Carefree War

by Ann Howard

  I can’t say anything bad about the Mission, which was set up to protect children and women in need’, but when the bus came to take us away, Mr Roberts, a supervisor, pulled me aside and said,’ don’t ask questions, Joyce, but run as fast as you can to your mother.’ I ran for my life, whilst twenty- one crying and screaming children were loaded onto the bus. My escape from the authorities was front page news and in the media for some time.

  Mr Johnson, the Minister for the Interior, bowed under pressure from the Australian people and Joyce was allowed to stay with her mother in January 1949. She had been staying with a friendly family at Pymble, because the police were looking for her. In the social upheaval of wartime, the United Nations had published the Declaration of Human Rights and migrants and refugees were arriving in boats, the assimilation question arose and Joyce’s fight to be with her mother was a key part of it.

  WWII was on such a massive scale, (an estimated 50 to 80 million deaths) that refugees flooded in from everywhere and were given special treatment. The difference in attitude between refugee and ‘half-caste’ children in their own country was pointed out. The phrase in the Press that Aboriginal children were gaining ‘an accepted place in Australia’s community life’ is an improvement in attitudes towards Aboriginal people, which would not have happened without evacuation.

  Aboriginal women also gained new chances to explore what they could do.

  Kath Walker (Oodgeroo of the tribe Noonuccal, Custodian of the land Minjerribah):

  I joined the Australian Women’s Army Service principally because I did not accept fascism as a way of life. It was also a good way for an Aboriginal to further their education. In fact there were only two places where an Aboriginal could get an education, in jail or the Army, and I didn’t fancy jail. Everyone was very nice to me when I joined up. I became a switchboard operator.

  The war changed the lives of all women.

  Cassie Thornley:

  In our case there were the two obvious reasons why we were sent away: my Mother wishing to return to nursing, and Dad was very busy. Not only did he have to reorganise the factory for the ‘war effort’ with decreased staff, but he was also very active in the industrial organisation to which he belonged (Metal Trades Employers Association). These employers employed over one third of the state’s working men. Which brings us to the matter of who knew what? Dad would certainly have been aware of what was really happening as he had lobbied Federal Ministers and had friends in ‘high places’! But the government officials had to consult with these men in order to organise the system towards producing the necessary military hardware and there were many late night meetings. A third reason which caused him a problem was that we had always had a live-in maid, as did many families then. But by 1940 the Land Army women were being sent to the country, and women were being called into the factories to learn the machines. (I have an elderly cousin who worked in a factory; she loved it - much more fun than an office). It was very difficult to get house help (in fact we never had another maid, the war changed attitudes about that).

  Chapter 18

  G’day! Being a Host

  How we all fitted into the house is a mystery to me now!

  – Fay Knight

  What was it like being a host? Some people just said, ‘What was it like? They were just there’. You couldn’t ignore the frightened voice at the end of the phone - ‘Is that you mum? Is that your Uncle Jim?’ Many country people lived a very simple, hardworking life in the 1940s. There was usually plenty of good fresh tucker and they made their own amusements. Many evacuees told me they stayed a long time in the country, which indicates that everyone settled down happily together. The farmer’s wife probably welcomed the company of a female relative. The children probably enjoyed showing the ‘city kids’ around the farm, letting them feed the chooks and ride horses, pick fruit and play hide and seek in the sunshine. How much better than lying fearfully in their beds watching searchlights chase each other over the skies.

  Nev Polkinghorne:

  My family owned a fruit farm in Griffith, NSW, during the war. My two young cousins and their mother left Sydney at the height of the conflict and stayed with us until it was deemed safe to return to Sydney.

  Albert Browne:

  Shirley was the second of the six children and their mother who came to Cowra to live with our family of four children and our parents, in a small two bedroom weatherboard house, and to go to the local school.

  Most of us children slept on the front veranda, which was only partly protected by canvas blinds. Some of us had opened out wheat bags as additional blankets during the winter. We had a wood fuel stove, an open fireplace, and a chip heater in the bathroom, a cold water supply and an outdoor sewered toilet in the backyard. I cannot remember how long they stayed with us.

  Ann Knight:

  My mother’s parents at Griffith took in a brother and sister from Sydney. The children were accompanied by their nanny, who was my mother’s maternal aunt.

  Fay Knight takes up the story:

  Our Auntie Wanda (Wanda Thorne) – my mother’s sister – never married but worked as a nanny and housekeeping jobs when we knew her. At the time of the war, June 1942 – she was nanny to two children – Veronica and John. And if my memory is still correct, they lived in an apartment in Macquarie Street (The Astor) in Sydney and had wealthy parents. To us four farm kids, their clothes were so good and lovely, and they were so different to us, yet wonderfully warm and friendly and I’m sure they enjoyed their six weeks stay (as I remember). The war to us was something happening a long way off – and it made the demand for fruit and vegies good and our farm prospered and we all worked hard. Dad employed an Italian worker, Angelo, and allowed him to build a home down past the Lucerne paddock near a water drain channel. He had a wife and some small children. The prices for fruit and vegies were good because of the war and I guess it helped pay off our mortgage to the Water Council and Irrigation Commission.

