Australians at War Film Archive

My name is Arnold George Nunn. I was born in Rockhampton. 37 Margaret Street, 8th December 1923. I ended up gong to the Allenstown State School. I went to school when – I started school at 4. And then

after a couple of years there Dad was – got to be about 1930, the Depression days and Dad and Mum were transferred out to Longreach, he was a railway engine driver. Went out to Longreach and I went to the Longreach State School for about five years. And after that we came back to Rockhampton. I went back to the Allenstown School. Left there when I was twelve and started work.

Because Mum and Dad had eleven children of which I was the eldest, nine boys and two girls and I had a job actually – to get a job. I started work in a wholesale fruit place for two years, did that. And then I left there, went to a tailor place, tailoring for two weeks, give that away.

Didn’t like that. And then I went to Rickards Bakery in Rockhampton to do my apprenticeship as a baker. Well I was there for 23 months and after three months they’re supposed to sign you up and they didn’t sign me up. They just let it go on and on. I was getting five shillings and sixpence which is fifty five cents a week. And that’s what I got and

they never put it up. Anyway I used to go mad and see the foreman. I said, “Look I’m going to give it away, I can’t take this any more.” So I was doing everything. Baking, the whole lot. Making doughs and getting five shillings and sixpence a week. Anyway after 23 months I went to this Bill and I said, “Look Bill, no good mate I’m going.” So he went and seen the boss and the boss cocky come out and he says, “Well Arnold I’ll tell you what we’ll do.

I know I’ve been remiss in doing this.” And I said, “Yeah you have, 23 months and after 3 months you’re supposed to sign me up.” And I said, “Well I’m leaving.” And he said, “Oh no you stay and I’ll give you 23 shillings.” And that was big money, a week. “And we’ll backdate it for that 23 months.” And I said, “No you can shove it.” And I left. And I was sorry afterwards but when you’re young, 16 I was, and I thought, “Oh bugger this.” So I

went. And I went to a bicycle shop and I learnt to repair and build bicycles. You know cut the steel everything. Built a complete bike for two years. But the war had started then and – over in Europe. And I was 15 and I thought, “I want to get away to this. I want to get away in the air force. So I’ll learn Morse code with my brother in

the railway,” he was in the railway. Started to learn Morse code when I was 15 at the railway. And then, from then on I progressed and after about two years of that, the 42nd Battalion. Well actually the Japs [Japanese] were on the Kokoda trail, coming down and everyone was being dragged in. And trained. And I was called up just as I turned

18 to – for the 42nd Battalion in Rockhampton. Had to do, oh two or three nights a week we’d do marching with broomsticks and all this, around the place and learning everything. And then I told them that I had applied to join the air force. Anyway the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor the day I turned 18, 8th December ’41.

Of course 7th December in America. Then I left there and so I said to him, “Well I’m in the air training corps.” I was already in the Air Training Corps too learning navigation with the view to flying you know. Mum and Dad wouldn’t sign the papers for me to fly so I said, “Oh well I’ll go ground staff.” Which I did. I ended up applying for the ground staff and the air force called me up in August –

5th 1942. We ended up at – in Maryborough to do basic training and then at Canberra where I did two months of training at the Tech [Technical] College in Canberra. Got 100% in electricity and they said, “Well you’ll be an electrician.” So the sent me to Ultimo Technical College in Sydney where I did my electrician’s

work. After that they wanted wireless men so I transferred into wireless assistance course. I did that and we stayed – we were billeted first of all at Ultimo Tech, at big wool sheds and by gee they were dumps. We were in there and we had these wooden double-decker beds and they were filled with ticks and lice. And you’re all covered in red marks

all over your skin from them. Oh it was terrible. We kept going mad about this. We had to take them out every Saturday and wash them and all this sort of thing. And put Lysol in it to kill them, never killed them, nearly killed us. Anyway we ended up – they put us out at Ultimo – at Oceanic Hotel Coogee. And we were out there based for a few months till I’d finished the wireless course.

Then I was transferred to Amberley. So I went there for four months. No sorry I’ve got it wrong there. I went to Laverton. I was at Laverton for three months and we used to go out climbing poles with spurs on you know and doing the radio work. I ended up hernia so they sent me into Heidelberg Tech. Heidelberg

Hospital. They operated on me there and then I went up to a place called Warburton. We have five weeks recuperation there and then they transferred me to Amberley. I was at Amberley for three or four months. And that’s where I mentioned before I blew up a radar unit working on it you know. Had the detonators wrong, had it all wrong. And also I worked on an aircraft there belonging to General Blamey. And I did

the HFDF [High Frequency Direction Finding] – they had – on the top of the aircraft was a coil that would give you the reading north, south, east or west as you’re flying you know. I fixed all that up and it went to Townsville. I was transferred to Melbourne Tech. I went to the Exhibition Mill in Melbourne. I was down there and I was called up by the CO [Commanding Officer] one day and they said, “You’re wanted back at Amberley.”

