Australians at War Film Archive

Well I am Alice Mary Theresa Kemp nee Elliot. I am 83 years old, what else do you want?

Alright I was born in Brisbane. It was the

Lady Bowen Hospital, private hospital, up on the Terrace in Brisbane and that is where I began life so to speak. My parents, my father was a World War I digger. He married my mother in England, in Surrey, and they came to Australia in 1919,

and I was born, as you quite found out, in 1920. They came out in a ship called the Port Lincoln and it was little more than a barge or whatever it was, certainly not the Queen Mary. They firstly, my father took his bride by Cobb and Co coach out to St George in Queensland.

Out to visit his parents and that was where he was born, in St George. Well the life was a bit rugged out there for my mother who came from a very green leafy Surrey to a drought out in St George. Travelling out, one of the stories that my mother has told me, travelling out by coach they stopped at a creek

and the coach driver said, “Alright it is time to swing the billy,” and of course my mother wondered what on earth this billy was and what he was going to do with it. And it turned out it was a cup of tea wasn’t it. Put the tea leaves in and swing it, ok, but he also told the coach travellers, in order to get the water to boil the billy he had to move a dead

steer out of the creek. Well my mother didn’t like tea anymore after that. But that is some of the stories that my parents have told me. They came back to Brisbane and settled over at West End and then the time came, because I was bubbling along at that stage, and the time came for them to find a permanent residence

so they applied to the War Service home in order for him to get a War Service home, a grant. Which they did and they settled at 39 Strong Avenue, Graceville and from there that is where I was born. What else?

Oh yes, oh school, I wasn’t expelled although maybe I should have been.

But the story goes I first started school at a little place at Sherwood that is on the Ipswich line, if you know that at all. I started there and then when Graceville school was opened I was their first pupil and stayed at Graceville all my life, all my school life, until I went to high school. So

Graceville was my place. I attended St Mathews Church of England Church in Sherwood. I was in the choir. I learnt music, I learnt piano, unfortunately for me my piano teacher lived in the next street. to me at the back and she could tell whether I had practiced or not but that is just one of the little things.

Oh, what else did I do. Oh yes. I went to high school, State Commercial, did a commercial course there did bookkeeping and so forth, and so fifth. And almost was asked to leave because I found myself being able to sketch and I was sketching the teachers instead of studying, and

which I found a great delight in that because they weren’t actually caricatures but near enough to it. But no they forgave me and said I could join their basketball team. So I suppose they thought give this kid something to do and maybe she won’t do what she is doing, but anyway. After that what did I do? Oh yes, I took a job at Hemmingway and Robertson in Brisbane, it

was another firm. They have a branch of solicitors and they had a branch of tuition for people who wanted to go on further education, especially in the commercial line. So I worked there and then I applied for a, I did bookkeeping at school, so I applied for a job with a butchering firm which had

a shop at Graceville. Now it suited me just to work, at work. So I ended up doing the books for three of their shops. Now prior to that, during that time I learnt singing and I attended quite a few recitals and all that sort of thing. So yes, that is the type of thing I did in my youth.

What else? Of course swimming and all that jazz. What else did I do? Oh yes, after awhile I was working doing the books for the butchering firm. The war was declared in 1939 ok. And the Australian Women’s Army Service

was constituted in 1941. And they were calling for, first of all in Victoria and New South Wales they recruited the officers and then (UNCLEAR) after that. I enlisted in Brisbane at the Young Women’s Christian Association rooms in Adelaide Street

and the interview I had was quite funny in lots of ways because the lady who interviewed me became my captain. And it is a funny thing that all through our lives, or in our army lives, we seem to bob up in each others place, you know. I mean she used to say to me, “Oh Elliot not you again,” that sort of thing, you know what I mean. Anyway that is beside the point.

What else did I do? Well yeah, I listed in ‘42 and stayed on until the end of the war. It was quite a traumatic time because we really didn’t know quite how things were going in Europe. My husband George he was with the 6 Div and they sailed away on the

Queen Mary. He went to Europe, Palestine, up on the Turkish border into Crete, you name it, with the 6 Divvy. Now having him over there and me over here, like a lot of young women it was quite a nasty time for us, it was really traumatic. But anyway I enlisted and I didn’t go

out of Australia. I served with a unit that was called General Details Depot and Rest and Recreation. Now this General Detail Depot handled troop movements and that is what I was involved with. Firstly we were at…First of all when we enlisted we were

issued with an armband, a khaki armband with AWAS [Australian Women’s Army Service] on it, right, ok. Now I was with a friend of mine and she also had joined, and we are walking across Queen Street aren’t we, we are extremely proud of this damn thing here you see, and one codger on the sidewalk called out, “Hey, have a look at the air raid wardens.” Well with all due respect, air raid wardens were very vital, but hey wait a

minute, we are enlisted personnel and all that sort of rubbish. We soon cut down to size, but anyway, that was it. I remember the very first issue that we had as far as uniform was concerned, was a great coat. Now in the middle of summer in Queensland, just feel, you could feel it now, it was so hot, anyway that was issue.

Issue, it could quite amuse you my love, sitting over there. The underclothes they were absolutely something else. We used to call them passion pants, because they were khaki, wait for them, they were khaki bloomers and they came down to here, down to here. Needless to say we didn’t wear them but they were issue. Caused a lot of laughs.

What else, yeah I was sent to this particular unit and we first of all, we were at the exhibition grounds ok. Now, number 1 oval and underneath the McDonalds stand was a camp hospital, but we were over this side of it and we were housed in, you are too young to know this, but

the display houses and things that were there for the exhibition, the likes of James Hardie’s sort of fibro cottage and all that sort of thing. Our headquarters where there, in these cottages sort of thing, you know. So we had to be there at the exhibition grounds because there was a railhead there. That meant the transport of troops from the grounds and they went

all the way up to the Tablelands and to training camps and then from there right onto Townsville and over to New Guinea. Well ok, when the Americans came into the war they demanded that they wanted a central headquarters and they wanted the exhibition grounds. So we had to move out. But there was one thing that really annoyed us was the fact

that, and we felt so terrible about it. Number 1 oval, pitched tents everywhere, white Americans, over the rail lines line in number 2 oval, the Negroes. Now that is separation, maybe they had their reasons for doing this I don’t know. But we are not like that in Australia, well I hope we’re not. And so that was that. Alright, moved onto Ascot Racecourse.

Here we are up in the stands and that is where we had our accommodation. Oh boy was it, ladies members’ stand and all this, oh we thought we were wonderful. So we were there. There again the racecourse was used for tents and god knows what and there was a railhead ok, so righto next thing the Americans decided that they wanted that too and they took

over and we had to move out. And they moved us to Redbank, now that is where I stayed. Redbank army camp and boy was it a come down from the ladies members’ stand to Redbank, because we were housed in tents weren’t we, to start with. But that sort of thing…and there again a railhead. Was also a big camp head hospital there so that became one of the

major camps in Queensland. Because the majority of troops came through and were loaded, well they were checked, through the hospital, through the RAPs [Regimental Aid Post] and then onto the rail and off they went up north. It was a sort of a time when you really didn’t know quite what else was going to happen. And when the Japanese,

when Pearl Harbour was bombed the Americans came into the war then, they were sort of there but once Pearl Harbour was hit, that was it. And my husband and his crew, as I say, he went over on the Queen Mary and he came back on a cattle ship the Duke of Athens. It was,

it came, they were becalmed out of Ceylon and finally they got home and his unit was disbanded. So still with the 6 Div he joined the Docks Operating which was 6 Docks Operating, and went up to New Guinea and Bougainville and all that. But I am getting round to the fact that you may have heard or you may have

read about the Brisbane line. Now that was the real thing, that was the real thing, because the Japanese were bombing Australia, bombing Darwin, you name it, the whole bit. And only for the blokes and our fellows and the Americans stopped them coming any further. But we had orders, we had orders

anything above the Brisbane line was going to be raised, the whole bit, they weren’t going to leave a damn thing for it. And we were to hold, we were in Brisbane and that was it you know, and the line was supposed to be held there. Fortunately for everybody, for everyone concerned, fortunately it didn’t have to happen. But it was going to happen. Because we had orders to do what we had to do. But you know,

it was a time in our lives, there were a lot of funny things happen, god love me, there was so many funny things that happened, and learning to live with someone else, learning to live with someone else was that ever a thing. Because I am an only child alright and didn’t have to share with anybody. But wait a minute, you get in a dormitory of about 30,

40 women ok, you certainly have to share. And you have to share the ablution blocks, all that sort of stuff, you know. But it was all a lot of… the fun you had was what you made, you know what I mean. And I don’t regret one minute of it. I really don’t. I think I have talked enough, god I can talk.

Well, I’ve got a picture here, I will show it to you later. When the war finished there was a victory parade in Brisbane, you may know of it. And there was a whole, oh god, hundreds of AWAS all lined up and we marched through Brisbane. One of the most spectacular things, you know what I mean. After that, because we were all discharged and we all went our different ways

and some of us kept in touch, others didn’t you know. After the war I decided, well I had married by then. The ways of the army was something, because I had a wedding frock all nicely organised for 1940 whatever, and a year later we were married. Of course he was sent to Bougainville

wasn’t he. When we came back we were determined, we said right this is it, we get married, so we got married. But I took on charity work. What else did I do, oh yes I went for a, I worked at a newsagency, that sort of thing just to sort of keep myself occupied really. And of course when he came home again we went into business and we

went into a.... He was an electrical linesman alright, to start with. Then we went into the trucking business and George was the worker come whatever, and I was the bookkeeper come whatever, and that is what we did, we went into business and subsequently three children arrived but actually we were in the trucking game for a long time.

We had a contract with the Queensland Rail when they were excavating to put the electric line through to Ipswich, from Brisbane to Ipswich, actually from Sandgate to Ipswich. So that is what we did. So I sort of more or less managed the family business, that is what I did.

Yes well, as I

said before, during the depression years my father was out of work and he was on the dole as they call it, or sustenance or whatever, but they had to work at least two days a week, at least two days a week to be able to collect that sustenance. And it didn’t matter

what, whether the man was a scientist, a doctor or whatever. If he was a doctor he would be required somewhere else, or a solicitor. Now my father studied to be a solicitor right when he was a young man, this is getting to my parents now. Out of St George he was assigned to a solicitors office and he wanted to do that. Now his

father unfortunately decided to commit suicide in the Bolong River. I have got a little story about that too. I will tell that to you know while I am thinking about it. His, my father’s father and my mother had a boarding house in St George and he also was a baker, so alright.

But the business went wrong, everything went bad and he decided that he couldn’t handle it any longer and I think they had six children, but anyway the story goes, he went and drowned himself in the Belong River. Now they lived along a road called The Terrace, which is running, and then the Bolong River is there and the road is here you see, alright.

My grandmother sent the boy that they had working, a young black fellow that was working there, to go and find the boss. So off he goes, he goes around looking for the boss ok. This is in script because I wouldn’t have known otherwise. It is in script because they have a court of inquiry into deaths and all that sort of thing.

Especially, anyway I have got the script, anyway the story goes, he came back and says, “Bosses hat on the log.” And of course my grandmother said, “What is his hat doing on the log?” And this kid says, “Boss goes for a swim.” See, of course, that meant they activated the police and all went down to the river and discovered that the man had drowned himself. And was

business worries, you know, business worries, which we all have. Anyway that was that. But this transcript from this court of inquiry is really hilarious because, even though it is sad, because the way this boy described the boss with his hat on the log and all this sort of stuff, anyway. Source of amusement to my children, anyway. That is ok. My father then in

order, because he was head of the family then, he had to go and work in the shearing sheds, which cancelled out any aspirations that he might have to become a solicitor, and he worked in the shearing sheds to keep the family going and then he enlisted in the First World War, fortunately he came back. But that was sort of very hard life, very hard life then.

Now here he is in the 30s, which is in the Depression years, here he is back in much the same position where fortunately he only had a wife and child to look after. But in order to collect that sustenance, he had an old bike, an old bike, and I don’t know whether you know the area but from Graceville across the flats to Rocklea. Now

Rocklea is on the other side of town more or less, he had to ride there to report to the office to be able to pick a mere pittance to keep his family going. My mother went out to work and she did washing and house-keeping in order to supplement the food and stuff like that and pay your way. But that was a very traumatic time

for people like that, it really was. But eventually my father worked for the council full time so, Brisbane City Council, so things did work out, and then of course the war came didn’t it. So, and he, my father was in the volunteer defence call, and they used to have to go around the district because you are talking black

out here, because they did have blackout in Brisbane, no lights nothing and all windows had to be blah blah blah, you know. And these men had to go around the neighbourhood and if they saw a chink of light anywhere they had to front up and get that Charlie to fix that up sort of thing, you know. But he felt he was doing something. They even had his group manning the railway bridges.

Now on the lines from, to Ipswich, there is quite a few bridges, there is the Indooroopilly bridge which is the big one, and there is the under road, under road passes and all that sort of stuff. And they used to have to man all of those you know, so it was quite a thing. But at least the men of his vintage knew that they were doing something you know.

Oh yeah, turn up, you know, you have got to turn up to your work. They used to have ships of course. I remember one bloke coming to our house and he says, “Where is old Bill?” My mother said, “He is resting,” because my mother an English, she was very precise you know. And she, “He is resting and you are not to disturb him.” “Ok missus,” and off he goes.

But oh, they were days and thank god I can recall.

No, no way, they don’t, they don’t. Any man or women who has seen service overseas and in the firing line so to speak, they do not talk about it. But I tell you what, they tell you the funny things. They tell you all the mad things that happened.

You know, I remember George telling my kids and myself about some when they were in Haifa. And I have a photograph of them all in Haifa, and boy oh boy, it looks like a real good party, you know, that sort of thing. But no, no nothing about the war in itself, nope they don’t talk about it because well, they lost a few friends.

Of having a happy home, a very happy home. See even although my mother had to work and blah blah blah, she bought a piano didn’t she. And it was one of the highlights of my life to see a piano come into the house. We didn’t have much else but we certainly had a piano. It was a Beale

and of course it meant I more or less, said now, that is yours get on there and practice it sort of thing. But that is one of my earliest memories, of this piano coming into the house. Oh goodness gracious me.

She lived at the back. See our house, it was a double allotment. The houses on the front and the backyard and then a street and then her house, you see.

And she had a veranda didn’t she, and she could hear, she could hear me. She would come across through the yard, tap on the door. “Mrs Elliot, Mary is not practising that correctly. She is just not doing that correctly. How am I supposed to teach her anything if she will not practice.” Oh god, you know, but anyway, she has gone to god now, a long time ago.

No, no I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it because I mean not having brothers and sisters to sort of interact with and sort of you know, throw cushions at and all that sort of rubbish, I had something of mine that I could do, something that I could do, you know what I mean. I wasn’t any maestro by any means but at least I’ve got piano (UNCLEAR)

examinations and things that I went and had to front up to in Brisbane and all that sort of stuff you know, and yeah, I enjoyed it, I enjoyed it. As a matter of fact I am thinking of getting back into it. I haven’t got a piano here but one of these days I will buy one, hopefully.

At Graceville? It was a War Service home.

It had three bedrooms, lounge room, kitchen dining room type thing, bathroom whatever, high stumps, high stumps. Front veranda, that is right, and from the bedrooms, the front bedrooms they had the doors that opened out onto the front veranda which was ideal because the position that the house was in we used to get all the breeze off the river, off the Brisbane River, coming through.

And oh yeah, and in the summer time when it was extremely hot my father had concreted underneath the house and we used to live down there, because he had organised a fuel stove over there sort of thing, and we had tables and chairs all underneath the house. And it was beautiful because the air, straight through you know. But I had a very good childhood, very good. And when I was

at Redbank there was a group of young blokes coming through from hospital and they were the Second 25th, they came from Adelaide, Adelaide. And he was wanting to have his 21st, well it was his 21st birthday, so I said to a couple girls, they said, “Hey do you reckon Jessie and Will will let us go down to the house and let us have the 21st birthday party down there?” I said, “I don’t see

why not.” So I said to my Mum and Dad, “How about it?” and they said, “Oh well, we will go visiting and you can have the house and they can bring them all down and they can have the party here,” see. Well I will never forget it, because he was such a lovely bloke, never ever heard from him since, but nice bloke and all his mates and we had quite a few of my AWAS lady friends. And we came down from Redbank on the train, got out at Graceville and walked

all the way up to Strong Avenue to where my mother’s and father’s house was. And the noise of those boots, ‘clup de clup’ all the way up the track you know, and of course the neighbours come out having a look, “What is going on?” you know, sort of thing, you know. So we had a piano and of course we had the piano there didn’t I. And one of the boys could really play, god he was good. And we had this 21st birthday party there. And

it was just something, this bloke he was so thrilled, he didn’t want to go to a pub, he didn’t want to go to a pub, he wanted to go to a house, a home, you know. So that is what we did, so that is just one of the things that happened.

Well I did alright. We had a

headmaster, we had a headmaster whose name was Dwyer, and we used to call him pop Dwyer because we felt that if he got any fatter he would pop because he was a big bloke. Anyway I think he caught me out giving a bit of cheek and he said, “Up to the office.” I said, “Righto.” “Up to the office.” You’ve been there. “Up to the office.” “Righto.” “Hold out

your hand.” He was going to give me some cuts you see. (UNCLEAR) wait a minute I don’t want to get cuts, so I held my hand out and he was just about to bring the cane down, it was really cane and I grabbed the cane didn’t I and I broke the thing, it snapped. “Ouch!” And I thought any minute now and I will be expelled, but no he didn’t. He said,

what did he say? “You live in Strong Avenue don’t you?” I said, “Yes I do.” And he said, “So did I.” He did too. I had to walk, this is the punishment, I had to walk past his place every day, every day going to school and bow to the house and go off, as though he was the Pope sort of thing. So I thought oh god, I better behave myself. But no, honestly I had a happy childhood

I really did. School wise I did alright I, well it was the arts, art that came out really. Every, before break up I used to go to all the blackboards in the school and draw Father Christmas presents and stuff, all in the coloured chalk you know, and do a feature and tried to do something different in each classroom sort of thing.

