph station - a distance of more than 200 miles, eventually reaching Alice Springs.

  Breakfast for the whole trainload at Quorn was prepared by the Country Women’s Association. ‘It was a wonderful meal—real sausages, butter, and fresh fruit’ said Mrs. McManus, a passenger. ‘The Red Cross was there to help us too, and my treat after nearly nine days was a hair wash, while the children were given baths.’ They eventually reached Adelaide by special train. Among the evacuees were oil company employees from Dutch New Guinea, who had come to Darwin in a Catalina flying boat, and a Government official’s wife from the island of Dobo, Indonesia, with three young, children, which they heard had been bombed.

  On page 56 in the report Plans for Air Raid Precautions and Evacuation of Civilians, Darwin police stated there were 1,066 women and 900 children. In 2,500 leaflets distributed to households on 15 December, 1941, rules for compulsory civilian evacuation were printed, without indication as to when this might happen or who would be evacuated. The Army advised an evacuation of 822 on the SS Zealandia, army transport and under their control. The first group of 225 left aboard the general cargo and passenger ship, Koolunga. A batch of 530 evacuees left Darwin on the SS Zealandia on 20 December, 1941. Stories circulated that the ship had not been cleaned for months, food and water were short and toilet and washing facilities inadequate. According to Peter Grose in An Awkward Truth, the Adelaide News got the story but it was censored. Pets were ordered to be destroyed, but not chickens, which could be a food source. An eight litre water bag per family, two blankets and one small calico bag containing personal items and one suitcase not exceeding 35 pounds was all that was allowed. Guards threw overweight bags overboard. Some on the Zealandia cabins were designed for four people, but held 11. The ship took on 200 Ja
panese internees at Thursday Island. Patricia Ayre was one of the few to see Japanese POWs:

  When I was seven, I was evacuated from Darwin on the SS Zealandia with my mother and younger sister. The ship was blacked out at night. One night, I was slow getting back to our cabin and a sailor grabbed me and pushed me inside but not before I saw Japanese POWs, who had been marched up from the hold to get hosed down. We were allowed one suitcase between the three of us. One night we had to get on our lifejackets and assemble on deck. A ship had gone by without signalling, but it was alright. For the whole trip we ate tinned Camp Pie. On Christmas Day, they had plates of mince in the Mess. I was the only one there - everyone else was seasick. I had three plates full. Looking back, I think it must have been the Pie minced up! Mum was very good but years later, she told me how frightened she was. Somewhere along the east coast, my sister became very sick and mother went ashore to find a chemist and get something for her. Coming back, some drunken sailors pretended to help her but took the bag and threw it in the ocean. Mother got back onboard safely and my sister eventually recovered. We were taken to Melbourne, where we spent two nights on the floor of the Town Hall, and then to Adelaide and the Mount Lofty Ranges. We returned to Darwin after the war. The Zealandia was sunk in air raids on February 19, 1942, and we lost our house in the bombing. After the war, I was talking to an aboriginal girl and she said she and her friends were put in trucks and evacuated to Alice Springs.

  The SS Zealandia had served as a troopship in both world wars, transporting the ill-fated Australian 8th Division. During the February 1942 air raids, Japanese planes attacked Zealandia. The order was given to abandon ship. Zealandia sank, leaving only her masts clear.