I said, “What for?” “Oh General Blamey’s aircraft nearly crashed.” “Why?” He said, “Well the HFDF was reading wrong.” I said, “No it wasn’t when I checked it out.” So I had to come back. They interviewed me. Found out eventually in the long run that some chap – the aircraft had left Townsville to go to Charleville in big tropical storms. In the meantime instead of going out to Charleville it went reciprocal

reading out to sea. Nearly got to the point of no return. And then they suddenly woke up something was wrong so they turned around and come back. And there was hell to pay about that. But I found out there was some young fellow working on the engine had got into start the engine up and try it and he’d knocked the equipment. And one of the plugs had come out so he just plugged it back in. And the plugs had two contacts and he reversed it.

That saved my life. Anyway they said, “Oh well.” And this fellow admitted it. He said, “Oh it was just an accident.” From then on we had to change all the plugs on them and put three pins in. So this is how accidents could happen in those days. The equipment was pretty primitive you know and these sort of things could happen to you. Then after that – after the exhibition – I finished my course there. And they said,

“You’re wanted,” just before I finished the course, “You’re wanted in New Guinea urgently.” And there’s about a half a dozen of you have got to go straight away. So we transferred. Without pre-embarkation leave and we left down there on a train. We came up through Queensland to Townsville and Mum and Dad were still living in Rockhampton and one of my brothers was at one of the smaller stations as a station master. And I was looking

for him when I got to Benaraby where he was. He wasn’t there. We got to Rockhampton and here he is on the platform at Rockhampton. And I said, “Hey Gordy quick go up home and tell them.” So he did, got on the bike, wasn’t too far away. Dad came down on his bike and he got the driver to hold the train because the train was ready to go. There was that many trains with troops going north, they had to keep to a schedule all the time you know. Anyway

we ended up, he kept them till Mum come waddling down the road. And she come in and all we had time to say was, “Hello” and “Hooray.” “Hooray Mum” Imagine how I felt, no pre embarkation or nothing, going to New Guinea, you know straight away. So anyway we ended up – got to Townsville and that afternoon I was in New Guinea. They flew us straight up to Milne Bay. And there was – no next morning we flew up. There was about 200

DC3’s loaded with troops and they just count you off. And I was in the 180th one. And they’re just “30, 30, 30, 30.” And we were the aircraft to get into Milne Bay. A lot of them were lost and they landed at different places because of the tropical storms in those days. And got to Milne Bay and for a week there I was just fooling around. They had us cutting sandwiches for the troops coming back and take them on

the aircraft which I didn’t mind doing. We were helping the Salvation Army. And then we left there on the Ormiston – a ship – oh before that I went on an American submarine. I got to know some Yanks there you know as I’m loath to do, get to know people. And they said, “Want to come on a trip, we’re just going out to test the subs [submarines].” So I went on the sub for the day. And it was interesting but by gee – and the had to go down once cause they reckon

there was Jap ships around. Frightened hell out of me. I thought, bugger this. You had to pull yourself up and get into a little joint up top over where their mess was and these hot pipes going over the top of you and I thought, oh I’d hate to be in a submarine, I would rather be up there than down there. Anyway that was by the by, something different. Came back and we got on the Ormiston and I went to Lae and when we got to Lae they put us on

trucks and we drove up to Nadzab. Now they tried to find my unit. Oh in the meantime they had sent me to Goodenough Island where my unit was by boat and they’d gone. Going to Manus Island, Los Negros. So they sent me back to Milne Bay. That was after the submarine episode. And we ended up, they sent me Manus was being

attacked then and some of my different friends were in it actually. And after about a fortnight of that when they were getting all the troops there there was a real shemozzle [mess]. They were trying to get them in, they didn’t have the equipment there to do work you know and all this. And the airstrip on Manus was probably what half a mile long the Jap time and the sea bees [American engineers] started to bulldoze

it and make it bigger. And put down matting. And it was a coral area and they put the coral there. And they ended up flying some of us in in DC3’s. And some of me mates were coming in on the barges. And the nips [Japanese] were shooting at them and actually at the end of the strip as we were landing they were still fighting down the far end you know. And when I got there we were in foxholes

for a week or so with the gear. And then the Australian company came and started to build our transmitting station. And it was a – on a point and we were there for five or four months. And the Americans decided they wanted to take that area over and use it for a dance place for themselves and the nurses and all this. Oh yeah the Yanks had to have

everything. As a matter of fact when we were there fighting you know, the blokes’d come past eating ice-creams and we’d say, “Where you’d get that from?” “Oh there’s a barge down there on the beach.” And you’d go and get ice-creams and they’re fighting. Oh I tell you. Anyway we ended up – they shifted us again, the Americans. Over three days they built us another transmitting station around near the cemetery and we could still look to where we were. And these Yanks built themselves this great bit set up.