But really and truly, maybe I should have taken it up more seriously then. But I didn’t I did something. No I enjoyed it, played vigoro, played basketball you name it. Yeah.

I’m not going to tell you, I can’t tell you. Oh nothing very much because I was expected home at a certain time you see.

And if I didn’t turn up she would be out, looking around the, where were you, where were you, why were you blah blah blah, you know. But if I was going to another persons place, like another friend of mines place. My mother would have to know that and she would say, “You will be home here in this house at 4 o’clock, no later.” Well that is what happened, you just did those things, in my youth anyway.

Walk.

Oh yes, it was close enough to walk, close enough to walk, did you, that was good exercise actually.

Oh yes, we did, mainly those that sort of lived in my sort of area. There was some over the railway line at Graceville that we knew pretty well. But my father, my father used to say that is the

two bob side and our side is the six-penny side. Meaning well, as you know what the meaning is. That they were more affluent over that side blah blah blah and we were the workers on this side. But that didn’t make any difference in and around about you know.

Yes but a lot,

the thing was that when you sort of got into business life sort of thing, well you know yourself, you would make friends with whoever you ever interact with here. So that is what used to happen. I mean, where I worked I had friends you know, yeah. We used to keep in touch.

Oh yes, went yabbying that was round the creek round here.

That was, we used to come down here camping before we bought the old house - this is now, I’ve got children now, and we used to go round the creek with the yabby pump, you know. And when we got the old house my son decided he wanted to make a few bob you see. I said, “Alright, we will go and dig yabbies.” Oh

well that was a bit too much work sort of thing. I said, “No, come on, if you want money you have got to go and work for it.” So anyway he did and he got his yabbies and all that, and he set up a sign, he did a sign, tacked it on the fence down here and it said ‘yabbies for sale’ no, ‘bait for sale’, ‘bait for sale’, with an arrow sort of thing. And then when you got to, as you came in

there on that corner there, there was another sign and it said, ‘the white house’, meaning and you couldn’t miss it because the ruddy house was there and it was white. Anyway he, we had George’s father, real big Scotsman and brrrr broad you know, but he was visiting, he was staying down for a while. But anyway these people, in all honesty they came up looking for bait to go fishing didn’t they.

And they thought they’d have bait, not necessarily just yabbies you know. But Geoffrey wasn’t here to sell it was he. He said to his great grandfather that is your job you can sell it. George’s father he said, “Go to hell, go to hell, I am not here to…” Anyway these people came and they said they wanted a certain type

of bait you see. And the old chap right in the swing of things he said, “Sorry we are all out of that, we have only got the yabbies left.” I thought oh god. And that enterprise folded like that I tell you.

Yeah, in Indooroopilly Bridge, the rail bridge that goes across the rail bridge. Not necessarily the traffic bridge because that came later, that bridge came later, but that rail bridge has been there since pussy was cat. You know, it is a long, anyway down underneath that bridge was a shed, a changing sheds there and

toilets would you believe, and sand, sandy beach right, and that was a swimming hole, they used to charge down and bang into the river, plus they had a rope hanging from the rail bridge that used to swing out over the river and they’d, the rope would be here and you would run and grab the rope and go weee and plomp into the river, oh great fun yeah. And everybody gawking out of the windows looking

to see what was happening with these kids you know, oh yeah it was great fun.

It is all different now love, the whole thing is different but there was definitely a swimming hole there, yep. And people used to bring their picnic baskets and all that sort of stuff and you sit around you know, families, oh yes it was good. And of course the thing is not a great number of people had cars and you used to walk you know, shanks pony everywhere, it was good.

Well up the, up a little bit further, in the middle of the river is an island, an island and it was the bat island and all the bats used to accumulate there, it was full of bats. And a long time ago over at Sunnybank they had

fruit farms and all that sort of thing, beautiful paw paws and oh you name it, it is all built on now, there is a supermarket there and god knows what. And they did have these beautiful farms and the bats at dusk, at dusk you would see a great blanket of black going across, across from the island to the farms. And, of course the farmers, you know, they were in a dreadful state with these damn bats. But I think they have

had them removed. There is not such a bat colony there now. Now above that, above that up on the rise on the river, Indooroopilly side, up on the top, that is where I did my rookies training course and they had taken over a big old home, you are talking big old homes at Corinda, well this big old home at Indooroopilly, up on top of the bank of the river was owned by people by the name of Phillips

and they had property out west. Anyway that was their townhouse so to speak and it was taken over by the army as a rookies training course and that is where I did my training to start with. As far as Indooroopilly is concerned, I sort of know the back roads of Indooroopilly because we used to have to go on route marches, just to keep us fit of course. And all around Indooroopilly, there is down towards the

university, down the far end later on there was a big camp there too, so I mean all that area had been utilised you know, for camp. So you know, talking old homes, that is what they did with that one.

What did they do?

Well we had a lot of shall we say, well one thing in

particular, was identifying planes, and they had this, they didn’t have screens or anything but they had sort of prints of all these different planes like you know, description of this one and that one and you had to learn just what they signified because a plane going over, especially an enemy plane you would have to identify it. Because you see, we had girls

who trained in searchlight batteries and anti aircraft batteries that sort of thing, anti aircraft sites. Down on Fort Lytton, right down on the Brisbane River, the mouth, there was a searchlight battery and an anti aircraft battery down there and the bunkers are still there. And that is the type of thing that the women

had to learn to recognise, you know what I mean, yeah. Quite interesting yeah. I didn’t do that. I was trained in, well as I said before, troop movements and that sort of thing. So we all did something different, you know what I mean. And I think they did them pretty well too, pretty well. We had in our organisation girls from

ambulance car companies. See they drove ambulances. And they used to transport the blokes off the ships to the hospitals and all that sort of thing, you know. No, the women did a hell of a lot of different sort of things, a lot of things that they had never done before in their lives believe me, oh no. Then of course we had the cooks didn’t we. You can’t get anywhere without a decent cook. So yeah. So that sort of thing.

Well, very basic, very basic yes. But you learnt to eat it because I mean there was nothing else, but it was basic, it was alright yes. But in order to run the, salvage the weight you put on because of the non dietary stuff and all that rubbish, you were put on route marches weren’t you, so you had to you know, get the pounds off that way.

Oh yeah, too right, I mean oh yes. You would have to front up to the RAP that is the Regimental Aid Post. Front up to that you would get on the scales, oh righto you have put that on that, sort of thing, oh yes. See the thing is this was health wise they had to do that. It was health wise. Because if you were no good to the army you were no good to the army. So, you know.

But I tell you what that sort of thing was a rude awakening to a lot of people, a lot of women, oh they couldn’t cope with that. Fancy somebody telling me how heavy I can be, you know. But they had to, what is the point in having someone that is sick, can’t do anything, you know.

Oh no, the thing is this, we had to

front up for a medical, not every week, every month more or less. And you would have to be able to do this, this and this you know, as so as your activity is concerned, you know. And the likes of myself who was more or less, I was sitting down most of the time, well if I didn’t get up and do some exercise, I would be in trouble too, but oh yeah.

Well they would whip you into hospital straight away. Into camp hospital which was an experience in itself, because it certainly wasn’t a shiny looking ward and all that jazz you know. But it was very efficient. Oh the nurses, the nursing sisters and what they call, they were called VADs [Voluntary Aid Detachment] and then they were called AAMWS [Australian Army Medical Women’s Service], which is an assistant to the nursing staff,

and yeah. That is a different branch again.

Yes. Yes I did, that was at Redbank. I had an accident. Redbank if you know anything about the area, in wintertime, in wet weather it is one slippery mass of clay, it is a real clay, and I was rushing to

get into answer the phone and I slipped and fell and I hit my knees on, you know, the rise of the steps sort of thing, on the edge of the steps. Which wasn’t a very pleasant experience at all and I ended up in camp hospital for that. And another time there was a lot of dengue fever going around in the camp which is brought in by, well, well all

the men that came through, the soldiers that came through, it probably came from an area where there was dengue, and of course around the camp it spreads very quickly, very quickly. They thought I had hepatitis and meningitis, you name it the whole bit, so I ended up in hospital again. That was camp hospital at Redbank. It wasn’t too bad at all. One of the funny features was that,

as you know with jaundice you go a lovely shade of yellow, a beautiful shade of yellow. And George was on leave, he was ready to go to Bougainville, he came to see me and he said, “My god,” he said, “you’re yellow.” And the sister, the nursing sister, she comes past and she says, “Have you looked in the mirror lately?” to him. He said, “Why?” She said, “Have a look in the mirror,” because he is

yellow too isn’t he. He was on Atebrin tablets which they gave them, sort of antibiotics things you know, for the tropics and here he is, he turns up, he is yellow and here I am, I’m in there, I’m yellow, oh lovely pair beautiful pair and she, that is what, have you looked in the mirror lately.

Oh yes, a lot of chaps came back from the desert and

they had sand on the lungs, oh you know, they were in dire straits a lot of them. Because in the desert you know, lets face it, it means sand doesn’t it and sand storms in the desert are something else apparently. I have never experienced one but George has and you know.

Well I will tell you something rather, its funny in a lots of way, we were talking Adelaide before.

When they came back from the Middle East they were billeted on leave and George and a couple of his mates were billeted with Swats the authors family you know. And they were very good to them. Anyway from there, they came back up to camp, they all had to report into camp. He, I had to laugh, George sort of,

they passed these things of, they sort of…on no account, anything wrong with them, oh she’ll be right, she’ll be right mate, that was the attitude you know. No I don’t think, what else can I tell you about that. No we were pretty well treated actually. The thing that really got the

women is the fact the respect that was shown by the blokes. You know, they respected us, they didn’t sort of toss off and you know, sort of, so yeah what are you doing tonight so to speak. No they respected what we were doing. It took a little while because, sometimes the male ego, he is sitting over there, sometimes the male ego gets sort of hurt and bruised

if a woman can do something a little better than they could. And because that happened quite often, some blokes didn’t like the idea at all you know. Anyway what I was going to tell you was this. When they came back from Adelaide they all arrived at South Brisbane station, whole troop station you know, South Brisbane

station alright. And all the girls, their loved ones waiting to greet them and pretty dresses and god knows what you know, and these blokes all fell out of the train, complete with everything they stood up in, their rifle, their tin hats, their packs, you name it, they got out of the train. Now they had been on the train since god knows how long, from south Oz up to South Brisbane station and I tell you what, Spray Fresh would have done a great deal of

work there. Because, boy oh boy, the poor sods, anyway no showers, nothing, anyway. So righto they all arrive, they pile out of the train complete with all this gear. And he saw me, George saw me standing there and I am in uniform aren’t I and he looked at me and he said, “What the hell did you come like that for? Why didn’t you put a dress on?” He was sort of rrrrrr you know, as to say, here I have seen that much khaki

all this time and here she is in khaki too, you know. I thought too bad you know. I said well, “Too bad. I told you I had joined up.” He said, “Yes I know but,” he said, “you must have another dress at home or something.” And I thought oh dear. But you know that sort of thing, you know the attitude anyway one of his mates, one of his mates came up and he said, “George,” he said, “you better keep your

mouth shut.” He said, “Why, what do you mean?” He said, “She out ranks you, she has got a couple of hooks up,” he said, “you haven’t.” And he said, “Oh,” he said, “what do you mean, what do you mean?” sort of thing you know. And he said, “No, she has got a couple of hooks up, she out ranks you.” So of course, there you go. But it was quite a family sort of thing. Later on with our kids you know, they

would say, “But Mum can’t out rank you any more can she?” Because see George ended up a Warrant Officer and so of course the two hooks meant nothing. Oh dear.

Oh yes, very much so, he always did, right from the word go, oh yeah.

Yes he did, I just think that was part of a reaction of getting home and oh you know, this sort of stuff you know.

But oh no, no, no he respected it.

Well you see, I think with men, I mean as far as their girlfriends, they like them to be soft and cuddly, there he is over there, he is not even listening to me, soft and cuddly alright, whereas the uniform puts on

another façade you know, and I think that is what, that is how it was the uniform was a bit of a deterrent, I think.

For everybody really, you know they sort of see you in uniform and they think, well wait a minute. Oh yes, oh yes, as I said before, when we first joined and when we were first in uniform or whatever, a lot of the women,

a lot of the women, not necessarily the men, the women who did not enlist or did not have the opportunity of being in uniform, they were inclined to be a bit anti, a bit anti us oh yeah, oh yeah.

The other women, oh yeah.

Oh no,

no not a, it was there, but it wasn’t too pronounced, but you could feel it. It was one of those felt that you were sort of, they were looking at you as much to say who the hell do you think you are you know. Maybe we earned it sometimes because the way we walked, because in training, in training, you see a soldier walk, you see a soldier he walks huh, you know, and that is exactly how we walked, you know, head

up shhhh, that sort of thing, it was required of us to do so. And I think, I think women, other women thought we were a little bit above ourselves, maybe we were, I don’t know. Yep.

Well unfortunately one of my friends particular friend I went to school with. She wanted her to enlist when I did and her father wouldn’t allow her to do so

and unfortunately for her she ended up in an munitions factory, now that is a hell of a job that. And women were recruited into that, oh yeah. If you were a single women and you were not in the services, you were put into, what did they call it, to do with works anyway, to do with the support of the nation. I mean because so many left the factories and

left their work, women were recruited into that, manpower, that is what it was manpower, manpower yeah. So she ended up there which wasn’t a very nice job at all. But that is how it goes.

Very much so, because of my father’s war record, because I was brought up to respect it,

you know, and I felt well, and because George was in the army, that is one of the reasons, yeah.

Pride of country I hope. Thinking that you are doing something towards the war effort. That is how it felt you know, yep.

Oh no you don’t, you get on with what you are supposed to be doing yourself. Oh no you don’t do that, you don’t judge anybody, that is their prerogative if they want to do something else, go ahead and do it. We were just proud to be there.

My mother wasn’t too happy about it at all.

Her only child sort of thing, going into things that nobody knows about, blah blah blah, so I went and enlisted myself. I didn’t have, see I was 21 I wanted to enlist when I was 20, 18, my father, they wouldn’t give consent. See at that time unless you were an orphan as such,

you had to have your parent’s concession. They had to sign the paper to say yay she can go. But the moment I turned 21 I went to the recruiting office and sort of a little bit in defiance I suppose. I said well right, I will do it myself, which I did.

No, you can do almost anything by the time you are 21, well when you are 21.

And then when I was 21, I don’t know what happens now, I think it is, I think the limit is 18 now, I think the age is 18, but yeah.

Yes. I thought I might have been shown the door but I wasn’t. They were quite happy, I think they were proud of it. To tell you the truth, you know.

They were very proud of it, very proud of it, you know what I mean. Especially my father, of course being a World War I digger he didn’t have a son to join and here is his daughter doing the right thing, you know.

Oh just that he was very proud of it, very proud. I have a photograph of he and I at the exhibition grounds and it was the day that I went and enlisted.

And we went, there was an exhibition on and he and I were there and he is in uniform isn’t he, in his VDC [Volunteer Defence Corps] uniform and he was quite proud I think, but I was in civvies.

1919.

No she met my father, he was a World

War I digger and he was in France and also England and the story that they tell, god love them… These two Aussie soldiers in London on leave alright. Now my mother and her sister, her eldest sister, they were in London and they were watching the changing of the guard weren’t they, and these Aussie

soldiers were standing there taking the mickey out of the British soldiers who were all done up with the busbies and the whole bit you know and the red jackets and the whole thing, doing the changing of the guard outside Buckingham Palace. And these two blokes, Aussie soldiers, this is the story they tell me. These two Aussie blokes were taking the mickey out of the uniforms and all that sort of thing. And apparently my mother being a very staunch English women and her sister, reeled around to

them and told them what they thought of them. These Australians, these ignorant Australians sort of thing, righto. Resulting in the ignorant Australians took the pair of them to tea at one of the Lyons teahouses that prevail in England, in London. So and that is how the romance started. God, as a child I used to savour that, I really did,

because that is what happened, yes.

When I went to England in 88, it was the only time I ever went overseas and I went over by myself. And I went to suss out my rellies over there because I am doing genealogy and I am madly into that and I went over there to see who they were and where they were and all that jazz, you know. And I purposely went to

watch the changing of the guard and to stand on the plinth, there is a big statue there of Queen something or other, and I am standing up there with the rest of the crowd sort of thing you know, and somebody spoke to me and said, “Oh here is an Aussie,” and I thought to myself oh my god, I am doing the thing that my father did, you know here we are, that is where they met, and I thought, oh god.

See my mother, my mother was valet and lady’s maid to Lord and Lady Gazley. They came from Surrey ok. Now he was required to attend court functions and all that sort of thing, at Buckingham Palace, he and his Lord and Lady ok.

Now she used to look after all his regalia that he had to wear on these occasions. And the ladies regalia that she had to wear on all the occasions, and she had to dress them for them to go to all these things and they would have a coach pick them up and all these sort of things, you know. And she was responsible for all this gear that this fellow and

the lady whatever she wore, so all the medals and god knows what and she had to wait up for them to come home and do the whole damn thing again, sort of undress them and sort of put all the gear away and all that sort of thing. So she was a lady’s maid and she had to be responsible for putting away all that gear. So that was her connection to royalty.