  I was 14 years old when the submarines came in. Auntie Wanda, Veronica and John would have come up from Sydney to Griffith in the old steam train – overnight probably - and Dad would have gone in our car to collect them as we were only a mile away, in Griffith. Our farm was 40 acres, first farm near big main canal (for irrigation) on the Yenda Road. Our gate was on a side road, Farm 638, and over the built up part of railway line. When you came in our farm gate, there was our driveway to our home – almond trees on one side, and orange trees on left side. Our house was weatherboard and tin roof, surrounded by wire fence and two gates, to enclose Mum’s garden and lawn. We had plenty of water for irrigation as a ditch with a Detheridge Waterwheel up near the gate for the water wheel reading man to see easily and send an account for how much water the farm had used.

  Our home only had two bedrooms, a good size lounge room, bathroom and pantry and Dad had built on at side, a good kitchen and back veranda to the laundry down the steps. How we all fitted in to the house is a mystery to me now! Mum and Dad had the main bedroom, while the four girls (Gwen, Ruth, Brenda and Peg) shared the other bedroom and as we got older, Gwen slept on front veranda, enclosed with canvas blinds and I slept on the side veranda, which was about twelve feet by twelve feet, so beds could go in there. This veranda had mosquito wire for side walls. Maybe Auntie Wanda and two city kids shared the bedroom.

  We all rode bikes to school – and it’d be sure that Veronica and John went with us to school. Veronica probably in my class (I was in second year at Griffith High School) and Johnny at Yoogali Primary school – a mile down Yenda Road – now called McKay Road and three classrooms, three teachers (Mrs Lane – WWI widow and farm, first and second class), Mr Jones (left for air force) third and fourth class and Mr Bowditch (fifth and sixth class, lived in the school house) with family and his wife taught us sewing. I can’t say I remember anyone else having ‘city kids’ to stay at this time. Veronica and John probably only came because our Auntie Wanda could bring them to us from the crisis in Sydney in 1942.
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  We all had a great time together – Mum and Auntie Wanda would have been busy with cooking and the house jobs etc. I’m sure we went out a lot - my father loved going out and visiting when time allowed. We had three lots of uncles and aunties in Griffith – all returned soldiers from WWI - on farms and our cousins to play with, too. The town of Griffith, in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, was built for returned soldiers and a wonderful place to grow up in. As all men on the farms had been to war, they were great mates and helped each other in times of need and sickness. During WWII my Dad helped form a VDC group (1940) – ‘old soldiers’ – not supposed to be over 40 or so – formed in country towns and prepared to defend Australia – always going off for weekend training to Sydney, Katoomba, Wagga and Yenda and they marched in the Anzac Day parade up Banna Avenue to the memorial. I was so proud of him.

  Never had relations and friends been so important nor had such an important task as caring for the small children been given such precedence. School students in small communities in country towns were told to be on their best behaviour because they were representing their school. They were expected to talk quietly when outside, walk in a crocodile going from one place to another, mind their manners and contribute to the local community by joining choirs, giving concerts and taking part in athletics or cricket. Friendships were formed that lasted for a lifetime, and some people moved back to the site of their evacuation to settle down and have their families. Two interviewees in this book returned to Armidale from Sydney because they did not enjoy the heat and revelled in Armidale’s crisp, dry climate.

  Gillian Branagan with her brother and mother in a gig

  Bruce Whitfield enjoying the country

  Queenie Ashton, (Blue Hills), with two of her children in Armidale

  Love Geoff - Children wrote letters home to their parents

  Rob Whalley and his three sisters at Jessie Street, Armidales

  Lynton Bradford with Gwen on his last trip to Boat Harbour

  Vola Robertson (later Howe) was evacuated to Victoria from the Dandenongs

  John Martin catching a lift

  Peter Coles Andrews at the Fragars

  John Martin at Casterton

  John Martin - the happiest time of his life

  Peter and Warren Daley were sent to stay with their Aunt Eileen for nearly three years, 1941

  Warren and Peter Daley. Aunt Eileen referred to them as ‘my boys’ for the rest of her life, 1943

  Fay Sulman aged two years at Burragorang Valley NSW 1942

  Fay Sulman with her host family at Burragorang

  Kerry Packer as an evacuee

  Alec Ross in 2003

  Betty Fisher with little Shirley and her friend Annie

  Sir John Carrick, Minister of Education helped Joyce and stayed lifelong friends

  The Church Missionary Society’s Half-caste Home at Mulgoa, ten miles from Penrith, NSW

  Joyce Herbert with mother, Tess

  The Press photo of pretty Joyce as a teenager riding a white pony captured hearts

  Alan Wilkinson happily collecting rubber tyres for the war effort

  Australian Women’s Weekly 17 January, 1941

  Ian Murray Wilson (second row, second on right) at his one teacher school at Dalby

  Ian Murray Wilson’s brass identity tag for evacuation to Dalby

  Bill Deeley attracting more mosquitoes than his brother Ron, 1942

  Evacuation Register card, Erskineville

  The boarders of St Vincent’s at Potts Point settled in at Wahgunyah guesthouse, Katoomba

  Chapter 19

  Victorian Evacuees

  I remember great excitement at school because one little girl was evacuated from Alice Springs, which we felt was very close to the war. We sewed handkerchiefs for soldiers and we thought she should be given one!