Dancehall, open you know. Having a ball there they were. Anyway we ended up in the transmitting station there for about oh, another 8 months or so – various fellows coming and going. And out of the blue, around about the 1st of 1945 – 1st January 1945 – they got word to say that 114

mobile fighter control unit – my unit was to go back to Australia and reform. I thought, oh this is good. And we were going to go back up to Biak [Biak Island] and Noemfoor and places like that. Anyway, “Oh you got to stay Arnie.” I said, “What have I got to stay for?” “Oh you know the equipment, you’ve got to stay.” So three or four of us had to stay. And gee I was hostile because I thought good to go on further. Those fellows came back to Strathpine here, reformed

and went on further. I was talking to mates later on all about it. Anyway we were there but we had had our various things happen to us there on Manus. We had big masts 65 foot high all put up and Bill Shanks – he’s a Rockhampton lad and I know him – he was the sarge [sergeant] in charge. And he said, “Hey Arnie” He went up the pole a little bit to see if it was all right. “Hey

Arnie you’ve got to get up the top of that and put these 30 foot masts on top.” So another fellow Les Hughes and myself did this. We did it for three days and got up there – one day and we were coming down. Les was on the top this day and I was down below – and we got down to about 30 foot and Les slipped. Down he came, right down the pole and knocked me and we had our guts all skinned with you know it had creosote

on us. And we fell probably about 10 foot at the last. Hurt our legs and things like that. Went to the Yankee hospital near there and they just fixed it up you know. Anyway then another day I was on duty there and I heard this bang bang bang bang. And I went out the end of the transmitting station and here’s a couple of Jap bombers dropping bombs.

One lot coming across and the other one coming across angles to them. And I yelled out to the boys inside, “Bombs quick.” I ran around the side of the shack, one of me mates run inside, the transmitter was blown on him and all ripped he was. And I got shrapnel in me back. The bomb blew me over and another one landed ahead of me. Now if I hadn’t have been blown over by that I’d have been dead. But this is one of the lucky – you know the luck of life. And we were

deafened. I think that’s one of the reasons I’ve got bad hearing now. And then we were great friends with the Americans. We got to know them good. And they used to say, “Come on guy you blokes can fire a machinegun, come with us.” And we’d get on the Liberator bombers as a gunner. And we’d go up to Truk or Guam and bomb there and then come back. And our CO, Gordon Steed he used to go

fishing with us. He said, “I don’t want to know.” “I don’t want to know.” So yeah a lot of us did that. Oh yeah. At least we got to fly. And then the day that the Japs were bombed at Hiroshima by the atomic bomb. Incidentally I’ll tell you later on the captain of the Enola Gay, Paul Tibbits he became a friend of mine later on. Ham [ham radio] he was and we got to know each other.

But he bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Japs gave in. And on the 15th August 1945 I was transferred back to Australia and I heard on the aircraft when we were flying over Townsville that the war was over. About half past nine in the morning. And I heard on the radio and I went up the back of the aircraft and told the people and there were some WAAAFs [Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force] we picked up in Cairns.

In Townsville. We were all dancing in the aircraft going mad you know. And we got down here and the pilot flew the DC3 under the Story Bridge, under and the girls are up top waving to us, as we went under it. Landed at Archerfield, went into town and did we have a ball. You know a real great night. And then my hernia busted out again by

going up those poles and they put me into Greenslopes and operated on me. And in those days when you had a hernia or an op 13 days you were on your back, they never let you out of bed. And anyway they were looking for me the air force and they didn’t know where I was. And they wanted to send me to a base over at Perth. Now this base at Perth was a jumping off point

to go to Japan. So if I hadn’t have been in hospital possibly they’d have sent me to Japan. But they discharged me on the 9th August – 9th January 1946. And I’ve even got papers there saying they were looking for me then. But they discharged me so they wanted to keep me in. cause I had a good record. Anyway I got a letter from them later n asking me to go back in but I didn’t get it until I got these papers about six months ago.

And the letter was sent to my Mum’s address. Margaret Street, Rockhampton evidently. I didn’t get it. I would’ve gone back in the air force you know. Got another one in 1952 asking me to go back in the air force and I’d just got married to Daph. We’d got married in ’51 and I took her back to New Guinea to live. To Rabaul. I’d gone back to Rabaul in 1949 myself with the government as a

cabinet maker and joiner and I was working in the joinery shop for Department of Works and Housing. We used to do all sorts of things there. I’ve got a photograph there, we used to go and watch them hanging the Japs. I’ve got a photograph there of the places you know. And one of my mates, Harry Croydon he was the hangman. And I used to call him Hanging Harry.