Well I think because of the war she was in a, what they call a terraplane factory in England, they were making parts for planes and that was during the First World War, and she was doing that. And then of course she met my father and they decided to get married and whatever, I have got a photograph of their wedding here somewhere and, my goodness me,

she looks the saddest looking person on the side of the earth, very serious photograph. You know, where we sort of put on a laugh a bit of a smile in wedding photographs you know, and everybody is happy happy, this was a very serious one this one, very serious. Not a smile anywhere, but.

Oh god knows, that was the time of the time, you had your photograph taken then hey wait a minute, ohhh you had to be serious.

Didn’t like it a bit. Oh no, no the heat got her and oh she sort of, until she joined, until she joined the St Matthews Ladies Group, Church of England up at Sherwood, you have probably seen that church right on the

corner of Oxley Road and yeah yeah, St Matthews, well until she joined the ladies group there she was inclined to be a little bit sort of standoffish you know, but they soon brought her into the family into the fold and she enjoyed herself no end, oh yes.

Yeah, I think I told you that before in the beginning when I was speaking to you.

Oh well, yes. He said, well she wanted to see where he came from and all that sort of stuff you know. And he took her out to St George and, as I said before, it was in the drought, which was a dreadful time for anybody to go country

and she was absolutely sort of had the feeling I guess, what on earth have I done coming out here you know, what will I do out here sort of thing. Because she came from Surrey which is the greenest part of England. It is down out on the southern end, right down south and it is an absolutely beautiful countryside, really is, green green you know, and

houses that have been there since god knows when and different set up to what it is here. I don’t know what it is like now but from what she told me and things you know, photographs of that I had of the house, different altogether. She was born on a little place called Deep Pool Farm and it was, you know how they had the tithes then it was ten, sort of ten year tenancy and I think that is what happened with her family.

They had this farm on a ten year tenancy, and yeah, that is where she was born. So she found it extremely different out here, extremely different.

Well funny thing you should say that. Her elder sister, her elder sister. Incidentally the eldest sister I told you about just a few minutes ago, she was engaged to

my father’s best friend in the army but unfortunately he didn’t come back from France, he was killed in Pozieres I think. But anyway, she sent, she sent money out to mother and said, “If you don’t like it out there come back home,” and she sent the fare shipping to come home. But my mother never ever used it, never ever used it, so there you go. She

had that contingency you know, hey come home if you don’t like it out there, you know.

I think so yes, yes because I don’t think my father’s family, the sisters in particular, they had a girlfriend that wanted to marry my father you see and I think they would get a bit annoyed that he chose an

English women over an Australian women. And they didn’t give my mother a great deal of help at all, oh no, they were sort of anti, anti British women you know, oh yes.

Oh yes, very much so. And yet and yet when they needed a lot of help, she was the one that took them in and looked after them you know, that is life I suppose,

you do these things.

No Graceville was primary, Graceville was primary, yeah Graceville was primary, and then from State Commercial was right down near Parliament House in George Street, in Brisbane. Right down, near the park. We used to escape, escape from the school

and go through the gates into the park and there was a big kiosk there. I think it is still there I’m not sure and we used to go in there for what they used to call ‘college straight ups’, how about that. Do you know what a college straight up is? You don’t oh it is fantastic, I mean all the calories in the world, great long glass like so, with all different coloured ice creams, oh yes, all the way up complete with nuts on the top of it like that, oh no, cream

and then nuts on the top of that and then they poured a sort of syrupy thing that ran all down inside the glass like that and you were handed a spoon, you definitely needed it, and you sit there and think yourself wonderful with a college straight up and that is what it was. How about that.

Oh yum, yeah it was too.

How much was it?

Oh not very much at all actually, was it two and six or which was a hell of a price, two and six according to us at that stage, no two and six, yeah 20 what is it 25 cents now isn’t it. Is that it? Yes.

Well you saved up, you see, you only did it once, only once a week. You only did that once a week and you saved up. You got so much for train fares because I used to come from

Graceville and you would get out and you would walk from Roma Street station all the way down to the college you see, and you would get pocket money. My mother used to give me pocket money to pay for the train fare and maybe I could have a cake or something special. One of these little cup cake things and I used to save it up. You see I would save up the money for the cup cakes and at the end of the week we would indulge. We would have this, ooh dear.

It was a wonder we weren’t out here I tell you, because, oh dear.

Pardon?

It was great because it was a different world altogether. Because I mean primary school was primary school and you did what you had to do. But high school I mean you were stepping into another era, you were meeting other people, different people from all over the place, you know not

necessarily from our little belly wig where we lived. But all over Brisbane, you know. We used to go, where all the big buildings are now down on the riverfront behind Parliament House, down there. That used to be our Domain, they used to call that the Domain and they used to have hurdle races and all that sort of stuff down there for the school. Oh yeah. And would you believe it, I was a hurdler, oh yeah,

long legs you see. But oh no, it was great. I had a wonderful time I really did, oh yeah.

No it doesn’t, no it didn’t you see this was a State Commercial one. See some of the others private schools they did have boarding schools attached, you know the likes of all Hallows and those people they had boarding school and whatever. Grammar also had a boarding school.

See I did a commercial course, which was bookkeeping, mainly. Which I took on, I was saying before, I took on after I left the army and before, and then after the army I took on bookkeeping. But you know, typing and shorthand and bookkeeping and business methods and that sort of thing

that is what it was.

Well there was a certain train, it left, it left Roma Street at 4 o’clock and if I wasn’t in home in the house by 5 o’clock she wanted to know why, yes, very strict lady, but she was nice with it, yes.

Yes. Oh well you would stop talking wouldn’t you. Oh I mean, lets face it. Yes, especially with the grammar boys. They used to travel on the same train, quite a few of them, you know and there would be seats, whole seats, because the trains at that stage had the seats running length ways like that you see. And there would be, there would be sort of groups of us, we us and co, and there would be groups of grammar

down there and there would be groups of state high and all that sort of stuff, you know. And they would all sort of talk and yell and carry on you know, yeah. Like they do now.

Yeah, yeah it was navy, navy and white with a purple, purple and navy, a panama hat, purple and navy trim around with the insignia of the school there.

Yes definitely. Yes. There was one, see at Corinda, at Corinda there was a St Aidans College, you probably know of it, that was a very, that was a what do I say, Church of England school

and some of the ‘ladies’ in inverted commas who attended there, the girls were very stuck up and above themselves a lot of them, oh really and truly, but of course I think when you are young you don’t give a damn about that. I know we didn’t. No we just knew they were and they’re St Aidans chicks, that is what they were chicks,

St Aidan’s chicks.

Oh I can’t remember now but Grammar had one I think. There was Church of England Grammar and there was straight out grammar and St Margaret’s they had, they were called Maggie of course.

That is right, that is right, yes that was it, maggots, St Margaret’s were maggots,

that’s right.

Let’s have a cup

Well as I said before, I studied piano and voice and singing and I was sort of involved in that sort of thing, like we used to put on shows and you know and the lady who taught me singing Ivy Plane,

I think she has gone to God now, but she used to put on recitals and things like that in the city hall and, oh yeah that sort of thing. So that is what I was keenly interested in.

Dancing I suppose, no that’s it. I was more or less involved in that sort of thing you know, like

entertainment and things like that.

Well when I finished high school my mother said, “Well it is about time you got yourself a decent sort of job isn’t it?” She was very practical, down to earth, which I did.

Did I Look at him, I will look at you.

Oh can I, oh ta.

Oh ta.

Oh yes, she said well if you want to make something of yourself you have got the training blah blah blah, get yourself a job, which I did. As I said before, I went to Hemmingway and Robinson in Brisbane, which is a firm of, shall we say, what did they do, they had

schooling there for business classes and all that sort of thing. But when I found that I could get a more permanent job in my own district I decided to take on this job of bookkeeping for this butchering firm and he had, this man, Bailey and Rogers it was, they had three, three shops, one

at Graceville where I was based and Towong in Brisbane and out to Albion out the other side of town. So that is what I was involved with, bookkeeping. And from there, from there I joined the army so.

I don’t know I had a way with figures and books and stuff like that, I just sort of liked it, I thought it was great. Making out bills for

people and some of them paid their bills and some of them didn’t and you had to chase those that didn’t, yeah.

Oh office work. Yeah office work for sure, office work. I think my mother would have wished that I took on training to become a nurse. I think that is what she had ideas of but I wasn’t that way inclined but strangely enough

I have a degree nurse in the family, Yvonne, so she took it on and she did very well.

Yeah.

Well going into working life I mean you felt extremely important, oh my goodness me yes. You dressed differently and I suppose if you were

any ways decent in your job you had a bit of respect from your bosses. And also it might have been, it is not possibly not such a savoury job for anybody, saying fancy working in a butcher shop. Fancy working even near a butcher shop blah blah blah. I was in an office by myself so to speak, you know, but butchering was there.

The fellow who had the shop in there, he was a very very strange man, but anyway. He said to me, “You ought to watch what I am doing here Mary because who knows you might marry a grazier and you might be out on a station and you might need some expertise in doing blah blah blah.” So I watched him didn’t I, not that I had any ideas of doing what he suggested. But yes, I watched him and it

got to the stage where I could have broken down a beef if I had to. And funnily enough when I was enlisted, you had an interview you see, and there was three, three ladies three officers and this one in the middle she said to me, (UNCLEAR) she was, she said,

went through the history of what I could do blah blah blah bookkeeping and all that sort of stuff, meaning clerical work and stuff like that, and she said, “What else can you do?” And I said, “Well in a pinch,” I said, “I could break down a beef.” She looked at me and looked at the other two, as if to say wait a minute what have we got here you know, you could see sort of circulating. “Well madam,” I said,

“my job was with a butchering firm,” and I said, “and the shopman decided that I needed to know what to do, should I ever need it.” And she said, “You have got to be joking. I’ve never heard of that, have you heard, have you blah blah blah”. I said, “Well it is true.” “That is what he said?” And I said, “Yes,” and she said, “Oh you will be an

asset.” And I thought for god sake don’t put me in the butcher shop in the army I don’t want to be in that, you know. But she said, “Oh you would be an asset oh well, yes dear.” So sign on the dotted line so to speak which I did. But I had to laugh, the amazement on their faces, you know, what does she mean. But anyway.

Yes he did. Very much so, we were at home. I was at home and then later on I was with another group. A church group actually and it hit you, it just sort of hit you. It was one of those things, oh god it can’t happen here. This is happening in our lifetime, you know what I mean.

And when they announced it ‘my sombre duty is to say’ blah blah this is how they went on about it, that we are now at war and it just sort of, dead silence just hit you like that you know. Oh yeah, just hit you. And you wondered what next was going to happen. That was the whole bit, not knowing what next was going to happen. And I felt sorry for the powers at be because

I mean hey, they were only, they were under direction as to what part Australia would play in the war effort. So people were hastily mobilised, blokes were mobilised, people were put into jobs that they had never ever done before, that sort of thing. But it spoke well for the Australian public. Because they were there when needed,

you know.

My Dad, well of course he immediately, he is with the VDC you see. He immediately joined back up again. But it was a voluntary detachment. They were never paid for that, for their services, nope they were never paid for it. It was voluntary. Looking after, as I said before bridges and railheads and all that sort of stuff you know.

And they were even issued with a 303 rifle and they had to go out to Redbank planes to have training there, to refresh their memory as to how to use a 303.

God he must have been, I was 21 so he would be in his 60s, he would have to be,

oh yes, they all were around that age, 60s.

Pardon?

Oh no problem at all. They were there at the recruiting office just like that. Oh yeah. And when people were more or less put into holding camps as they more or less called it, any person like an Italian of Italian origin, German origin, or

whatever, they were shall we say, interrogated and some of them went to concentration camps, some of them went to holding camps, oh yeah. Because you see they were a threat to the nation.

Here in Australia that happened. It happened in the little place of Graceville. Because there was a lady there who was an Italian and

there was another two blokes who were, one was a German and but no because Germany and Italy and nations over there were involved in the war. And it was a little bit, well it was something like what they are doing now for terrorists, it was something similar to that, now if any of these people are of Iraqi origin or whatever and they are here in this

country they are being investigated. That is how it is, because you wouldn’t know who you would have in your backyard. Yeah that really happened.

Well one of these Italian fellows was quite friendly with my father and his mates you know. And they had to go into a camp and they were held there for quite sometime

because they had to find out what their connection was with their old country so to speak. Oh yeah a lot of it was done, a lot of them ended up in camps.

Well see, the thing is you learnt to accept what was going on. You couldn’t make any change I mean that was the powers of be that was ordering this. Supposedly for the safety of the country.

You don’t you just don’t question. Especially when there is something of that nature on, I mean you are there to do a job and that is it.

See, well now I wouldn’t have John Howard’s job for quids, no way in the world. Now that poor devil he has got to do the right thing by

his country and by the people of his country. Now I am not necessarily a voter in favour of his shall I say, stories or whatever but I wouldn’t like to have his position for quids, I really wouldn’t because he has got, in my opinion, he has got Bush in my opinion, is terribly radical. He, Bush is, I think he has gone over the top, I really do.

Look at all his young people who have been killed. Lost their lives. Now the nation, I remember George saying, the nations over there like Turkey and in the desert all these people, there is millions of them, millions of these people right, and they are lucky to have a square meal, they are lucky to have a feed.

And as to having a home, you know, they haven’t, they haven’t got a damn thing. So there you go you breed, you breed this unrest. Why can’t we have what other people have you see? Now it is only because in my opinion of their government and the way they rule their country. Now I don’t ever think it is going to be a smooth ride in Iraq. I don’t. You have a look at the,

on film I know we are just shown what we are supposed to see. But you have a look on film, there are millions of people milling around, milling around. What have they got, absolutely nothing, now that breeds discontent, now I don’t know how Bush is going to handle that, I really don’t. He is trying to get a government established over there.

It will be an uphill job I think. It is a worrying time.

Well yes

because of the intelligence, they had a hell of a job they really did because any information that they got back, it had to be completely secret blah blah. And they could only release, the powers of be, could only release a certain amount of information to the general public, because not that, in some cases we had radical groups that would jump round and

scream and carry on but in general I think Australians are reasonably level headed. Mainly I suppose, is because we have got a great country, we have never had all that terrible unrest that is going on over there. We have our fights and our rows and goodness knows what and someone races around with a banner and says this that and the other thing but nothing like what is over there not a damn thing.

So we should consider us as the lucky country, we really should.

Well when the war was sort of really going nasty and the Churchill, Churchill wanted Australian troops to

remain in Crete and Greece and remain to look after the mother country which is England at that time and he wanted the Australians to stay. Now Curtin realising that the Japanese were hurtling down the way and we needed, we need the men back, we need them all back here and John Curtin was the person that defied

the British and said no, the men are coming home and that is what happened. They dragged them all out of wherever they were and brought them home and then subsequently sent them up to New Guinea. So you know. But Curtin did the right thing by Australia, see, by Australia. Menzies was a lover of the British realm, definitely British forever as far as Menzies was concerned.

But he wasn’t, he, I don’t know. Curtin was the fella that really decided.

Well there was at that time, because it was England forever. And that was the cry you know. But when America came into the war,

of course America was our ally and America, we are more inclined, we are more inclined now to side with America than we are with Britain and going towards a republic here. I think that is what will eventually happen. Because young people are looking to, well the likes of yourself, I mean you are going to have children ok,

or you may have children, now you have got to look to them for their future, that is what you have to do. And whether a situation with aligning with America is going to help and keep safe your children, that is what you will do. Of course you will. That is my opinion anyway.

Well it is a lovely story.

Be prepared, be prepared to know about it. When I was 18, sweet 18, I came down here, wait for this. Picture an open truck, an open truck with seats across it ok, old army blankets and stuff like that ok, from the First World War,

all moth eaten and god knows what.

What year was it, well I was 18 I am 83 now work it back.

Yeah go on. Anyway the story goes it was before the war, before 39, before 39, so this truck used to come through, and I lived at Graceville of course. And we used to get up as far as the Oxley Hotel, the old Oxley Hotel

on Ipswich Road ok. And the truck used to pick up we girls, three of us and we used to get on the back of this truck, sit along the planks and we used to have the old blankets to wrap around us so sitting up there you wouldn’t get too cold you see. But if you were a particular friend of the driver of the truck, you got the front seat with him. But you had to be real

good to him before you could get that seat, and we preferred to sit out the back you see. But anyway that is how we got down to Corinda here, complete with other lifesavers who came from Ipswich, and George was one of them. They used to the, see they were the Ipswich Vikings and they had a swimming group at Ipswich and they teamed up with the crew down here

at the surf club here. So they used to be backwards and forwards every weekend. Anyway this particular time we came down on the back of a truck. Now George was very, he was cashed up at the time I think because he had his own car. And they used to come down a couple of blokes with him. Anyway this particular weekend we are sitting on the beach here and they had, at that stage they

used to go up the bush and cut up saplings with plenty of leaves and stuff on it and branches and make sort of bush houses on the beach here so that bush shade you see, and we used to sit under those, but anyway that is where I met him on the beach here. That is where I met George and I remember one of his mates who has incidentally gone to God now, he

had a sapling and he is belting, he is belting at the sand and he said, “Where are you going tonight girls?” And I said, “We are going to Jazz Land.” Now you are too young to know about Jazz Land but it had, in Coolangatta, it had a big dance floor in there, it was an absolutely fantastic place for dances you know, in Coolangatta, so righto. This chap he said, he is thumping the

sand he said, “Now if you are going out with Kemp you take this with you because you are going to need it.” But that is how I met him right on the beach. So that is a long association we have had with Kuranda, believe me.

Yes I laughed, god. But there you go.