  – Shirley Davies

  The Standard (Frankston), January 1942, complains: ‘Many people are suffering from an evacuation complex - a word which has become too common in our plan of life. It’s spoken as a matter of course, as though it is the only thing to do - evacuate. If needs be, children must be evacuated; that is obvious; also the aged and infirm, but why anyone else?’

  Mrs Vola Howe (nee Robertson):

  I am now 85 years and with my mother and three siblings evacuated from Scott Street, Dandenong to live for about 18 months in Maldon Victoria. My parents were frightened that the Japs were coming South! My Mum was especially scared as where we lived in Dandenong in Scott Street there was a petrol dump down the road and Mum was quite sure they would come and bomb it! My father boarded in Brunswick where he worked making trailers for the war effort. I was 12 years old when we moved and transferred from Dandenong High School to Castlemaine High - they didn’t have higher than Primary in Maldon. I was the eldest with two brothers and a baby sister, in 1941 when the fear was that Japan had attacked Darwin and concern they were coming south! We eventually moved back, and my father was sick of travelling each weekend by train to see us. My mother kept the car with us in Maldon to get around in!

  Shirley Davies was at Frankston Primary School during the war:

  I remember great excitement at school because one little girl was being evacuated from Alice Springs, which we felt was very close to the war. We all wanted to be her friend and give her things. We sewed handkerchiefs for soldiers and we thought she should be given one!

  Myrna McBain lived in Richmond:

  I was born in October 1940 at East Melbourne the first child of Elsie (Williams) and Frank Jones and they lived in Richmond. At this time my father worked for a tannery in Richmond and was exempt from war service. My mother had grown up in Lilydale. Richmond, Victoria was a factory area and Lilydale was rural. I am guessing some time in 1942, my mother and I went to stay with her parents in Lilydale. A brother of my father had enlisted in the RAAF in January 1942 from Sydney where he lived at Quakers Hill. He was married and had a son born in January 1941. He left Sydney for Melbourne and was at Ascot Vale before leaving Melbourne in May 1942 for ‘the islands’. This was probably when his wife and son came down from Sydney, and stayed with my father in Richmond to look after him. My recollection is that my cousin slept in my cot and my Aunt used a lot of my mother’s preserves, jams etc. and they left Sydney for Melbourne as it was felt to be safer. Also Lilydale was safer than the factories of Richmond if the Japanese bombed it.

  My mother and I were definitely back in Richmond when my sister was born in April 1944 and my Aunt back in Sydney when her second son was born in May 1945. My uncle returned to Australia in December 1943.

  Mrs Bassett-Smith:

  I was an evacuee and I went not because of invasion fears but because my father was away with the AIF. I had a governess with a friend’s family at Eltham. In the thirties, it was not unusual for a governess to be part of a country family and stay on for years. I don’t remember being frightened and I don’t think Victorians feared an invasion because of the topography of their coastline. I thought air raid drill was fun. One of the evacuees with us had her home in Sydney shelled by the Japanese.

  Elizabeth Paine from Brighton Historical Society along the same lines:

  We do not have a lot of information. One of our volunteers was a student teacher in 1942, the Hyde Street, Footscray School suburb of Melbourne. Her job was preparing the identification tags for the children to prepare for evacuation. Some children had to be sent to a cleansing station. Fortunately the evacuation did not have to take place. Some schools were relocated at short notice at the beginning of the war for servicemen’s use of their buildings.

  Melbourne Girl’s Grammar School at South Yarra was evacuated for Air Force use. Some girls went to Marysville, some to Doncaster, some had governesses. East Melbourne St Catherine’s was evacuated to Warburton, the vacated building used as a WAAAF training base.

  A Dr Weigall from the Bush Nursing Association said in January 1942 that evacuee children were in greater danger in small country towns because if the enemy
dropped incendiary bombs in dry forest or pastoral areas, fire could be life threatening.

  In 1946 although much material was censored and not available, armchair strategists reviewed the evidence and offered opinions. In August 1946, the Brisbane Worker reported the Minister for Information, Mr Calwell, saying at an election meeting in the Melbourne Town Hall: ‘The threat of a Japanese invasion at Port Phillip Bay through Bass Strait was very real on Boxing Day, 1941. So near was the danger he said, ‘that the officer in charge of defence for Victoria sent urgent messages to municipal councils calling in old German howitzers, given as souvenirs after the First World War’ Mr. Calwell strongly attacked the Menzies and Madden Governments for Australia’s unpreparedness for war with Japan. The howitzers were rushed to Maribyrnong to be rebored and used for defence and one division was stationed each side of the Bay. ‘Australia was 300,000 rifles short at the time,’ he said.