But anyway while we were there in Rabaul, they found the bodies of 15 Australian airmen. One of my mates was bulldozing the road and they were buried there, decapitated. The Japs – just two weeks before the war – they killed them. And we had to go and bury them out at Bita Paka War Cemetery. This was probably

1950. ’50. In the middle of ’50, probably about June or July so we went out there and buried the bodies and they’re still at Bita Paka War Cemetery in Rabaul now. Anyway, which is a bad thing. Anyway us young louts, there was 100 of us in works and housing there. And we used to go everywhere, look at the caves. The Japs had 300 miles of

tunnels you know, everywhere. And we’d go into them and get out equipment. There was some field radio equipment, there was another cave filled with photographic equipment, you name everything was there, terrific. And – oh we’d go out fishing and swimming and bombing fish. And a lot of had to do work helping the – fellow in charge

of disposals in those days. Fellow by the name of Arthur Brown. He had a hotel in Rabaul and he said to us, “Hey Arnie how about coming out and ripping up these Japanese Zeros you know.” And you’d melt them down into ingots of alloy. So we’d go and help him do that and we’d pull torpedoes apart and all this sort of thing. It was an interesting time. A hundred of us young louts

had nothing to do – we’d do this. Then we’d build houses of a weekend for people. Or the Chinese’d get me to run sills in the – four head of machine we had in the workshop and the boss of the department of works’d say, “Yeah you can go ahead and do it.” Because they’ve got nothing you know. So I used to do weekends for them. I’d go and build houses weekends as well as during the week you know.

And when I was 18 months – come back and married Daphne and took her back and she wondered what the neck she’d come to. When she’d come to that place because there’s nothing there. You landed on the strip this day and it was tropical storm on and water was knee deep as you got off the aircraft. And the hut was smaller than this room that you had to come in. It was all rusty old iron and hot as anything for her.

Anyway took her to this old house we had made of iron. Lived there and I ended up living there for – how many years? Five years. I rented the workshop off the fellow that owned it and took over, started furniture manufacture on my own right you know. And then later on I had a mate come in with me and Jack and

I we built a factory, got land off the government, built a factory down yonder. He came and helped and ended up becoming Godparents to our children and still are today. Which is a good thing. Fifty, sixty years – it’s a long time to be friends. We ended up, him and his wife and my wife, and David my son, and Susan’s my daughter.

And we had a beach house – we used to go out there every weekend and we’d get all our friends to come out. There’d be 20, 30 people out there overnight and we’d all be swimming and you name it, we had a wonderful life. The kids did, they really enjoyed their life. And Daphne got to like the place. She’d come home for five or six months and I’d be – I would be

staying up there to keep things going. One time there was about six years before we had leave. You’re supposed to have leave every two years because in the tropics it upsets you a lot. We ended up coming home, Daph come home after about two years and she’d come out and back here again. And another couple of years. But it was six and a half years before I got down. Yeah really fairly

hard life when you’re working all day and planning at night. But still all businesses are the same aren’t they? I ended up with – I’d come down on leave and sometimes she’d be – I used to have terrific migraines. Oh bad things. And you’d be thinking some of your mates got killed, various things

got to you. And that sort of thing. But in 1952 around about that time we had that trouble at Indonesia and Malaysia. We were looking after Malaysia and the Indonesians were coming in there. Some of our men were going into Indonesia and fighting with them. And my friend

Jack Reed he was coast watch during the war and actually he was my mate’s friend, Jack – Jack introduced me to him and he used to come down listen to the radio and say, “Oh Arnie I’ll give you a coast watch, I’ll make you coast watch.” Don’t tell – we had a big meeting there at that time and he said, “Don’t tell them that you are in radio, keep it quiet and I’ll make you coast watcher.”

And you’re going to you know look out. Which we did, he brought me coast watcher’s equipment down and I tuned that in and used to listen and you used to hear the Russians on the border of Dutch New Guinea – they were trying to take over all that area. And even our area. And the Indonesians. Incidentally he introduced me to a young fellow in the Com [Commonwealth] Bank.

Accountant and a teller, speak fluent Russian. And we’d listen in the night and hear all this and we’d send it further on you know. This went on for months and months and months. I mean it was over fifty years ago but I’ve never said anything to anyone. Poor old Jack’s dead now – Jack Reed he died about two years ago but he was a wonderful coast watcher – he used to hide in

the hills. Him and a native named Simagin. And this Simagin ended up killing 80 Japs and he was a fighter. And he killed a whole group of natives who dobbed him and Jack into the Japanese. There was a village – see some of the natives weren’t our friends they were the Japanese’s friends. So this group had

dobbed them to the Japs and the Japs came in the little pup tent they were in firing. And they fired over their heads. Jack and Simagin rolled down the mountain and got away. So Simagin found out who they were and he went and killed them all. So he thought, I’ll get even. Anyway he used to come to my workshop a lot with Jack and we had – you know pretty good friends. And another little

sideline story to that. One morning about six o’clock I was up and I heard this truck turning out down the road and I rushed out the front of my workshop and here’s three natives crawling out of it and one of them was Simagin. All drunk. And they’d spun the truck. I never said anything. I went to the district commissioner’s place one night – he invited me to the party – he was like the mayor of the town. Invited me to this

party. I went up there and Simagin’s there. “Oh mister, no looking me long time too much.” He’s come up to me and we had a talk you know. And I said, “Hey Simagin.” And “What Master?” “How’s your back today?” He looked at me, “What do you mean?” I said, “What about the morning you turned the truck over.” “Ah fastie mouth, fastie mouth master, fastie mouth.” I said, “Well I have, I never said a word.”