Oh yes, they all turned up. You see this

car that George had, you might have seen them, it is quite an antique thing, it had running boards along the side. Oh yes, real antique, running boards along the side, but I got the front seat didn’t I. Yes we all went to Jazz Land piled into this car and hung on the sides you know, no worries about traffic and cars and cops you know, and off we went to Jazz Land.

Oh god, oh gees right through, as I say, I met him when I was 18 and 21 when I enlisted so it is a long time, yeah long time. And where, now here is a bit of history, where the Rocks Resort is now, right along the front there was a lot of little fibro

fisherman’s cottages, all the way along the front here, and next door to it, on the end near the park was Mrs Herbert’s guest house, now Mrs Herbert’s... Now there was a photograph, where was it, over at the Pine’s Library the other day, of that area during that time and Mrs Herbert’s guest house was right adjacent to the park and that is where the girlfriends of the lifesavers used to stay, at Mrs

Herberts guest house. So that is going back a bit that is, so there you are.

Oh well I mean. When George enlisted, he enlisted from Ipswich and they were the first group to march

out of Ipswich and went down, and they enlisted and went down to Grovely, now you have probably heard of Grovely camp in Brisbane. And that is where they were sort of inducted into the army so to speak and that was their first taste of discipline and whatever. Even although they were lifesavers here and they had discipline, here it was a different type of discipline you know, and resulting in

that many a time when he was supposed to be coming, taking me out he was kept in at camp, he wasn’t given any leave was he, because he wasn’t fronting up to answering up to the bugle or anything like that, oh no. See, from going from an independent lifestyle, the likes of the, I am talking for the men now, to go into a very strict army routine,

they were inclined to buck about that you know. So he was and very often they were AWL [Absent Without Leave], they would go absent without leave and yeah. Oh yes, there would be many a time. My girlfriend used to ring up and say, “Is Titch, no is George coming out this weekend?” And I would say, “Well no,” and she would say, “Neither is Titch, they have been confined to barracks, that is what they have because they are AWOL.”

True, oh yes, but that was just something that happened. Par for the course actually.

Yeah well, what we, see down here on the coast there

was Bilinga, Tugan, Currumbin and Palm Beach. Now all the lifesavers, the lifesavers enlisted in mass. As soon as the war was declared they enlisted. They went to various services the air force, the army the whole bit. So they all enlisted. And we had around here at the old Currumbin pub, we had the party to end

all parties because it was the going away party for all these men who had enlisted along here, it was fantastic it really was.

Well I had to laugh because, well I mean there was a piano, of course there was a piano, or there was a piano at every pub. And this room, this room was a big sort of barn like room you know and they had the piano up in the corner

and then you just walked through and the big bar, you see, for the drinks was in there. And of course the traffic from here to the bar was quite something you know. They had quite a few beers, quite a few drinks, and they danced and they sang and it was really a great party, great party. And something else attached to the lifesavers… possibly a couple of years before that,

there was a fellow there by the name of Moe Wilson, now his name was Morris and they called him Moe and he had a pie cart didn’t he, now he had this pie cart, horse drawn, and the horses name was Maud and he liked, Moe liked his a bit of a dash of whatever you know. So he is around at the pub and of course all the boys are around there too

and when he came out, and they used to buy pies off him you see, and it was six pence right, and you would put the sixpence just on a tray. Moe wouldn’t be there, he would be inside and there would a tray on the back of the cart where the horse is you know. And you would open up the pie door and take your pie out and put your sixpence there. It was one of these trusting sort of souls. Anyway one night, a couple of the blokes thought they would help Moe along you see.

So they took Maud out of the sharves and they put Maud one side of the fence and the cart the other and linked her up you see. And here is the fence down the middle and here is poor Maud standing here and the pie cart standing there. And of course when Moe came out there was hell to pay, you know. But I don’t know if they ever found out who did it but. That is the sort of, that is the sort of thing they used to get up to you know. Nowadays

I think they’d say, “Oh that’s blasé, oh fancy doing that,” but it was hilarious, it really was.

Oh yes that is right, they didn’t mean any nastiness. Oh no, it was just a joke.

Oh I don’t know, I think it was,

at the time it was sort of expected of the young men to enlist. Whether he had pressure from his family or not, I don’t know. But his mates were joining up so he did and that was it. You know, I don’t know whether, but some people say, “Well oh yes but you joined for your country.” Now wait a minute, of course you did

but there were other motives too. You joined because your mates were there. They were all going so why the hell. It was an adventure to start with, it was an adventure, right, but it held a lot of dire things to happen, but it was an adventure. And being a young bloke, no ties, you know, off they go.

Pardon?

He was sent to, as I say, Grovely camp and then down to Sydney, down to Sydney where they boarded the Queen Mary. And they used to have their physical jerks and exercises and training, running around the decks of the Queen Mary you know to keep them all fit order and in training and all that sort of stuff. And finally ended up going through the Suez Canal and up into the desert and that is where they yeah. That is where they started anyway.

Yes I do because actually, I didn’t know the exact day because you are not told, you are not told, especially with a great contingent of men that went on that Queen Mary. They could never say when it was sailing or what it was going to do, where it was going because oh well, I mean, you had to keep all these sorts of

things secret because had the enemy known they could have sent it to the bottom, that is what they could have done. And they had the, they were accompanied by, not the Sydney, another war ship, they took them to the destination, you know they sort of accompanied them. But talking about the Sydney, it was lost of Western Australia

and it was enemy submarine and blah blah blah that got that. And quite a young friend of mine was a Petty Officer on that and he went down with the ship. The whole compliment went down, there was nobody saved at all. But that was off the Western Australian coast, so I mean, they were very close to Australia, very close.

No I couldn’t, because we weren’t allowed to, nobody was allowed,

oh no. Because it was a sort of, shall I say, nobody knew when it was going or where, you know.

I had enlisted, or wait a minute. No I wasn’t in the army at the time. ‘42 and he went in ‘40 so ‘40, ‘41 he went, so

you know.

Oh yes, letters that came through, you probably may have seen them on telly and whatever. There are very old films about how the censorship affected letters. Well I’ve got a, sorry I didn’t keep, I couldn’t find it anyway, pieces that were cut out you see, they would tell you great stories about whatever, you know, they would write to you.

And you would get a letter that would have pieces cut out of it for the censor. Because it all had to go through the censor before the mail came back to you, yeah. Everything had to be censored and you used to get these silly looking letters with these holes in them all over the place you know.

Oh no, some of it did, some of it didn’t you know. He just sort of used to tell me about having a great leave and then he would have

possibly Haifa written down but Haifa would have been cut out, because that is where they were in Haifa. But yeah. In Syria.

Oh yes I used to write back and backwards and forth about different things you know, oh yeah.

Well they all had friends or husbands or whatever, serving you know, oh yeah. And we were sort of like a band of people really because we’d swap, did you hear from so and so and what is happening and all that sort of thing. George used to send me cards from the Middle East. And they, of course the people who’d made the cards, they did quite

nicely out of it because, see that photograph over there behind the fan? That one of me there, well I sent that to him, actually he took that with him, with him everywhere he went, and that photograph of him was taken just before he left, so you know, yeah.

Pardon?

Oh yes, I wrote to him that and he said, “What did you want to do something silly like that?” you know, oh yes.

“What did you want to do something silly like that? One of us is enough,” that is what he said, one of us is enough. I thought to myself oh well fair enough. But I had already done the deed so I couldn’t do much about it. I didn’t want to do anything about it actually, didn’t want to do anything about

it.

Pretty fair, pretty fair, yeah yeah. We were engaged I think, I am not sure. I think we were,yes I think we were.

Well when he came back and was discharged from the army, a lot of the fellows, fortunately.

Fortunately he sort of had a very stable outlook by this time of what he wanted to do when he got out of the army. He wanted to go into a business for himself, into a business himself. So we did, and as I say, first of all he was a linesman. He got a job down here, at Coolangatta, it was called

SCA then South Easter, Southern Electric Authority, that is what it was. And he was a linesman, and learnt his trade. And climbing ladders, and of course nowadays they go up on a forklift and they are fixing things on the lines you know, with the forklift, they don’t have to climb ladders anymore, but that is what they had to do they had to climb ladders, up these poles and all this sort of stuff. But that is when we lived at Coolangatta.

And we had, what did I have, I already had Susan, the eldest girl, she was born in Murwillumbah and we were living here in, you know, there is a big high rise building down here on the corner called Nyoka, now there was an old place in four flats. And we sort of leased that when we came out of the army, we leased that and then he did his training and so

it went on you know. And so yeah, and we were here for a mighty cyclone. We had been here for a couple of them actually. But one of them in particular was when I was waiting to go and have my first child and we had to travel to Murwillumbah hospital from air. Because Southboard wasn’t here and yeah and this cyclone took

away all the beach front all the road all the way along and was just a mere jagged footpath yay wide like that. And this house was on the corner there and I spent my time watching the waves coming and they were coming and they were coming and they were coming and shooting up Maraba Street. So here I am waiting to go to hospital aren’t I, almost at the drop of a hat.

And so the ambulance came but they came down from Woodgy Street up on the hill here and down from the side of Maraba Street and I was able to get out that way otherwise, I don’t, well I would have had the child at home. So there you go. So a little bit of history of Currumbin because it can get wild here.

We are not!

Well you notice the difference in a person, well of course I am talking George my husband. The story is this. I think he and his mate Jimmy, Jimmy Simpson. Now Jimmy was an academic,

George was not, he was a worker ok. Jimmy wanted George to go into business with him when he came home, but when Jim came... See when they went away Jimmy’s mother, a little Scots woman, she said to George, “I want you to look after Jims, look after Jims,” now that is a terrible thing to say to another person who is going into

that theatre of war or any place, look after somebody else. You are flat out looking after yourself, really and truly. And in their condition flat out looking after yourself. With George he was looking after Jimmy. Now Jim his nerves went ok. Now when they were up in, where were they in Lae in New Guinea, Jimmy went a little bit off his head.

But he stayed on, he wanted to be with George all the time and George looked after him alright. Now when they came back, when they came back, oh Jimmy was sent home, that is right, because of his nerves or whatever. And I think George realised how much he was really looking after him you know, responsibility of ‘a’ person’s life. Anyway during his time with Docks Operating George,

he, he sort of… The ship was blown up, the ship that they were on was blown up. And he was shot down into the hold and whatever and he helped rescue a couple of the other fellas there. He didn’t talk about it but I was told about it later. And he was made a Warrant Officer in the field. Now that is an honour for the simple reason, it is not out of a college, it is not out of an army school.

It’s what you did on the field and that is how he got his Warrant Officer. Anyway when he came home he said he wanted to go into business. And I said, “Well what sort of business would you like to do? What do you want to do?” He said, “I would like to own a truck,” he said, “and I would like to get into the trucking, sand, gravel and whatever business.” I said, “Ok lets do it.” Now we didn’t have a bob to scrap together.

We didn’t, all we had was our deferred pay, which combined bought us the first truck. Now it was second-hand, believe me it was second-hand, so from then on. We were lucky, we had a sort of rapport, he was the worker, I was the bookkeeper. You know, that sort of thing, and we had a great life, resulting in that we were able to

look after our children education wise. We were able to build this place, you know all that sort of thing and it carried on, carried on because that man, he went into taxis then after the trucks, with blue and white, they later merged with black and white and so it went on. So we were with taxis, now he devised a plan

to go to Montrose Home, now you probably know Montrose Home in Corinda ok go up there and pick up the wheelchair children and take them to the Corinda High School, State High School ok. Now he prevailed upon the then principal Vicki Honor to approach the education department and have ramps built so that these kids could get into class

you know. And then he used to pick up, oh this is honestly. He used to pick up these kids that were multicapped, now they were multicaps over Sunnybank way, over that way alright. Now he used to pick up these kids from around the district and pack them into the cab. This is free of charge, this is no money making thing, this is him. And so he used

to pick these kids up and one little boy, one little boy used to sit in the front with George. And George would get a hold of his arm and put it around and he said, “Now you hang onto me.” What was his name, Pedro they called him. “Hang onto me Pedro and you can help drive the car,” and the kid thought he was hey woopsy do. The kid used to sing a song ‘Moon River’. And the kid used to sing that song all the way to school, all the way back and all that sort of

stuff. So Moon River became our theme song ok. So incidentally at George’s funeral that is what we had played and it was quite, to me it was quite significant of the man, you know what I mean. But when he, as I say, was all he needed was for someone to say, right we will do this and he had a mind of his own. God help me he did, but the point is this

but the point is if a person wanted to get into and work and make a family and all that, that is what he wanted to do. A lot of men didn’t do that. When they came back they were all at sixes and sevens, out of discipline, out of discipline, they didn’t know quite what to do you know. And fortunately for us you know we got together. Yeah.

Oh because of his, because of the experiences that they had over there you know, and thinking, thank god I am alive, you know what I mean. His personality changed from happy go lucky, come whatever, so whatever, he always had a laugh, he always had a joke because he was well known for that over at the RSL [Returned and Services League]. He was the boss, he was the

boss round there but all the blokes thought he was great you know. He never ever drank, he did drink when he was a young man and when he was overseas. But when he came home, there was a saying in the family when Susan was born, when Susan was born he gave up the beer, right, because he did drink heavily. Gave up the beer when Sue was born. When Geoffrey was born he gave up smoking, when Yvonne was born

his mates said, “What did you give up George, what was it that you gave up?” You know because there is only three things in life isn’t there, beer and smokes and sex, oh obliterate that. But no, that is true, but he did change, he changed into a, he was always a caring man, but more responsible, more responsible, sort of grew up in a hell of a hurry you know. And that is what they all did.

Oh I don’t know he, his army, his army life. Well if you can say enjoyed, it was an experience and the people that he met there and blokes he served with and whatever, and well the officers and the whatever, that were sort of in charge.

Now one instance, there was a young bloke. This is in the desert, this young bloke was an officer, he was sent out to join them and I don’t know, George said that he more or less took him under his wing so to speak. And he said this young bloke was real gung ho, resulting in the fact that, well in one of the,

shall we say operations that they had in the desert, this chap was sent home because he had his arm shot off because he was too gung ho, he was sort of ‘I’m in charge and you do this’ sort of thing. He was so green that he was really a danger to the other soldiers, the other men who had been through

it, you know what I mean. And well, I mean you get a bit wise, you keep your head down I would suggest, you know. But he was, and strangely enough I met up with his wife much later, she is an AWAS too.

Oh yes we caught up with Jimmy, Jimmy went back to, he was a clerk, what did he do. Oh, in some other, oh

what was he in, some home improvement stuff sort of thing you know, like baths and cisterns and that sort of stuff, selling that sort of stuff. And he was quite good at it too. But he was always a nervous type, always a nervous type, he wanted to go into business with George even then. And I must claim that I objected. I felt that,

wait a minute George will be looking after him again, you know what I mean. And George had enough to do to look after his own family you know. Jimmy’s wife, his second wife was a WAAAF [Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force] and she, she was great company. Yeah that’s right.

Yes he did, he sort of, but mainly…

Now on one occasion they were up on the Turkish border and it was winter, and here they are all muffled up you know, and all that sort of stuff and he said to me, he said something like they wished they were all back on the coast again you know, because of the winter. No, he spoke to me about the different blokes that were there and how

some of them, some of them were able to cope and some of them weren’t you know. But fortunately he was able to.

I had to ask him, I had to ask him. He used to say, “Mare what do you want to know that for?” And I would say, “Oh well, I am just interested you know. I want know what you got up to over there,” and that sort of rubbish. And said,

“Oh it is better off you don’t know,” blah blah blah. And sort of went onto something else. No he was never a person to talk about anything that happened you know. And the majority of them who actually saw service never did, never ever did. No, that was part of their life that was, hey, that was over there sort of thing.

Oh yes they all did,

they all did. I know with George, he had problems. He had, well actually I was saying before that this ship blew up in the harbour while he was blown down into the hold of the ship. And he hurt across his back and his legs and that sort of stuff. He had to have knee operations and all that sort of gear you know but that was a result of you know.

Well I think it was, I think it was part of their lives that it happened. Everything happens and you tend to forget the, shall we say, the nasty side of things and you recall all the mad things

you did, and all the fun and games and the likes of being held in camp, sort of closed camp and what you did. You had to entertain yourselves and all that sort of rubbish you know. It was great fun doing that yeah, but you don’t talk about anything else, never.

Well you see, you sort of, with all due respect you sort of shut yourself off from that sort of thing. Because you see so much of it. These fellows that came through, and they never spoke about anything that was in a nasty

situation. We used to have to do time, so to speak, in Q [Quartermaster] store. Now Q store as you can well imagine, issued out all the eating, irons, and the whatever sort of thing, palliasses all the blankets you name it. That is what they issued out and these blokes used to come through and I remember George, I remember George

saying at one stage, not that he came through while I was at Redbank. He told me once he said, “Well Mare I am standing up in my wardrobe,” because that is literally what they did. The clothing they had on their backs that was it, you know, the boots that was it. You jut had to look after that because if you went to another Q store they would say, “What the hell did you do with the rest that you got?” sort of thing you know. But

used to have to, well not have to from the transit section, Q store was just handy, it was just there sort of thing. There was a sergeant supposedly in charge of it. He was a World War II bloke, he came back from the Middle East and that is what they were doing, the powers of be were allocating men of that nature, of that status to be in

camps. Now they were B class, they couldn’t go overseas again blah blah blah. And they were medically unfit to do that but they used them in situations for the likes of a Q store in a static camp like Redbank you know. And like the RAP Sergeant that is who he was, he was from the Middle East you know. And this bloke, his name was Fischer and of course he got the name of Fish. And

he drank a lot you see. And we’d all, we would quite often find Fish out the back on all the straw that is to go into palliasses, he is out there dead to the world because he has had one or six, you know. And but, those sorts of funny, funny things used to happen. And he denied, oh no way in the world he was on deck you know. Can’t believe it Fish.