I never told anyone or anything. He said, “Oh thank you master too much.” He would really have been in the gun you know. This day they didn’t know who it was. That’s a little story on the side you know. But then ended up selling the factory to the natives. A lot of natives come in and they put say, a hundred pounds in for shares that sort of thing. And the Australian government

John Gorton I think it was, Prime Minister come up and had a look and, seen it was a worthwhile project to sell to the natives and it was the first business ever sold by Europeans to natives in New Guinea. And it made history. And they took it over. I stayed on for 18 months, my wife come down then 12 months. I stayed up there for 18 months to keep it going. And we used to get government

contracts you know for furniture. We’d make a hundred dressing tables, a hundred chests of drawers, a hundred tables, all this sort of thing. At a time you know in the factory. And this is one of the patrol tables that I used to make for them you know. You didn’t get much for them. You only got about 6 pounds, twelve dollars for one of them. You know make a thousand of them at a time. And they’d take them out on patrol and they’d just fold them up. And we

- I stayed there for that long and then after 18 months I thought, oh I can’t take much more of this – got to go back to family in Rockhampton. So I ended up leaving there, I left it in the hands of another European. And he run it but he was there for about 18 months and then – we were down in Melbourne. We went to Melbourne because the wife wanted to go to a

colder climate and it nearly killed me. I run a furniture factory in Melbourne and nearly died. I was driving to work one day in the Mercedes. Oh you get a Mercedes in New Guinea for – a Holden was 1,500 pounds, a Mercedes was 1,800 pounds. So for the extra 300 pounds it was worth it. So I ended up with two Mercedes at different times. And I

brought this one down and had it here for a few years before I traded it in and got more than I paid for it. Anyway I was driving to work this day, in the sleet and the rain and snow. A rock come and smashed the windscreen. Oh God I was as cold as hell so I turned around and went home and got the Mercedes to come and I went to bed. I couldn’t take it any more and I said to Daph, “This is no good to me.” Anyway in the meantime

this Peter bloke who run the business in Rabaul – he had to go on leave so my mate Jack went back for three months to look after the place while he went on leave. Then Jack came back and I went back for 18 months again to build up the business for them. Which I did and I – that was in 1973, ’74 when the got independence.

And they ended up – I ended up coming back here, left it in the hands of another European. But after independence the place sort of – and then they had the earthquakes at Rabaul – place folded up and the factory is still there today. A storage sort of point for some other person who’d bought it you know. So that’s all sort of gone to pieces. But still it was a very interesting life at the time.

I enjoyed my life in New Guinea I really did. And I think Daph did, the children did, they really did. David came back when he was 14 or 15 – I got him back for a couple of weeks before I came here. Met all his mates and all the natives when they saw him, they threw their arms around him. “Oh master me look at you.” They were real happy to see him. We’d go out in the truck, weekends everywhere. And there

was always an argument amongst the natives – we could take six of them in the back – who was going to go you know. And there was about 40 or 50 blokes in the factory and they’d want to go you know. Anyway we’d go everywhere and have a ball you know. I got some of these European friends together and took them out to meals. And he enjoyed it coming back there. Susan went back there years later. On a boat. The Fairstar. And friends

picked her up and took her to our place. And they took her out to the beach house. When she got out there natives were living in the beach house and they ordered her off the property. And she said, “Oh muski – I’m not going, this was my Dad’s.” So in the end they talked to her all right when they found out who she was. But she said she really enjoyed the trip but it was only one day there. But I’ve never been back

since then. Sometimes I’d like to go back but not with the trouble that are going on now. We came back here and I thought now what the heck am I going to do here at Redcliffe. I see Chesney Caravans were advertising for tradesmen so I went out and when they found out what I was they put me on straight away. And I did

work for about five weeks or six weeks on the bench, assembly. Then the boss cocky of the whole shebang came to me one day and he said, “Arnie I believe you had a furniture factory in Rabaul.” And I said, “Yeah.” He said, “How would you like to take the night shift over?” So I got to be the boss cocky of that. And some of them weren’t too happy. Me just coming in. They’d been there for years. But

anyway that’s life isn’t it. Anyway it ended up – they took me off the nightshift later on and made me the boss of the factory, the furniture factory and that’s – I was running that, oh six seven years. Then – she went broke. It was the first business in Queensland to go broke and I ended up – you had to sack a lot of people. And you had

to go through it and see who you would sack, who you wouldn’t. And it’s a terrible thing to have to do. People were paying off homes and “Oh Arnie I’ve got a home to pay off.” You didn’t know what to do. You ended up sacking them all and closing the place down. They had a sale and that was that. And I thought, what am I going to do now. My friend Ron Harmann over the road here, he came over with a paper on the Friday – when he read

about Chesney’s closing. That day he read it in the paper. He come over with the paper and he said, “Arnie fill this in to go to Ansett.” He was working at Ansett. One of the fellows in charge, foreman. And he wanted me to go to Ansett years before. I could have gone as a lecko[?] but I thought, I don’t want to do any more studying. I’ve done enough of that. So that’s the reason I went to Chesnys. Anyway I ended up a

– took the information out to the boss cocky at Ansett and he said, “Okay when there’s a position available I’ll get in touch through Ron.” So I thought, well I’ve still got to have a job so I went to the Royal Brisbane Hospital cooking in the kitchen there. And doing all sorts of things. Washing dishes and pots and pans, who cares it’s a job. I did that and I had a friend

he was a doctor there and he was a specialist. And he used to say to the fellow, to the boss of the whole shebang, “Hey send Arnie up with tea and coffee, I’m operating. Send him up with this stuff.” And I’d go up to the operating theatre and he’d say, “Come in put a mask in.” And I’d go in and he’d say, “Look I’m doing this to this one. “ Didn’t worry me it was something different, interesting. Oh yeah that was part of your life. I was there for about 23 months

until I got word of Ansett and I went there.

As I said I got a job at Ansett. Shift work. And only as a cleaner. I didn’t want to do any study and get me electrical tickets any more. And that was when I was 55, just before I turned 55 and I’d have to only work ten years. Well I could’ve only worked five years but I decided to work on for

ten years. I ended up shift work. You go on the aircraft and change over equipment and various things with the people still in it while – they’re there for half an hour – clean it. General clean up. Food area. The food men’d come in and you’d take all the rubbish out and all this. The toilet area – you’d have to go in and by gees some of those toilets. Some

of those people are terrible. I remember once, I won’t name who they were but they were a cricket mob. The floor of the aircraft was awash with urine and one of the big blokes rang and he said to me, “It’s a mess in there mate.” I said, “It is a mess.” Drinking and I tell you. You see the things. Opens your eyes.

One story. One day there, the hostie [hostess] came to me, “Hey Arnie, quick.” I said, “What’s wrong?” She said, “Business man wants to see you here.” And this bloke comes down and he’s minus his teeth. “Oh mate my teeth’s fallen in the toilet. Can you do anything about getting them out?” I said, “Oh gees.” They’ve got big tubes outside and they run them out and they take it away. I said, “I don’t know.”

He said, “I’ve got a big business meeting, I’ve got to go and talk to 300 people and I’ve just lost me teeth down the toilet. I was sick.” I said, “Oh God.” So we had big gloves, come up to here. So I put them on and I said, “Righto.” And I opened up the thing and I fished around. Oh. I ended up getting

the teeth. I got them out and I washed with everything. I put carbolic and stuff on them. And he come up and I said, “There you are mate. There’s your teeth. You’d better go to a dentist now. It was about four in the arv [afternoon] – and get them cleaned properly.” “Oh thanks mate I appreciate that.” I said, “Don’t put them in your mouth yet.” And he said, “Ooh no I won’t do that. Oh gees thanks mate.” And he shook my hand. And he said

“What’s your name?” And I told him and he said, “I’ll write to the boss of Ansett about that.” Never heard another word. He never even said, “Here mate here’s a tenner.” I never forgot that. I often wonder whether he was picking his teeth – later on. I tell people that story and they all laugh. Oh God. And we -

you’d go all weathers and we had various shifts, night time and that. We’d have to go over to the other big hangar and they’d have aircraft all over the place and you’d have to work on seven or eight aircraft at night, straightening them all up. I loved aircraft and I always did. Something I didn’t tell you. After the war when I went back to Rockhampton I learnt to fly because I wanted to be a pilot in the RAAF [Royal Australian Air Force]. And I learnt to fly in Rockhampton.

1946, ’48. Flying the old Tiger Moth. And I enjoyed that. And we started the aero club there – there was five of us. Four pilots and myself. We put in money and started it. And trained a lot of men. And many many years later when I was working at Ansett, this bloke got in the cockpit. He said, “You finished here mate?” I said, “Yeah.” And he was a pilot. And the co pilot

said, “Oh forget about him. He’s only going up to Rockhampton. His home town. He’s in a hurry to get there.” And I said, “Your home town mate?” He said, “Yeah.” I said, “It’s mine too.” “Ah what’s your name?” I said, “Arnold Nunn.” I said, “What’s yours?” And he told me. I forget it now. Anyway he said, “Where do you live?” I said, “Margaret Street.” “Oh I had an aunty who lived in Margaret Street.” I said, “Who’s that?” He said, “Gertie Cooper.” And she was my aunty. So

isn’t it a small world. He was, you know on the other side. Anyway he said, “God strewth, fancy that.” And I said, Where’d you learn to fly?” He said, “At Rockhampton Aero Club.” I said, “God.” And I told him the story about starting it. And every time he’d come he’d come and claim me. Anyway when they had that pilot strike and they all went out, he was one of them. He ended up going to