Of course, of course yeah well now we had a bloke he was a lieut, he was in charge of the section I worked in. And his name was Snow, that was his, because he had

blonde hair naturally, and he was called Snow. Anyway he, he used to because he was with the 9th Division that bloke, and rather than be boarded out they accepted or wanted to stay in the army so to speak, because a lot of them were boarded out, but no this bloke Snow he was.

And he used to have a chant that he used to get on with. See when we were sending a draft out, a draft of men out with these huge typewriters, nominal rolls they used to call them, huge typewriter and you would have to type up all the mens, the soldiers particulars all the way along and all the stuff, you know, medical blah diddly dum dum dum and everything around about it.

And we used to say if ever they had to take all this stuff with them they would never get up, they’d fall over sideways because all this gear. And it told all about, like what you have got now on microfiche and all that sort of stuff we had it all on this, sort of rolls you know. And we used to have to type all this stuff on it you know. He used to say, when a draft was going out, it would go out about 2 o’clock in the morning and we would

be there, shift work of course, supposedly, and he would say, “Solanum tonight, Solanum tonight,” meaning Solanum was the up on the Tablelands where these blokes were going to be trained up to Solanum and then from Solanum in the training camp up to New Guinea. Up to Townsville and then across.

No, no you actually were not allowed to. You were not allowed to do that, that was one of the things that no. And they were not allowed to talk to us either on that subject.

Well actually that happened.

When we were at exhibition grounds, see when George came back and after he had stayed in South Aus, when they came back they put them into what they used to call choco units which was a nasty word, but anyway. And he was down at a searchlight factory, down on the river and he was riding Don R [Dispatch Rider] and riding Don R as you know, is bringing messages and mail and god knows

what to the various sections. Well he was riding Don R with another bloke on the back. And his name, wait for it was Rat Flanagan. And Rat Flanagan was in the same unit as George overseas you see. Now this Rat was a menace, an absolute menace this bloke. Anyway they had one or six riding this big BSA [Birmingham Small Arms motorbike] whatever it was, this

big bike with all the stuff with panniers on the side and all that jazz, anyway. And George, that is right, that is the first time, the next time a fellow a chap appeared in the orderly room, a soldier and he said, “I would like to speak to Corporal Kemp please,” no, Corporal Elliot, no that is right, this is first up. And the girl on the switch said, “Oh that is her

office over there,” blah. blah, so righto. He comes over and he said, “G’day.” I said, “I know you,” and he said, “Yes, my name is Fleming.” I said, “Yes I know it is.” I said, “What are you doing here?” He said, “I’ve come to report that that big hunk of humanity George, has ridden,” wait for it, “ridden this bike through a picket fence,” true, “through a picket fence and landed up in somebody else’s garden out

at Hamilton way out there, and he is presently in camp hospital under the stand right there.” I thought oh god, what is happening here, went over and I saw the sister there and she said, “Who are you looking for?” And I said, “Oh his name is Kemp.” She said, “Oh that bloke that we brought off.” I said, “That is him, the one in the motorbike accident.” “Over there,” she said, “you will never recognise him,” and I thought oh god what has happened. He looked a mess.

Bruises, cuts here, you name it. I said, “Good god, what the hell is wrong you with you?” Of course lovely greeting you know from a person who is supposed to be in love with the guy. I said, “What the hell happened to you?” He said, “Oh thanks for your condolences.” I said, “Well you will get more if you keep this up.” He said, “Oh I want to get back to the 6th Divvy.” He said, “I want to get back with my mates.” And, he said because

of the anti, the anti tank regiment was disbanded they were putting these men who came back into, what they called choco units. Now this is the feeling that men who served overseas, could not handle, could not handle being in sort of a civilian set up, they couldn’t handle it, they either wanted to be out, or they wanted to be with their mates. And you could understand that.

Anyway I went to my adjutant and I explained the situation to him and he said, “Front him up here Corporal and we will see what we can do about him.” And I thought oh wacky do this is good. So when George recovered from the hospital in a decent way, I said to him, “Well you have got to front up to the adjutant here and he wants to talk to you.” “What do I want to talk to him for?” blah blah blah. I said, “He is one of you.” I said, “He is back

from the Middle East,” I said, “he is not a choco.” “Oh that’s alright then, that’s alright,” sort of thing. That is an awful word choco, anyway so that is ok. So George fronts up doesn’t he, complete with me standing there. And the adjutant said, “I hear from Corporal here that you want to rejoin your unit, you want to rejoin the 6th Divvy.” He said, “Yes I do, I want to be with my mates.”

“Righto,” he said, “there is a unit now formed, newly formed,” he said, “it is 6 Docks Operating,” he said, “it is 6th Division” he said, “You’ve got your answer.” He said, “Be ready to move out,” and gave him, he said blah blah blah and you will be picked up and away you go, and that is what happened. He went up to his beloved 6 Divvy and that was it. But it shows you the

mateship. It shows you the mateship that happened between these men, you know what I mean, and when they were apart, it just wasn’t good enough you know. So that is what happened.

Exactly, exactly, that is what the adjutant said to me, he said, “Wait a minute, you said you are sending this bloke away again.” I said, “If I don’t send him away he will end up in

jail.” I said, “He is unhappy.” I said he wants to be with his mates. I said for god’s sake let him go and he said, right, and that is when he organised you know. But this fellow, this adjutant he was a funny guy. God he was funny, he said, “Gee you women, you definitely organise us don’t you.” And I said, “Oh well, hopefully for the best,” you know. Which turned out to be the best.

Unfortunately, now the militia guys did a hell of a job, now the militia went up to on the Kokoda Trail. Now they served Australia, they were fantastic, it was just that there was a certain brotherhood so you could say with the AIF alright. And with the people who went overseas, there was just a sort of thing. Now

after the Kokoda Trail and while these people, these militia men were up there all that changed. All that changed, respect, respect came up you know. And that was wonderful because the militia were defending Australia and right in their own backyard so to speak, or their front yard whichever you’d ever like to call it. So respect came up which, I was very pleased to see

it.

Oh some of them, some of them were a bit that way. But I think they got that knocked out of them in lots of ways. I think, I think that it remains that they are all Australian.

They are all Australian blokes and women and I think that came to the fore, that came to the fore. As I said before they weren’t fighting for Britain, they were fighting for us here, Australia. So that is what makes us very proud.

Well it is a set of bayonets actually, did you know that it was, yeah. It is shaped in the

form of the rising sun but they are bayonets.

Oh yes please, oh yes, yes. On our collars here, on our epaulettes there was, we had the AWAS here but the rising sun was what we treasured. And the buttons down the front, the buttons down the front all had the insignia on it.

No, very proud to wear it, very proud yeah.

Australia, Australia yeah, that is what it was. Homeland that is what it is. See, when it all happened in Gallipoli that is when it was born you know and it has been carried on ever since. And please God it does carry on. Not

that we want to wear it in conflict. We want to wear it because it is a symbol of Australia yep.

Well it did affect, it did affect the business in so

much as, wait for this, where a person would order say a pound in those days, say a pound of mince, lets go to the real nitty, a pound of mince, they would order half a pound of mince and they would stretch it out with vegetables that they had grown in their own backyard, like my father did. In their own backyard

to feed about six kids, you know what I mean so everything was stretched out to accommodate. And bread, women would make their own bread you know. And scones were the things, because scones were easy to make, I could never make them. Scones were easy to make and kids loved them. And people would make their own jams you know, that sort of thing.

And if you knew somebody with a hive in the backyard, well you were made, you had honey, you know, that sort of thing. So in the Depression years, well people they made do yeah.

Well no, see he had people who were.... now the shopman he was in his 50s, 60s see what I mean.

And the two of them that owned the business, there was Bailey and Rogers. Well Rogers, wait for this, a horse and cart. He used to do the deliveries right. The shopman used to do all the necessary cutting up or whatever, and the young boy that used to come in and do wrappings and things like that. And that is how they did it. And they had another bloke who loved horses. He used to be out the back in the stables, because they had a set of

stables out the back of this place at Graceville, they had a set of stables there and oh yeah. This old bloke used to love horses, so this old bloke used to come here and muck out the stables for them. So they all sort of made do, you know, they had to. And we found too, that some of them couldn’t pay their bills and the boss said, “Oh forget about that we’ll start again,” you know, well they did.

So yeah.

Well would you believe I sold tickets at a theatre. I did. And that was the Graceville theatre. I forget the name of it now, but I was in the little box selling tickets, that is one.

Oh god yeah. All the old stuff and you know it… oh really, really old, oh the ‘shoot them ups’, the kids used to come for the ‘shoot em ups’ and matinees they used to have, you know.

Two bob, two bob. Yeah two bob. And two and six if you sat in certain seats, you know in certain areas.

But it seemed so funny because they were all canvas chairs because it didn’t matter.

What else did I do? Oh in a newsagency. You know it was sort of things like that. It was all to do with bookkeeping, apart from the theatre, and I had free movies of course. I must tell you something there.

George was on leave and they had all these injections that they had to have before going overseas you see. Anyway he came to the house and he said, what did he say, we are going to the movies. And my father said, “Where are you going?” Because my father was very, you know, where is my daughter going, you know. “Oh down to Graceville.” So righto,

that is alright with father. So off we go, down to Graceville. I wasn’t selling tickets at the time, and he said to the girl, no the bloke there, he said, “The best seats in the house.” Ending up with canvas seats of course. And of course I knew what they were like and I am laughing my head off, thinking this bloke here is trying to impress me and he is saying the best seats in the house, and I thought god love me. Anyway, so we went to

the best seats of the house. Well he deliberately, poor sod, he was so tired and knocked out with all these injections he went to sleep didn’t he and he snored, he snored. I got up in disgust didn’t I and I thought blow this, and of course I move away and I am sitting over somewhere else and I am sitting with some other friends you know. And this bloke, this young bloke he had just been to

enlist in the airforce and we are sitting there talking and he said, “Who owns that slob over there?” meaning George I said, “As a matter of fact I don’t own him but I know who he is.” He said, “Oh he said that is the army, that is the army.” He said, “Wait until he joins,” no, “He should have joined the airforce,” and I thought to myself, right. So anyway that is ok, a few years later I strike

this bloke and he is in the airforce blue and he just looks sort of sharp and all that sort of stuff, and he was so drunk he could hardly stand up you see. And I thought to myself, oh yes. I didn’t say anything but I thought well wait a minute you are going to have a real hangover you know after this. But getting back to George, I finally woke him up and he had to get back to Grovely camp so I had to more or less get him along the road and onto Graceville station.

Now Graceville station then is a hell of a lot different to what it is now. And so he promptly lies down on one of the long seats and the train comes in you see, to go to Grovely, and the station master said, “Is he getting on this train or not?” And I said, “Well if you can get him up put him in,” you see the fella, the guard comes along too and between them they get him into the,

get him into the train. And I said to the guard, “Are you going right through to Grovely?” He said, “I will pour him off lady don’t worry about him, I will pour him off.” And that was the last I saw of him for sometime. But what an impression. A bloke with dirty big boots lying…. Oh never mind.

Oh Betty Grable. Well you wouldn’t even know who Betty Grable was, well you do?

Oh what did they used to run? Oh Clark Gable and oh who else. Oh those sorts of films you know, sagas on this and that and then of course it was all sort of ‘America forever’ you know. They were all funny films. I used to like something mad that you could laugh at, not these,

not the love stories, I wasn’t into that.

Oh I loved dancing, yeah I loved dancing.

Oh yes.

Redbank, we went up to Ipswich and we used to dance up there. What hall was it? It is no longer there and we used to go to

dances. But how we went up there was up in the MPs [Military Police] truck you see, complete with wire around the back and all that. And the fellows used to say, “Right are you going to Ippy?” “Yeah righto.” “Pile in girls.” So we were in the (UNCLEAR) truck so we all get in you see, all sitting up there smartly and they let us out at Ipswich and we went to a café to have a really good meal

of something different you know what I mean, and the boys, the MP Sergeant used to say, “We will pick you up on the way back girls,” and we said, “No way in the world,” because he used to pick up all the drunks and bring them back to camp you see. That would have been really lovely coming home with that lot. Anyway we used to come home by train. Anyway, but dances in Brisbane, they used to hold them in the city hall, they were fantastic, they really and truly put it on, you know.

And when the Americans came into the show, they used to more or less hire out the hall you know, and they used to do these great dances where they used to swing the girls over their heads and like so and between the legs and stuff. I was never into that, I couldn’t trust anybody doing that, anyway I was too heavy. But between one thing and another, you know, Brisbane sort of turned it on for the

services, they really did. And people were so sort of friendly, you know.

My training period, alright. The training period began at in Indooroopilly at a house owned by Phelps, they were graziers and whatever

and that house was their Brisbane home so to speak. But it was taken over by the army because it had, wait for it, a tennis court, a huge tennis court. And there is a story about that too. But then of course, wait for this, they had to install toilets and showers because of the number of women

that were coming through. think there was, how many of us, I think there were 20 of us there in the one big house. Palliasses on the floor, no beds of that nature and army blankets and all that sort of thing. No sheets whatever, so it was really basic, really basic. But the house itself was lovely, it had fireplaces in every room, all the bedrooms and all that sort of stuff, it was beautiful, beautiful place really.

But then on the side of the, on the side there was a path going down and the river is down there, right down there and along this side here they had a sort of, ablution blocks as they are called, with toilets and the whole bit you see. But these toilets were quite something else because they were night soil, yeah if you have never experienced it, but you wouldn’t want to.

Night soil toilets where the man had to come and remove a pan and whack another one in, another clean one in, And that was called night soil you see. No septic, no sewerage, no whatever ok. Now the thrill a minute was, you made sure you didn’t go down there when the fella was due to come and replace. Because you see they had a track, they had a track along the side

where this poor sod had to come and do this job right and he would whip one out and put one in. But if you happened to be in that toilet at that time it was quite an experience. I will tell you. A couple of the girls, really that happened to, they went to the toilet, they didn’t think about the man coming, this poor devil it is a dreadful subject to talk about, but it is what happened. They just sort of whipped one out and put a clean one

in and the girls would scream sort of thing, silly rot you know, poor bloke he was only doing his job. But that is one little incident of really and truly roughing it I will tell you, that is roughing it. The training, oh yes from there, from there we used to go on route marches you see. They sent a fellow. I felt

story for this man too, he came and lined us all up on the tennis court because that was the biggest area and he said, “Right we are, quick march blah blah blah around Indooroopilly,” you see. Of course in that time Indooroopilly wasn’t that well populated as it was now and there was quite an area of say bush and whatever around. Anyway we are on this route march aren’t we?

And every now and again he would say, “Righto quick march,” and of course you would have to slip into quick march and then you had to get into a trot and this sort of stuff you know. Anyway we sort of had, a group of us really and truly had enough of that, so we lost him didn’t we. We ducked off down a side street in Indooroopilly and he continued on not realising that he lost half of his troops sort of thing and we beat him back to the house

you see. Well we really, that was a crime, we’d never do that oh my god you never do that. Because we were sick of tired of him, because he was sort of, anyway he was coming on too strong. Anyway that is alright that meant that we were, our leave was curtailed we weren’t allowed to go out because that was a misdemeanour you weren’t allowed to do those sort of things you see.

No, he was giving orders

love, he was giving really strong orders, you do this and you do that, he was only doing his job. He was only doing what he was sent to do, to pull these women into shape sort of thing. But the women were inclined not to want to. And as you know, if a women doesn’t want to do something. Anyway the story goes, we lost him, got into trouble over that and

then. Oh yes that is right, then we were all on the tennis court and that was our parade ground. And I still know these ladies and still meet up with these two ladies and one, what was she, a sergeant, one of the two anyway. A great girl and because I was tall I was always the marker, I was always the marker on this parade you see. So she said to me,

“We will make a DI [Drill Instructor] out of you,” and I said, because I didn’t know what a DI was, I said, “What is a DI?” “A drill instructor,” you see. I thought hey, I don’t know whether I want to do this, but anyway you keep your mouth shut you don’t, you know, say much. She said righto and she puts me in charge of the parade doesn’t she. So I thought now what do I do here? I didn’t know what to do. What do I do now? So I thought I don’t want to be a DI.

Very devious type, me, and I marched them all into the fence didn’t I. And she was really uptight about the whole thing, she said, “You did that deliberately didn’t you?” I said, “Oh heavens no, no, no, no! I didn’t do that.” But that is what I did because I didn’t want to be a DI, so yes. But anyway we all marched into the fence and all collapsed about laughing and carrying on you know. So that was a diversion wasn’t it?

Then I went back there after, that was rookies, then I went back to do my NCOs [Non Commissioned Officer] course and guess who was on the board? The Sergeant that I, yes, she said, “Oh god, not you again,” but anyway that is what happened.

NCO Non Commissioned Officer, that is what it is, of course you know that.

That was quite interesting because they went into a hell of a lot more detail as to how to manage a group of women that you would be in charge of sort of thing, or even a group of men that you might have been in charge of, it was in more detail, in more depth you know.

Oh well, would you believe, how to salute an officer. True. That was one of them and that was.

It was the longest way, longest way down and shortest way up like so, longest way down, shortest way up. And of course you would run a mile before you would salute anybody, you know. And I

remember, where did we go, oh we were in Brisbane on day, that is right in Brisbane and the MPs, the men, and the men were able to pull us up sort of thing if they felt that we were doing something wrong. Military Police, but they also had women Military Police and I would never ever envy them their job because it wasn’t very nice. Anyway the story goes we

were in Brisbane one day and something or other, somebody didn’t have a button done up you see, this MP came across and she said to my friend she said, “You’re not dressed properly.” And we sort of thought wait a minute, we have got everything else on, we have got the tie and the you know, the whole bit. She said, “You have a button undone.” Oh hell. So we had to stand there in

Queen Street it was, stand in Queen Street at attention mind you. They pull you up and, hey you, spring into attention and you do the offending button up, and if it happens to be an officer you salute the officer and take off. But you would avoid saluting anybody, oh yes, thank you. No, not that we were renegades I don’t mean that, it was just one of those things yeah, and that is typical

of the Australian men’s army. They would run a mile before they would salute. And especially, they were noted for this when they were overseas. Because you see with the British Army it is all salutes, spit and polish and god knows what. And they were expected to salute the British officers and they wouldn’t do it. True.

They just didn’t like to be.

They didn’t like to curtail to anybody and especially British officers. There is that thing again you see what I mean. There is that thing where they’re Australians, they are not British, they are Australians.

Well the officers don’t expect it, not the blokes, they don’t really. The blokes that are of any quality whatsoever no. We were down I must tell you this, we

went down to Sydney barracks in Sydney, this is after the war, the whole bit, you know. We are all going to a big reunion in Sydney. Now Peter Cosgrove was there wasn’t he, complete with all the brass and the whole bit you know. He said, what did he say something about, “I salute you women,” and one of the bright sparks said, “Well you can’t have one back sir.” Well of course you are not in uniform so you don’t do that, do

you. But he is a nice bloke Peter Cosgrove, he is great, down to earth you know, real down to earth fellow.

Well the necessary, see the necessary thing was we learnt, we had to learn how to, well do the job I did. The others, if they were on searchlights, they were on trucks and goodness knows what, they had to,

all these trucks that were driven along to, shall we say, pick up gear and all that, women did that. And the ambulance car company, they had to learn the basics you know, of first aid and you know, that is what we had to do. We had to learn a particular job that we were set out to do, we had to learn that.

Well they had to do phys ed training, they had to really get into it, oh yes.

Oh no, not all of them no, not all of them you sort of had to be recommended for a job and there had to be a position open before you could have it, you know.

Well I just went back to camp and went back to the job I was doing. And

anyone else, like sort of a recruit coming in like a women recruit you had to more or less take them under your wing and sort of help them a bit and instruct them, you know.

Well we were hearing a lot about the war. But we were not allowed to discuss it and that code of silence went on for a long, long time after the war

was finished you know. But we were not allowed to discuss anything of that nature, nothing as to what we were actually doing. We weren’t even supposed to tell anybody where we were in camp you know. My mother and father knew where I was but you are not supposed to tell them what is going on because oh well, the code of silence and all that stuff.

Well it was because any person, any one of the women who had brothers and sisters, they knew they had to share. You see I didn’t and it was a real shock to me because well, I had to share something with somebody else. And I must tell you of one instance.

Where we were camped at Redbank, up on top of a hill, this is where the women were, in there, where they lived. They worked all around the camp in different places but they were up here on the hill, and just down below us was the compound a military compound which is a prison. Literally a prison and all the fellows were brought in you know, that were sort of misbehaving. They were in ‘boo’ as they saying goes, they were down there you see.

Well this particular night, well there was a great carry on down there because you could hear the noise and the racket and whatever. Then all of a sudden there was this, well they were shooting, they were letting off the rifles and we thought what the hell is this. Anyway the next thing, the RSM, the Regimental Sergeant Major, he tears up the hill and he said, “Righto into the trenches,” see

out of our tents, out of our tents. We had American bell tents to start with and on all the sides around there were trenches built you know, and we were in this tent and we had to sort of fall out, which meant fall out into the trench you see. Now it had been raining up there, it had been raining, and I think I said to you before that Redbank soil is not the best when it is raining, and we had

to fall into these trenches which were mud and slush complete with the old nightgown and pyjamas and the whole bit you know. Because this happened at two or three o’clock in the morning, this fellow decided to make a break for it you see, out of the compound. And so that is what happened, we just sort of fell into the, “Fall out!” says he, which is more like falling in, but yes that is true.

Well what they could, see what they,

see they meant, they were actually firing at this bloke, it was live ammunition, it was live ammunition to wing this bloke and wing him down you see, but he was going to shoot through, true. So between one thing and another it was quite an exciting morning, about 2 o’clock in the morning.

Yes the poor soul they got him, he was back in there again, but yeah that

was quite an episode.

Well he didn’t want to stay there, he wanted to get going and be with his mates. I don’t know why he was there I really don’t know, I don’t know why he was there, but yeah. But I laughed at this RSM he said, “Well you did a good job girls,” and of course it means that once it was all over, off we went up to the showers you see, well what a bedraggled looking lot we were, I tell you,

mud everywhere.

You are talking the mad mile, now the mad mile, it was really, it eventuated from a camp down south in a training camp down there where. It was in Queensland too but it started off down there and it was live ammunition the fellows had to run through, yes live ammunition, exploding all around

them. Because it meant ok, you have got to be acclimatised to what you are probably going into, you know what I mean, and it happened. And the mad mile at Redbank was the mile that you had to walk from the station down to the camp through the area where the inspection place was for the blokes and also

the camp hospital and all that sort of thing so, but the mad mile really eventuated down Sydney. I think it was, oh god, where was it? I can’t think of the place, but it did happen, it was live ammunition.

No, no you had to dodge it. According to the fellas. I am only saying what the fellas told me.

The first posting. Well actually the first posting was the General Details Depot and that was the one I was saying about our first place was the exhibition grounds in Brisbane, that was the very first. And then from there on, as I told you, before we moved to Ascot Racecourse, and then from Ascot Racecourse up to

Redbank. And that was the final spot. And they were all involved in troop movements. Fellows coming back from hospital, fellows rejoining a unit and all that sort of stuff. And at the exhibition grounds I worked in the x-ray unit up on Machinery Hill, and if you happen to know Brisbane at all, and the old exhibition grounds, up on the hill was where the horse stalls were

and all that sort of stuff, and that is where they had the x-ray unit and blood grouping up there, and the reason that we were up there was the fact that when they took x-rays of the fellows, all chest x-rays if the doctor or the radiographer or the doctor in charge thought that he needed to have another look at a larger ray of this particular soldier then he would order a

17 x 14 you see. Well yay sort of thing, and then he would read it from there. But all his findings you know, it is marvellous what is happening today where you can just put it in the computer and away she goes. We had to write the doctors findings in white ink, white ink on the base of the ray, you know. And all that sort of thing and then that went into records.

At the moment, at that time yeah, because we were supposed to be used wherever we could be of help, you know what I mean. Because I could write reasonably well I got the job.

Well sort of picking blokes off the floor because when they had blood grouping, ok, the fella would offer his thumb and they would prick his thumb

to get the blood out and more often than not a big strong bloke would fall on the floor, he would faint, true. Sorry to say that, but that is what happened. And we had a couple of nurses attached to us you know, now they were funny, they would say, “Well here is another one, where will we put him?” The poor soul is out to it you know.

Oh god yes, they didn’t know where to look because these women were standing there

laughing sort of thing, you know. Yes.

No, I wasn’t working in the camp hospital no.

The camp hospital was there in the same area in which I worked, it was under the McDonalds stand in the exhibition grounds in Brisbane.

Well the Americans, you are talking West End, you were talking West End before, now the Negroes were in camp over in West End, in Musgrove Park over through that way, ok. Now they were not allowed to come into Brisbane

proper. The American MPs would not allow them to cross the bridge to come into Brisbane. That is sort of segregation in a very strong way, that happened and there was a, you may of heard of the battle, the battle of Brisbane. And that happened with our Australian soldiers

and the American soldiers, they had a battle of war believe me, in Brisbane. I don’t know why, it might have been over women I think or something of that nature. With all due respects the Americans were much better dressed, their uniforms were absolutely spot on, they were beautiful material, oh lovely material. They were paid more than our blokes and

quite a few of the ladies decided that they were going to enjoy life, and the Americans provided it because they had the money see. But our blokes didn’t anyway, they had a bit of a dust up.

Well, as you know, there are women and women, so we will leave it at that, and you know what I am talking about, yes.

Well I tell you what I went to, my RSM, my RSM he was a little bloke and he said, “Don’t make any arrangements for Saturday.” And I said, “Why?” I said, “I am going on leave.” He said, “No you are not,” he said, “you are going to

stand up as witness at a wedding.” I said, “You have got to be joking.” I said, “I don’t anybody that is going to get married.” He said, “Well, you soon will.” He said, “We are standing up for a couple,” he said, “down the valley.” You know where St Johns Cathedral is in Brisbane, well down further heading towards the valley on the left hand side there was a little tiny church, a little brick church, it has been there since god knows how long. And we stood up for that fellow and that lady’s wedding. Now I still don’t know who they are,

but that is what we did. Because it was a mate of this RSM and he was supposed to get someone to stand up at that wedding. So it is a case of you, you and you and I copped it, you know.

Yes, he was, yes he was, yes. And I still don’t know who they were and my name as a witness appears on their wedding certificate.

Oh yes, I think

so yeah. That was a funny day that. And then we all turned up at the place they were going to stay for their honeymoon sort of thing. We all turned up to have bickies and beer and god knows what at this place you see. It is up on the Terrace in Brisbane, that is where they were staying and yes, so it was quite a night.

Well what happened, one of my friends, one of the AWAS. There again we went home to my Mum and Dad’s place alright and she was going out with an American, an American soldier, nice bloke and she said, “Oh we would like to have a get together and we don’t want to go to a pub.” And I said, “It looks

as though we are going to Mum’s place again.” So off we went to Graceville. And I think there were four, four American soldiers and a couple of American army fellows came. And they were great blokes they really were. My Mum and Dad thought they were good, oh yeah, they were there that weekend. So there you go. I think Mum and Dad felt that they were doing their bit for the war effort. To be able to have the young people come home, to a home you know.

They thought it was a hic town. They really did, they thought it was a hic town, what are we doing in this hick town you know, oh dear. They wanted Sydney. Why can’t we be there, why can’t we be down there and go on a ferry and go over the harbour bridge. You know they were sort of into that. Because as far as a lot of Americans

were concerned that was Australia, the Harbour Bridge and Sydney, that was it. But Brisbane was a hick town.

Oh well mainly airforce, mainly airforce. They were out at Amberley, well you know where Amberley is, well they were out there, they were stationed out at Amberley a lot of them, mainly

airforce. As I say there were some navy but mainly airforce.

The non what?

Oh well, I don’t know because I didn’t mix around with sort of the non enlisted blokes. All our friends were in army, army or navy or whatever you know.

Well actually yes, we did.

I did have some about the place, some coupons that I had saved sort of thing as a memento you know but we scrounged coupons

all around the place and I was able to get, well they were clothing coupons and people sort of gave them to you so that you could get a wedding outfit. Yeah.

You would go to the, you were allowed X amount of yardage in material. X amount of yardage. Now one coupon measures X amount of material, that sort of thing, so if

you had quite a bit you would get enough yardage to make your dresses or whatever you know, but it went by yardage.

Oh yes, you had to pay for it yeah. But if you didn’t have the coupons you didn’t get the material.

Yes I did. I got a, I scrounged around and I got enough for the two bridesmaids and my own.

Now that whole outfit, the two bridesmaids and my dress and whatever I think, four of my friends used it. Yes army friends of course, they used my gear. Because some of them couldn’t get coupons, some of them came from somewhere else and they couldn’t get them or maybe nobody had them. And I thought what is the point having these dresses hanging here when

they can be used. So I think there is four people have the same photograph only different bodies in yeah.

Well I will show you my, I can’t very well. Go into my bedroom there.

Oh, you are all hooked up too.

My dress was lace of course, and wait for it, I still have it, and it has gone yellow with age, it really has.

And yes it can’t be worn again but I have still got it, but that was all lace, all lace, sort of a heart neckline and all that jazz and it was quite nice and the girls wore a gold, they were all in gold, like a gold sort of a satiny type of material which was nice, quite nice. So there you are, so we kept to the green and gold you see.

Well you see we were planning the wedding and I had all this gear organised and it had to sit in the cupboard for 12 months, because he was sent away again see. So we had everything organised because we are going to do this this and this and guess what, powers that be said, “Oh no George, you are going up there,” so he did. He had to go to well Bougainville, Lae and

you know up that way.

Well it wasn’t very nice actually because you know, I just thought hang on we were organised here and all of a sudden we are not organised. So 12 months time he came back and we said well righto we have got all the gear lets do it, so we did.

It was on the 8th of April and quite a nice time of the year actually.

And we had the reception, wait for it, on the front veranda of my mother’s house, so there you go.

Oh yeah, actually there is another thing too, you had to have coupons and goodness knows what to be able to get flour and eggs and stuff like that. Oh yes you couldn’t just, everything was rationed, everything was rationed, oh yeah. But my mother was a wiz of a cook and she whizzed up something

and you know, oh yes, it was good, it was good. So father had some WAS DOUBLE QUOTE CHOOK s in the backyard so we didn’t have to worry about eggs and that sort of stuff, you know.

Well that honeymoon is something else again. I am still in the army aren’t I. My going away frock was my uniform ok. But my white dress, I was determined, I was determined to have a white dress,

and all the gear. Now you had to get permission from your commanding officer to be allowed to do that you see. So I went to this chap and I said, “Well” I said, “if I don’t get married now they are going to send him away again and I may not get married.” And he said, “Well we can’t have that can we.” And I said, “No we can’t,” and I said, “but I want to be married in a white frock, veil and the whole bit.”

And he said, “Why are you asking me?” And I said, “Well you have to give me permission.” And he said, “Well that is exactly right I have, permission granted, get out of here.” So that is what happened. But my going away frock was my uniform. So how about that.

He said, by this time he had accepted the fact that that was it and, you know, he you couldn’t do much about it.

Oh yes, yes, yes. We went to

Burleigh of all places, we went to Burleigh. We came down from Burleigh on the bus or was it on the train or something, got the train as far as Southport that is right. We stood up with what we owned I will tell you, that is all it was, and we stayed at Burleigh for one night. And then we came down here to Currumbin and there was an old lady, now you see there, you may have walked past there where there was an estate agent there, ok.

Now that belonged to an old lady called Miss Heather. Now Miss Heather used to have a little shop there selling tins of this that and the other you know. And she had rooms at the back and she insisted that we stay with her for a night at least. Because we, through the lifesaving and all that we knew her pretty well. Well we went into this room out the back and she had four cats. Now the house absolutely oohhh

was dreadful, the smell was something else. And we stayed half a night I would suggest there. And then we said we had to get back to Brisbane because had to blah blah blah. But I tell you that was a night, but that is the sort of honeymoon you need. I mean if you get to know one another and if you still like one another after that well you do rather well.

Yes that is right, he went back to camp and off he went.

He went up to, where did he go? Wewak, yeah up the coast yeah, New Guinea, so there you go.

Back to camp, back to camp, yes. So then I became Elliot Kemp didn’t I. I have got two pay bills here that say I am Elliot in one and then I’m Elliot Kemp in the other one.

We just wrote to one another and you know, life went on sort of thing, you know. Nothing much you can do to change it, you just do what you have to do.

Oh yes, very much so, there was a lot of that went on

and a lot of pregnancies went on too. And you know, I felt sorry for the children of those sort of unions because you wondered what was going to happen to them. But they did have, out of Toowoomba, I just don’t know exactly where, I can’t remember, but they did have a big house at Toowoomba that accommodated the ladies that were pregnant.

Because they were discharged from the army just like that. You know once you do that you are finished yeah. It was out of Toowoomba, they had a big home there that accommodated ladies and then eventually the babies and they either put them up for adoption or they kept the children. But fortunately I was never sort of worried about that. We had a couple in our unit,

in our particular unit who unfortunately went through that time. But the army looked after them, I mean lets face it, they were accommodated and they were well looked after but what happened after I wouldn’t know.

Oh possibly I don’t know, I don’t know. We only had one girl who was

Very, very much attached to an American officer and he had all her clothes tailor made, wait for this, tailor made out of material, American material. You know, well she was out of uniform really wearing it because it was their uniform, their materials, but beautiful material, god love us. She looked very smart but of course he took her everywhere,

to various functions and things and he wanted her to look just A1. Well our uniform sort of lacked that finesse; it definitely lacked it I tell you. But just the same it was our uniform. But yeah, she didn’t marry him, she married a chappie from, where did he come, he came from Rocky I think, and he was a clerk of petty sessions or something up there.

Not another one, oh god.

Well when George was with the RSL, that life there was like…. I was a director round there and it entailed oh, the business of the club and the refurbishing of it and all that sort of thing.

And I was on that board for quite some years but, and then of course with U3A [University 3rd Age] that was another part of my life down here with the oil painting and stuff and then I went into genealogy and I am madly keen on that. George used to say, “Why don’t you let them live in peace,” or die in peace or something, “leave these people alone.” I said, “Well they don’t even know. It is a long time ago.”

But everything is sort of, I’ve got an interest to do something, there is no way in the world I could sit down and do nothing, that is me. I’ve always been like that.

Oh very much so, that is when we had the victory parade through Brisbane. That was a fantastic day.

Everybody going crazy you know and sort of, and you are probably seeing that great picture of that fellow throwing his hat up in the air and all that sort of jazz. Well Brisbane, Brisbane was a city that absolutely went crazy, people hugging each other and all that jazz. People you would never ever know, probably never see again you know. But, oh no, it was, it was a sort of a day where everybody heaved a sigh of relief,

you know. And yeah I remember that very well, very well.

VE and VP we did the same, yeah. The Pacific was the main one. The Pacific was the main one, yes.