Cathay Pacific and I think he’s still flying with them now. But oh it was an interesting life. You’d work shift, you’d knock off Friday afternoon 3 o’clock and you wouldn’t have to go to work till Wednesday night at 8 o’clock. So that was a good – that was once a month. And then you’d have a night shift that went from 8 o’clock until 4 in the morning. And another one

from 6 till 3 in the arv. Another one from 3 till 10 at night. And they crossed over to help you with the first aircraft you know coming in at night, cause it was a busy time. But I really liked it there. And this friend of mine over here, Ron Harmann, brilliant man, he’s an engineer. Did his time. His father was in the First World War flying and an engineer. And he had a place at Archerfield and Ron

did his time with him. He used to whittle with the knives and make the propellers and you name it, he could do it. And anyway you know the blokes’d come up to Ron and they’d say to him, “Ron we’ve got troubles in engine such and such. It does this, it does that or it doesn’t do it.” And he’d say, “Yeah?” They’d say, “What do you think it is?” And old Ron’d just rub his jaw and say, “I think it’s valve

46. Have a look at that one.” Spot on. Oh he was brilliant. And this fellow Ron, they sent him up to New Guinea during the war helping for TAA [Trans Australia Airlines] and the air force. He was going up there repairing aircraft. No record of it after the war. And he never got anything from Vet Affairs [Department of Veteran Affairs] or nothing. And I said to him, I keep saying to him now, “Why don’t you keep after them to find out if they’ve got something.”

But he doesn’t do it. He said, “Oh well.” That’s another thing. I hope you don’t mind me talking about Vet Affairs, but I’m on a disability pension but there are things – I got all my records as I said about 8 months ago or something like that. All they’ve got in my sickness is ‘Went to

26RMU [Records Management Unit] in 1944’ and nothing about how long I was there or anything and that was when I got amoebic dysentery – Vet Affairs won’t accept it and it’s there. And I’ve got it all written up in a diary. I’ve kept a diary – I’ve got it all written up. I’ve got all the bombing when we were gravel-rashed. And I’ve

got all that on different papers, all witnessed by a JP [Justice of the Peace] here ready to send to the air force to see if they would change it. I couldn’t find – the mob in Canberra would say, “Oh you’ve got to see Vet Affairs in Brisbane.” Vet Affairs said, “No nothing to do with us, got to be done in Canberra.” This has been going on for months. It just goes on and on. And I’ve got these papers – so I’m going to whip a copy of them away in the next week or so.

And I’m seriously considering seeing the Vet *Affairs fellow that comes to the RSL [Returned and Services League] here. See what he can do. I mean they’re like this, it’s a record isn’t it of history and like of how people were. I mean as I now – regressing back to the start of the war when the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor we

were only young. Well I was 18 then but in Rockhampton after that, some Japanese landed on an island there and it was all in the Rockhampton paper, I’ll give you copies of it there. And the Yanks and the Australians they killed them. There were a few hundred of them landed and you know when the Coral Sea Battle was on and they were coming down, there was an awful lot of Japanese marines ready to

come to this island, handy to where the army was training up – Shoalwater Bay it is. And they found a Japanese fellow in Japan – I forget his name it’s all written down there and he said, “Yes it is definitely true.” He was in charge of the mob, the Japanese unit coming into Marlborough. They were going to take over the Town Hall in Rockhampton. Dispose

of women and children and make the men, dig coal, grow rice and everything for Japan. Now a lot of people don’t realise these things nearly happened. In 1942. So you know, people – some say it didn’t but this Japanese fellow said it did. And the Coral Sea Battle there were thousands and thousands of Japanese all floating everywhere dead up in

the – when the ships were all sunk. And just as well because they would've been down here. Oh we – it was close.

Well my first memory was going to the Allenstown school over the road. We lived over the road from the school. Mum took me up to school. I was probably, I was

four. I didn’t like it. So the next day I said to Mum, “I’ll go meself.” So instead of going to school I hid in the tree – in the grass over the road till 12 o’clock and I come home at 12 o’clock for me lunch. And then I went back. In those days they kept you till 2 or something. And then I went back again but I was hiding in the grass. I did this for three days. I didn’t want to go to school.

Eventually they caught me out on it you know.

Oh I just sat there. Could’ve been snakes or anything. Idiots we were. When you’re a kid you know you just did these things and you lay there and you were looking over at home wishing the heck you were there but you weren’t game to go home you know. Mum’d grab you by the ear, have you back over there. But oh I didn’t mind school.