Oh well I mean it was all over the radio and I think they were encouraging people to get out there and do something. It was all over the radio

and television, you name it the whole bit. It was just one of those days you felt a hell of a relief that everything sort of stopped or you know, no more, the war was over and the majority, but not everyone, but the majority of people were back home and that was the main thing to get everybody back home, yeah.

I suppose went crazy, and jumped up and down and clapped and carried on and cried and in general made a fool of myself.

That was well Redbank, Redbank was my final camp where I was, yeah.

Oh god, that was a tragedy, I mean I tell you lot a lot people were for

it, others were against it. I think America lost a bit of credibility on that. I know they had to stop something, but to stop it like that. It is not the military personnel that suffered it was the whole city and people, people that, poor souls, were only doing what they were told to do.

No, it was a sad time I thought, sad time. I didn’t rejoice in that at all.

I was in, where was I? I was in camp yeah, in Redbank, I was in camp. And once we heard of that, and of course the newspaper up there was called ‘Guinea Gold’. And the Guinea Gold

put out a great spread over sort of thing, you know. I have got copies here George brought back. Oh great celebrations ‘its over’ you know.

Well that is the sort of thing, it left people in limbo. It left a lot of people in limbo because that’s all they had known say for

five years. That is what it was five years, was army, it was regulations, it was this and was that and you do this and you do that sort of thing. And all of a sudden they are not doing that anymore and they have got to pull themselves together and say right, I have got to get on with my life you know. And a lot of people sort of couldn’t handle it very well, to start with. Because if you all, over the years, have been told what to do and expected to do

this and that you just do it. But now when you are on your own, you have got to make up your own mind what to do. It was a hell of a relief to be able to do that mind you.

....

tape sound disappeared ... we had courts of inquiry now some poor bloke that caused a misdemeanour he was AWOL or

he was fighting with somebody or he was doing this that and the other thing, they held a court to decide what to do with him. You know, what penalty and I had to well, well not necessarily not just me there were other girls, other women had to do this, you had to sit in and type it all up and the findings, and be there in the court, while the officer sort of

went through this poor fella and, you know, and he is up in the dock and that sort of stuff, you know what I mean. It was very interesting but I felt sorry for the poor bloke but I had to laugh. He said, this particular day I was typing up the report and the officer said, “Well come on man, come on man, tell us what happened.” See. “Oh well sir, well sir,” the officer said,

“Look I haven’t got all day mate,” he said, “get into it. What is the problem?” He said, “I don’t like to tell you in front of the lady,” meaning me. And the officer said, “For your information that is no lady, that is a soldier. Get on with it.” Well afterwards, he said, “Oh well alright,” and he starts to describe something that happened behind the latrines and all this stuff you know, it was quite lurid.

But you were supposed to, with all due respects, hey wait a minute he is just reporting something and you are typing it, that is it, you know. And afterwards the officer said to me, “Well how about that,” and I said, “Yes and how about you I’m no lady, cut that out.” And he laughed he said, “Oh god, don’t talk to me you will have me up on a charge.” I said, “You try it,” you know. We were lucky, we were very lucky because

even though they were officers and they were in charge and all that they treated us like ladies, they really did. And all this chitchat that went on was great, it really was.

Oh yes, quite a lot, quite a lot. Because blokes away from home and all that jazz you know. Oh yes, yes a lot of fraternisation. As I said before, a lot of babies born into the world.

Who really didn’t want to come into the world, but there you go.

Righto the war is over in my case, as I have told you before, we got together, we married, we had children, we set up business but prior to that, once the war is over you are in a sort of limbo because you really don’t know

whether the project you are going to take on is really going to gel, if it is really going to work you know what I mean. And our deferred pay, as I said before, I think we had $600 between us, his and mine deferred pay, ok. And that was our first truck, you know, that sort of thing. You didn’t really quite know how you were going to handle it, if it was

going to blow up in your face, but you had to go ahead and try. And that is what happened to a lot of people, yeah.

He was ready to get on with the job sort of thing. As far as friendships are concerned, I mean, I am talking about myself now. I missed the girls,

I missed them, I really did because we had a lot of fun together a lot of fun. That is why, that is why this AWAS association is great because you can sort of relate to one another, more so than you can relate to the lady next door who has never had any experience of togetherness, you know, that sort of thing, that is why this is so great. It really is.

Oh yes, oh yes to be able to have somebody to talk to, somebody my own age, whatever.

Well he joined, he joined around here the RSL in 19.., oh god when was it, in ’47,

1947. He was see at this stage he was the electrical linesman. But over here at the surf club he resumed his job of training and getting people through their bronze and all that sort of stuff. He connected up with the surf club. But with the, around with the RSL he felt that something, maybe there was something, it was an interest

for him, lets put it that way apart from family. Which is damn good because I mean people, men like to interact with other men, you know. And he certainly did round there and got the thing moving and got it on its feet again and sort of improved it. They had extensions done to it. But he had the great satisfaction when he left office, when he left office everything was freehold.

Everything was freehold around there. It is not today I tell you. Because in order to expand more and whatever whatever, everyplace has to go into debt, they have to borrow money. But he had the greatest satisfaction of staying free of debt, you know. Because he was always a man like that, I mean if, because if you didn’t have the money, you didn’t have it, sort of thing, you didn’t buy anything. But it worked for us, it worked for us.

Well I became involved, they had a war widows group round there. They also had a ladies auxiliary round there and I haven’t joined the war widows because I am not entitled to but, which is a mystery to me but never mind that is the powers that be. The ladies auxiliary group that work for the RSL and anybody

that is in need of help and all that sort of thing, they raise funds and all that sort of thing you know.

It was a strange thing that, because nursing sisters, nursing sisters who went overseas right and there was a whole batch of them that went overseas alright, there was a lot of them on the Queen Mary, anyway they were allowed because they

were serving overseas ok. And they sort of felt, I don’t know who, within the RSL headquarters, they didn’t seem to think that people that served in Australia were considered to be war veterans. But that all changed when Japan came into it. That all changed and that is when it happened because with their

young fellows like who with the citizen forces, they were accepted into the RSL because they did go overseas and we had a group of ladies, the AWAS, not very many of them, but they did go to Lae, now they are considered overseas service you see. But they weren’t there very long, but of course when the war ended everybody sort of came home.

But it was a while before the RSL as a body, accepted women, you know.

That is right, somebody had to do it, somebody had to do it and the very fact that you enlisted and signed on to serve your country no matter what and within, when you did sign on, that is what was exactly on the

script to serve the country. Now it didn’t matter where ok. And had it gone on any longer I mean a lot more of our group would have gone overseas but it didn’t thank god, but yeah.

I applied to go, I applied to go and the sergeant that was with me, she applied to go too. But her husband was in the navy,

she had to get permission. Wait for this, had to get permission from her husband for her to sign up to go overseas. Because I was engaged to George, I had to get his permission. And a funny quirk of fate, god knows how this all happened, Jo’s husband was on the Swan and this little frigate whatever, went into, where did it go, Bougainville, not Bougainville, Lae,

it went into Lae that is right, and George was in Lae but who should walk up the gang plank but this husband of Jo’s. The conversation was, “These silly, bloody women want to come over here,” and you know he said, “What are you going to do about it?” And he said, “Well I’m not going to sign it.” And George said, “Well I’m not going to sign it.” So it happened, they would not allow us to go. And our CO [Commanding Officer],

he was a Major Jolly, my god. He was a man from the desert he was an invalid at home. But he had this job and so we fronted up to him and we said, “Well look we want to go and those blokes won’t sign.” He said, “Good on them,” he said, “I’m glad the men are taking a stand, you women are blah blah blah,” and he is sort of saying, he is saying,

time men took a stand you know. So he said, “No I’ve trained you two you are not going anywhere,” so that was it. But you had to have the approval and the signage of possibly the husband and or your commanding officer so that is what happened. I tell you it was quite a time.

I think with women it was the first step of women to take the initiative and do this. Now there is a book here that tells you that when they had, they first mooted to form Australian Women’s Army Service ok, now that was 1941, they were constituted and that

started the whole bit and then they put out a notice to say that applicant’s would be interviewed you see, and I just saw it in the paper and I thought ok, I will go and have a look at that and that is what happened. And that is what happened to a lot of us because they just felt that they were going to do something.

Well a lot of fellows…

but isn’t it amazing, some men were like that, but they would be like that anyway. But others appreciated the fact that you did something, you know. Some of them, oh gee wiz, some of the blokes that came back and subsequently married their ladies and whatever. Oh they, they were really shall we say again women being in service. The nurses were alright

you could please yourself, nurses looked after them and all that sort of stuff. But these women who just took on the roles of men, some of them weren’t too happy about that. But I mean, let’s face it, they needed them, yeah.

Well I think I might have said that, when you first come in the door. That I felt that

now, only now are these women being recognised. Only now, fully recognised ok. A lot of them are being looked after with pensions and things like that, ok fair enough. Because of injuries whatever occurred while in service, that is the only way you will get it. And so, but at least recognise what they did. That is the

whole key to it you know. Because I think, as I said before, down on the mouth of the Brisbane River we had searchlight batteries and ack ack [anti aircraft] batteries and all that sort of stuff, and they were necessary you know yeah.

I tell you, there is one that is all by itself, you know where the Casino

is in Brisbane, the park next to it Queens Park? There is a plaque there commemorating the service of ex service women as a whole, as a whole, right. Now it is all over there by itself. And we wanted to have it moved and put in Anzac Square, not allowed to do that, nope. So I mean, well to me I think it is pretty grim because the women did play a part and a very, very, very important part.

Oh yeah.

Well there you go, there you go, they are learning a very different thing, a very different thing. They are going to be ready in case we have something else blow up in our faces. Now the WRAAC [Women's Royal Australian Army Corps] came after us, now they are in their 50s and whatevers now, they have to be, and

they came after us. Now they filled in a peacetime, a peacetime situation, right. Now the girls who have been drafted in or whatevered into the present army, they are more or less treated like the blokes, they are just private whatever, and you’re in the army and that is it. And well they are treated like fellas. They do a hell of a job, they really do. But I think it is preparation for

you know, so yeah.

Well we are actually, we are. The AWAS that is the start. Mind you in the Boer War they had nurses and whatever and they had people driving ambulances and they had people doing that, but they weren’t a body as such, they weren’t formed into a body. I think they just took everything as a whole.

But as far as we were concerned yes, we were more ore less the trailblazers for the army and especially during 39, 45.

It was such a lot of, shall we say, we were, not a frustration but a feeling of why the hell are they doing this,

you know, why have a war. North Korea and South Korea it was, in my opinion and in lots of others, it belonged to their own country not anyone else’s interference, it was north against south. And it was a domestic thing within their own country. And a lot of people looked at it in that way.

No, he wouldn’t have done that. Anyway he wasn’t in a fit state of health to do it. So you know, if you are not healthy you don’t do anything like that.

Oh yes, oh yes, yes. Well he was blown into the ship for one thing, up on the ship, and he was in the desert, a big truck rolled and you know, all that sort of stuff. He was never ever shot,

but when they were reloading, when they were reloading the anti tank guns there is all this push and shove and carry on, you know. But no, he received a pension because of his war injuries yeah, so there you go.

Oh no, I was out. I was out because, actually my parents, my parents were aging and my mother in particular was a very ill lady and I was out on compassionate grounds and I stayed. I wasn’t actually out of the army but I was out on compassionate leave and then all of a sudden they decided that Japan has the whatever, and

yeah. So that is how it was you know.

Yes that is right, they all went out to Fraser’s Paddock. And if you know where Fraser’s Paddock is in Brisbane, it is way out, it is not in the sticks now but it was at that stage.

Yes it is, it is quite close to Enoggera. Yeah and I had a friend who was out there and she was in this demobbing thing and they all had to hand in their uniforms,

and you name it, the whole bit you know.

I was supposed to but I didn’t. Yeah I was supposed to but I didn’t, so there you ago.

He was there every day of his life, every day of his life and before they had

this great entrance that they have now and whatever, there used to be a desk right at the front door, ok. And nobody got past him without, “G’day George.” “Sign in here,” he’d say. “Oh you know me George.” “Sign in.” So “Righto.” They’d sign in, but they would all come out, different blokes would come out and stand beside him and talk to him because that is the sort of man he was, but yeah.

Over there, oh when I felt like it. I might just drop in and we’d have a meal there one night or something or whatever. But I was there most times when I was on the board, mostly every day.

Well it started off that way, it stared off that way with just the fellas you know.

But when, when George was there I said to him, “Look we need a place for the AWAS to come and we need to be able to come twice. First Tuesday in the month for our committee meeting and the second Tuesday in the month for our meeting.” And I said, “We need to have a room upstairs.” Well he said, “Seeing as though you put it that way.” So he organised that and so that is what we do,

and we stay there for, after meetings, we stay there for lunch and there is 20 of us or more, all sit down in the dining room and have lunch and it is a real good get together you know, a nice atmosphere too.

Well getting to be able to use the place for sure, yes. And now it is so well established the fella,

he is from Vietnam War this bloke and, Ron Workman, and he said to me, “My god,” he said, “I couldn’t do anything else but continue on.” He is full of blah…“The wonderful association that we have had with the AWAS.” And I said, “And continue to be having with the AWAS.” He said, “The way you put that Mary, yes.” Oh dear.

No, we have got a good rapport round there, yeah.

Well I think it made me more tolerant, more tolerant of people. It also allowed me to be able to converse with people and in general

make friends, you know, you don’t, shall we say, force yourself onto anybody but make yourself available for someone to come and talk to you because every person that you would know has a story to tell. And if they haven’t got someone they can confide in, it is a bit grim for them sometimes. I found it that way anyway. And as you found out,

I have got the gift of the gab so yeah.

Anzac Day is a special day, a special day because we are up with the birds at 4 o’clock in the morning, down to the Elephant Rock down here and that is one of the largest assemblies of people on the coast. There was over 2,000 odd people there

last time, they are up on the hill, they are on the houses, on verandas and all that sort of thing, you know and we hold a very, very good service. It is a great service. And they are involving all the children now, because they have a special day with the children from the high schools and whatever. And we dedicated a plaque down

there for all ex service bods and that is down there near the Rock. But it is a great day, it really is. And of course around to the RSL where they have a very moving service at the cenotaph, now that cenotaph, the new one, when I was on the building committee, I had a lot to do with the design of that and just recently

two busloads of kids from St Joseph’s College they came and they are doing a thing on cenotaphs and one of the girls in charge of the office she said, “Oh Mar will you come down and give an,” wait for this, “an impromptu talk on the building of that cenotaph?” She said, “You’d be the one to do it because you were there.” So I said,

“Alright good.” So righto round I go. And the teacher in charge, because I had my badge up with my name, number and whatever on it. And he said to me, he said, “What is that number?” I said, “That is my regimental number.” He said, “Oh, oh well right,” he said, “well you would know what you are talking about.” And I said, “Well yes I do, this, I had a lot to do with this cenotaph here.” And anyway they

were all looking at it and one of the young blokes put his hand up and I said, “Yes?” He said, “What is the soldier standing like that for?” Because there is a figure there with a solder in bronze and he is standing with arms at rest like so see and his head is bowed down. And he said, “What is he doing that for?” I said, “Well that position is called ‘arms at rest’.” He said, “How do you know that, how do you know that?” This is this kid.

Honestly he was priceless, “How do you know that?” I said, “Well I happen to have been in that position myself,” and I told him. I said, “We had to learn all that.” He said, “How come?” So I gave a brief description. And he said, “Oh what do you know,” he said, “oh yeah.” And the kid is quite happy about that. And I said, “Do you see behind, behind the soldier?” I said, “The colour in the backdrop of it?” And a little girl

said, “Oh yes it looks lovely.” I said, “Well,” I said, “The green is the green of the gum trees and whatever, but I said the yellow, that is wattle.” “Oh,” she said, “oh who thought that up?” I put my hand up like that and she said, “Oh did you do that?” I said, “Well we all sort of looked at things and we thought what can we put there?” And

it is very significant, it looks great because it is not over done, it is not over done and across the top of it has got the name ‘Livith’ you see. Well another kid said, “Well what is that up there for?” You see, with all due respects they are not taught anything like this, they are not. I said, “Well that is to signify that the men who gave their lives for this country will never be forgotten.” And then of course they were

on about, around there we have steel sort of plaques like great pieces of steel fixed to the wall and those men who belong to the RSL round there who have passed on, there is a plaque, a little plaque with their name and description and whatever and a poppy put in it and George’s name is around there. Anyway a blank, a blank sheet or whatever. And I thought somebody is going to ask me

what that is for you know, so I said, “Subsequent members who pass on their plaques will be there.” And I said, “It will probably be members who have served in Korea and Vietnam because,” I said, “we oldies are gradually leaving the planet.” Well one little girl giggled away through that one and she said, I said, “Yes leave the planet that is for

sure.” I said, “One of these days, who knows, my name might be up there.” And it would be too, I mean so that sort of thing, and George started it all off. He said, “If you don’t have something so people can come and look at it,” you know, “it would be, they won’t know anything about it.” And it gives them sort of pride to see their own person’s name up there. I think it is good that the

schools are trying to encourage the kids to find out what is happening you know. And why these monuments are here. That was another episode.

I don’t like, actually I don’t know I suppose it does somebody some good to have the child march along with them but, I don’t know,

I’ve got reservations on that one. Maybe they are marching because a person has passed on, possibly their grandfather or somebody like that, but I don’t know.

Did he ever march?

Oh yes, oh yes. Down here at the dawn services, yeah. We had, we marched through there,

I have got photographs of him here, of him stepping out. And I have got a photograph of that police woman up there stepping out with him when she was about two by nothing.

Well, he didn’t, as I said before, he didn’t talk about it much at all and

unless you are asked by your children, you don’t push it down their throat. If they say, “Oh Mum what did you do….” sort of thing you would tell them the funny things but you don’t sort of dwell on anything drastic and horrible, you just don’t do that. We always feel that, God willing, they won’t have to find out about anything but there you go.

See unless you actually have been there or have been associated closely to it, you really

can’t understand. I mean you can read things in a book and you say, oh yeah well that relates to that, but no way in the world could you do it yourself, you couldn’t explain it yourself. Oh I think the less said about it the better I really do. I mean let’s not dwell on sort of heavy things and bad things, you have got to look to the future, that is my opinion anyway.

I’ll tell you what we did, we used to do in George’s time, here we are again. We used to go to the various schools ok. And he set that up. We used to go to the local schools around the way and we would just tell them a story about what we did sort of thing and we would tell them

stories and ask for questions, you know questionnaire, what do you want to know and all that sort of thing. But the powers that be around there at the moment or last year or so, they don’t believe that the children, that we as a group should go to the schools, now the children look forward to it, they really do. To see possibly someone that looks like their grandma you know, up there

talking about something, they really love it. I know Margot Fielding and I went to an independent school a couple of years ago. And it was fantastic, the kids with their questions you know. And I thought whoever has got these kids here teaching them, they are doing a fantastic job because they are making the kids ask questions you know. And when they ask questions, if you can possibly answer them, it is great

its great because you can see a smile on the face and oh yes, I said that sort of thing, you know. Kids get involved and that is what it is all about, yep, they get involved. They want to be involved.

Ok religion, church parades were more or less a must, a church parade, now you were encouraged. See we used to have the chaplains come to the camp right and priests would come too for their Catholic people, and they’d all trot off to mass and all that sort of stuff. I was sort of brought up Church of England but I think I attended every church that would

possibly be there because I went with my friends. And if somebody was going to the Methodist camp I would trot on with them, you know. I was never a person to say oh no, “I can’t do that I’m a Church of England,” no way in the world. I accepted religion as it is, or as it is supposed to be. Anyway, I think I have been in all sorts of churches yes.

Oh yes

actually. The padre, the padre for the camp, he was Church of England this bloke. Oh, that’s right we all turned up at a big get together, all churches all together they had all denominations ok. And the padre said, “Wait a minute, didn’t I see you at the Catholic gathering?” I said, “Oh yeah probably, you probably did,” he said, what did he say? “Are you doing something about your

options?” What do they call it ‘cadging your options’, that’s right he said, “Are you doing that?” He said, “You reckon by going along to all these denominations,” he said, “that you have got a place in heaven, do you think that might happen?” I said, “No I don’t think so, they might send me somewhere else,” and he laughed he said, “Oh god.” No we had a very good rapport with all the people that came. Yeah, one day you would go to Church of England, next day you would go.

to whatever, you know, no problem, no problem.

Sometimes a very strict Catholic situation would arise oh yes, it would be sort of them and us, which is damn stupid because you are all going to the one place whether you like it or not irrespective of religion. I think anyway, that is just me.

No, some of them were a bit off putting, but others didn’t go to anything so it didn’t worry them, they didn’t turn up anywhere so.

They were great, they were wonderful. They were always there, always there sort of. Now we used to have camp concerts. Oh that is something to experience a camp concert. Now at Redbank

we had one and oh yes, and they also showed movies, silent movies at Redbank. And what you did was you took along your own box or your own seat or your canvas chair or whatever you might have for seating accommodation you know. And when it rained it was just too bad, you had a tarpaulin that you, like a ground sheet, which is what they called a ground sheet and you would hold it up over your head like so.

And you would watch the movie down there that was dripping with water, but just the same you’d watch it you know. It was just something to do, something to do. Oh dear and the food. Oh yes one bloke was very enterprising he used to do up hot dogs and that stuff like that in rolls you know in bread rolls. And you’d sit up there munching away, on all cholesterol thrown into the winds, didn’t know the word then.

Oh they were always there. They were sort of more or less stationed, or they had a room at the hospital or whatever at the hospital, at the camp hospital. They did some fantastic work there. I mean just imagine these people a long, long away from home, blokes in particular and they didn’t have anybody,

well the Salvation Army were there for them, and they used to write letters home for them and all that sort of stuff, and keep in touch with the family. That is what they were doing, it was good, it was good. And providing little extras, say your talcum powder or your whatever, you know, very good.

Oh yes, they were there for them

too, really and truly.

I mean sometimes in some cases, I am not saying all. In some cases, these women had nobody, their families more or less threw them out because that was a, in all due respects, at that time that was an absolute no no. You didn’t have a child out of wedlock that was one of those things and very often the families just

abandoned their people. It is true, it happened, yeah. But the Salvation Army were there for them.

Well looking after them in this respect that once they came out of hospital where do they go, you know, and after the accommodation at the place there they could only stay for a certain length of time, they couldn’t stay there forever

so the Salvation Army found them accommodation. They had to pay for it themselves of course, subsidised by the army or by the government. But no, they looked after them extremely well, oh yeah.

Well that was a difficult one in respect that war, well there was a department, I know there is one now called War Graves Department. But there was also one during the war, because they had to keep note and tally of who the people where that passed on, where they were, the loss of life in certain areas, battle zones and that sort of thing. And I think the Salvation Army were allowed

access to a lot of that so that they could contact the families or comfort the families, lets put it that way.

How was the news, what was the news?

Oh well you were notified, you were notified, a screed comes in the mail to say that your son, whatever his name is blah blah blah and

his QX whatever his number is, all that, we regret to inform you, now that is the letter that comes. ‘We regret to inform you that you son has died in service of his country’ that is more the gist of what was in the letter. Yeah.

Oh, it was just white, well black and white actually, black and white. And sometimes it came in the form of a telegram

which a lot of people used to hate the telegram boy come up the road because you know, they would think oh here is bad news coming, you know.

Well

I suppose in lots of ways when money was short, very short I mean a lot of the projects that they possibly had, say a new road to be built or a something else to come into the city like, you know a new building or a something of that nature. It was all curtailed because there was no money, of course there were people to do the job but no money to pay them so

and that is where the dole originated, that is where the dole originated and as they say, they were doled out X amount of money just to keep them alive more or less.

Oh I suppose so yes, I suppose so, because that would only be mainly be with government buildings and all that sort of stuff. But

even the building profession like houses and all that sort of stuff that had to stop you know. It is a bit like now, they can’t find enough housing for people. You know, people who can’t afford to own something.

Well I think Brisbane grew up, I think it did, it is once, once things

got into motion again and supplies were able to come through, you know all that sort of stuff overseas stuff, supplies to come in, I think things started to move, move along you know and I think they had a boost of, shall I say, prosperity for a while. And those who were able to go into business or to have a job they were very fortunate, very fortunate.

No Brisbane started to grow, yeah. Because it was a hick town as you must remember. Oh dear.

Pardon?

Well Brisbane is Brisbane, Sydney has got something about it, of course it has got the Harbour Bridge and all that sort of stuff, it has got the harbour and all that sort of thing. But

here we are a different kettle of fish altogether, in Brisbane. I think it is growing and all that, whether it is for the better I don’t know. Maybe I like the Brisbane that I knew when I was young, you know.

Yes well he did, he sent back a couple of pictures from the desert

but it was sort of when they were on leave in Haifa and Gaza see, and of course the people there did a roaring trade of photographs, superimposed, a photograph of him and a photograph of me on the card you see. And they did that for thousands, you know. They did nicely out of that, oh yes.

Well one he sent back on a card

and he had a face as big as a Christmas pudding for the simple reason he had sand fly fever. Sand fly fever is what it implies, sand flies bite you and swell the face, swell the body you know, oh he looked great oh yeah, very handsome.

Oh well, but he explained why he looked like that, he wrote on the back of it, he explained

that he had sand fly fever. A lot of people suffered from that, a lot of blokes. A lot of blokes suffered eye trouble too, see, sand in the eyes yeah.

I don’t know, yes I’ve got a couple there but I can’t remember which ones there were. I’ve got a couple there, every now and again he would send a couple over you know. There is one photo there

of him and Jimmy that I spoke about before and another bloke in a, what do they call it, not a dowry, oh well anyway it is a carriage, driven by two, or a horse and there is a fellow sits up on sort of a seat up high, well it is like a carriage you know, and they were touring around, tripping around Gaza in that

and the poor horse looked as though it had had enough too I tell you.

Well that is right, quite a sad sort of set up really. George didn’t talk much about that, but getting back, getting back to Jimmy,

now they lost Jimmy in Haifa. They didn’t know where he went, maybe he was looking for something but anyway whatever, they couldn’t find him and walking around looking for him, they couldn’t find him. Next thing they hear this voice singing out, “I’m down here, I’m down here,” and they are looking, what is he talking about, down here, “Down here,” they knew it was Jim. He was down in a prison underneath and they are in the ground and all

they have got are the bars, a bar window like so, but it is ground level you know, and you can just see out into the street and this prisoner is underground you see. And apparently Jim had pinched a car and gone joy riding around the place and the powers that be picked him up and shoved him in jail. He had no money to bail himself out with so these blokes and George and his couple of other mates went looking for him and found him

in this prison underground, underneath, so they bailed him out and took him back to camp. So he was a bit of a problem old Jim, oh yes.

He has gone to God now but never mind.

I resented it? I suppose you didn’t really have much time to resent

anything, you were there to do a job and that was it, there was no point in you know, resenting anything. As I said you had a job and that was it. Many a time you would say oh god, I wish this would finish, you know, like to get back to normal. But until everything did go back to normal that is where you were, you had to stick to it. Yep.

Oh yes, very often you would just think oh god, how much longer but as I said before, once Japan was more or less silenced then everything seemed to, everybody sighed a real heaved sigh of relief that, hey it can’t be much longer. But that was the turning

point.

Because of the atrocities caused in Changi and quite a few other places, there was great resentment in Australia, great resentment. Anybody that looked the slightest bit oriental was a bit foolish to go wandering around the streets, because not that,

I don’t know, they sort of treated them with contempt, you know, and possibly those sort of people were even born in Australia, they looked Japanese but they were born in Australia, you know, but there was resentment.

Oh I don’t know I suppose I did, I can’t remember being nasty to anybody of that (UNCLEAR) but inclined to avoid them, you know, sort of

they are not there sort of thing. Maybe that is an escapist attitude, I don’t know.

Oh no, everybody was sort of happy with the, once they got friendly with the Italians again, mamma mia and all that stuff. It was a bit like, it was a bit like in the First World War when Germany was absolutely despised you know. Anybody of German origin,

oh god. When you boil it all down, we have all got to live in this world haven’t we, I mean it doesn’t matter what colour you are, we have got to live, live and let live, sort of thing. I think that is the best attitude.

Oh yeah, well, yeah I suppose that is what you can do, you have to do it. What is the point, what is the point in getting

upset, what is the point in holding grudges, you only end up upsetting yourself, you really do, because nothing you say will ever change it, it is there and that is it, yeah. No, I think live and let live myself because I am quite happy with what I am doing anyway at the moment. Yeah. Am I finished yet?

Oh yes, in lots of ways, not necessarily at that time but when I was quite young, going to school and all that jazz, anyway, my two cousins they were orphans ok, and they came to live with

my mother and father and me and they were brought up Catholic. Now there was a Catholic church, Church of Christ the King I think it is in Graceville, Graceville Chelmer, near the oval. Anyway while the girls were staying with us they said to my mother that they had to go to confession, they just had to go to confession. My mother said what have you done

that you have to confess something. She was rather down the line my mother you know, as you probably gathered. She said what on earth could you two have done and you have to go to confession. “Oh yes, father says we have to,” righto where is the nearest church. So off they go but they insist on going with them see. So off we go and they go into the church and go up to the confessional, up to

the priest whatever. I sit right down the back of the church near the back door, the front door, that is where I am sitting, down there. And the priest of course, did the whatever they had to do and he said, “And what about the young lady down there, doesn’t she want to come up and talk to me? I can possibly help her.” And my cousin, Muriel, the out spoken one said, “Oh there is nothing you can do for her,

she is a Protestant.” I laughed. I thought to myself god love us, and of course the priest thought that was a wonderful joke you know. But the priest he was prepared to hear my confession. Oh dear I don’t know what I could have confessed but anyway.

Pardon? You mean sort of. No I didn’t notice anything. Again one another,

I think a lot of people, like during their war years, they were so damn pleased to have a neighbour they could relate to and could help each other, it didn’t matter who they were if they were, whether they were kalafungins or Presbyterians or what they were. They were there for each other, didn’t matter and I think that sort of thing is good, I really do.

And what?

Fuel and food. Well, I think people were all so happy that they didn’t have rations and had to have ration books because that is what they had to have, a ration book to be able to go and buy a pound of butter. And mainly it was margarine, it wasn’t butter at all,

or lard or something like that. Because there was a great say, they didn’t have a great deal of it. And if you turned up at a shop you were only allowed X amount of this and X amount of that because they just didn’t have it. And all the majority of the food and stuff of that nature had to be sent to the army, the airforce and navy, they had to keep them going

so therefore, they had rationing. Yep so there you go.

Well after the war it got back on its feet again. It got back on its feet again, it is marvellous how resilient everything is you know, and the farmers were able to get going again and get everything going. I think everyone had a sense of purpose to get moving again.

Oh,

I suppose a couple of years to really get back on your feet. I think a couple of years. You couldn’t do it straight away because there was shortages of this and shortages of that and nothing coming you know. And of course, as I said before, the overseas trade because of the, well all around Australia and in other parts, were mined. The shipping was mined, the shipping lanes were all mined.

So they couldn’t bring anything in. But all that was cleared and away they went again you know. I had to laugh at George. He, after his stint up there, because he had been in the army so long, they offered to fly him home. The war had ended and to fly him home you see. And he said, he had never flown, he had never flown, he said, “No way in the world.” He said, “I am going home by, strangely,

ship.” I said to him after, I said, “You know,” I said, “you are the strangest bloke because the mines hadn’t been cleared completely around, through the islands, all around there, the mines hadn’t been cleared.” They were to a certain degree, but they hadn’t all been cleared. I said, “Your ship could have struck a mine and then where would you be?” He said, “Down in Davy Jones’s locker that is where I would be.” You see that

that is just one of the funny things that happen. Anyway. No we have had a good life, we really have. I mean some people split up, go their own way and that sort of thing, but we have been very fortunate, very fortunate. Yep yep.

Well Church of England at St Mathews at Sherwood, that is where. And I went to Sunday school would you believe and annoyed the hell out of the teacher but just the same went to Sunday school. I was in the church choir. Sort of mother’s union meetings and all that stuff

and got quite involved with the church in that respect. But as I said, I have never been a strict churchgoer. And we have never said to our children, even when they were small, that they had to do this or they had to do that, as far as religion was concerned. We always felt that ok, let them find out for themselves and if they want to choose a

certain religion ok, that is ok with us. Because here we are, Susan was married in St Mathews church, Yvonne was registry office and Geoffrey was married in a Catholic church. So you see we have got a mixture of everything, you know. But they chose to do that, they chose to do that. Yeah.

What religion was she? Oh Church of England, my father was Catholic. He

was an altar boy out at St George, in St George out west, he was an altar boy and brought up as a Catholic, a very strict Catholic too. And but he, what happened was this, oh yeah, they didn’t have any transport. They walked with me from Graceville up to Corinda. Now you have been in that area, you know how far it is. From Graceville to Corinda ok, they walked up there, they took me

up to a, to the service in the Catholic Church ok. And the priest said to father, “Of course she will be baptised in our faith,” or something to that. I think that was the words and he said, “And your wife?” and he sort of looked around at my Mum. And father said, “Oh she is Church of England.” Well you should have heard the priest.

That was the wrong thing to say. Oh yes. And he turned his back on my mother, yes he did and he said, this is my father telling me this. And he said, “Well you are head of the house, you will decide where your child will be…” you see. So of course my mother walked out didn’t she, she was a very, very strong lady and complete with me and off we went and we never went back to the church again. And he didn’t either

George, oh my father did it no way. He said, “Well if that’s the way they are going to treat us,” you know. So here I am Church of England. And I was christened in a little church, a little old wooden church out on Sherwood Road, you may notice there was a cemetery there, a small cemetery ok. Sitting on that was a little old wooden church and that is where I was christened. The very next weekend it burnt

down didn’t it. Well somebody burnt it down. And my friends have always said, “Well that is the sort of affect you have on religion,” yes true. Yes I have had a long association with that area, I really have and it has been good for me yeah. Am I finished?

What sweetie what do you want?

Yeah,

yeah I am quite proud of that and so was he. As I said before, a couple of his mates came round to the house, they said, “Look we want to put George up, recommend him for the OAM.” I said, “Oh that would be great, you know that would be a great honour.” So with me they sat down and did a script on his life, right from the word go. Where he was born in

Ipswich and all that sort of thing all the way down, his service, army service, everything. And then they went on to cripple children and the getting the wheel chair people able to go to high school that sort of thing from Montrose Home. And that is what he was recommended for, an OAM for service to cripple children, veterans

and something else. But that is what is was all about. And yeah, so that is how he got that so we are very proud of that. That picture that is up there on the wall, you will see he has got it strung round his neck, now he only did that because Yvonne came with her degree certificate complete with mortar board and the whole bit, and he said, “Well if she had got that on there I am going to wear my medal,” so he threw

the medal around his neck and had his photograph taken with his daughter. Yes. But that is what he got that for, well deserved too, well deserved. Any thing else?

I can’t make scones, oh mine are biscuits, what is the matter with you.

Oh, I could never do that I was never a domesticated type you know.