Not really I was only – just over four and a half or something like that. That’s my first memory. And I can remember Mum when I was about five starting a bankbook with the Commonwealth Bank, sixpence into the bankbook every week. That’s all sixpence went in, sixpence which wasn’t much but it was a start. Been with the Com Bank all those years. That’s what, 75 years

when you think about it. When – at that school also I had mates from there. And one mate’s father was on the committee and they built a swimming pool over the road from us. And old Lukey Gollick he used to, his father would let us go and clean the pool and for recompense we could go swimming in it any time. Us louts’d be in there

swimming. We used to take canoes over and paddle around the pool and everything like this. Weren’t supposed to. One day a policeman over the road come over and he says, we heard him coming. So we upturned the canoe and we’re hiding under it. “Come out of there you louts come on I know you’re there Nunn boys.” And my brothers we were terrible. Anyway he waited for hours but we out-waited him you know. And he went home and it was dark and we

took the canoe home. But he caught me later on going down the street in a bike and he says, “You been throwing rocks Nunnie” I said, “Not me Mr McConnicky, I’ve never thrown a rock in me life.” Bull. And anyway, “You been throwing rocks on the roofs.” And I said, “Not us.” “Don’t answer me back.” And he went wham and he hit me over the ear. I had a sore ear for weeks. One day I fixed him up. He had grapes growing. He loved his grapes and he had these grapes.

And he was up at the – by this time at the police house. And he had a gate at the side and he was sleeping up top. I opened the gate and I snuck in and I cut every grape off there and left them there. The green ones. But anyway when he saw me, he couldn’t prove it but by gee, did he go mad. “I know it was you Nunnie.” I said, “I didn’t do – do what?”

With a big grin on me face. Oh gees some funny time.

Mum was good. Big woman was about 15 stone, very jolly. Very good. She had an ulcer on her ankle for 40 years. In agony all the time. And my sister Claire. There was myself, Gordie, Norm and then Claire.

Claire left school when she was 13 I think it was and she looked after all of us. She used to do all the cooking and everything for Mum, the washing. And we’d help her wash. And she reared most of Mum’s kid. And Dad was good, he was a good Dad. Real gentleman. Real gentleman. Never swore. Didn’t like you swearing and you couldn’t say, “Bloody.” Ooh no. And I can remember

when I was in Longreach going out to school there. When Dad was transferred in the bad times, I had a nervous breakdown. One of my teeth went bad. In those days your parents didn’t have the money to take you to dental or anything, you had nothing. You know we used to eat treacle on bread with dripping. You couldn’t even

afford butter. Puftaloons, they’d make the flour and stuff and put it – cook it in grease. And we’d eat them. Claire and Mum’d make a hundred of them at a time for all of us louts. And Claire’d had a meal going. One of the brothers’d come home from work at midday, another one’d come home at half past twelve, I’d come home at one, another one at half past one. You know. Busy times. And that’s all the work was.

Claire could never go anywhere. And I used to give her a few bob when I had it you know. And Dad’d buy her a new dress now and then but we had hard times. And – but when we were in Longreach we wagged it from school – Gordie and I. We got sick of going to school so we wagged it. And there’s a place out there, the Shell Company. Railway line went into it and another one went to Winton. We went out there and we

lit a fire in a little area there. All of a sudden the fire took off. We were cooking stuff, Mum’s potatoes you know. We lit this fire and the fire took off under the railway line into the petrol company. And 44 gallon drums were exploding and we took off for school. We went to school and they wanted to know “Where’s those boys?” “Who are those boys seen running back to school?” By gee it was an accident but it was an accident

waiting to happen. These drums were leaking and the petrol was leaking under the railway line and coming out through there and you know, lucky – dangerous situation. They fixed it up quickly after that. I told Dad and Dad told one of the blokes in charge and they found out the petrol was leaking.

We all had to go. We shut up our house in

Rockhampton, left it empty. Me aunty and uncle down the road looked after it and we got into a house belonging to a saddleler in Rockie[Rockhampton] – Longreach. Ellison Alice, he was a big saddler there and we became great friends to them. And he used to give us kids every year, he used to have a big area where he had food in. And you have a tin of

that or a tin of this. We’d get a tin of peaches for Christmas and this was really something. All the boys and sisters getting this. And I can remember we – one night there they had a big fire. A big store burnt up. Next day the firemen were drinking cola drinks out of the fridgerator [refrigerator] in that place. You wouldn’t read about it. All the outside fridge had burnt off but

the cold drinks were still cold in there. So it was unusual thing you know. And we were coming home from school one day and we were – went to Solly’s. And Solly’s had an island glass window. And the bloke used to get in the back. You know a big door. And he was doing it up for Christmas. And there was Christmas stockings and stuff everywhere. And I’m standing there talking to this chap.

And the door was open behind me and my mate shaking me behind, Jimmy Finch. He says, “Arnie come on let’s go.” I said, “What for? No I’m talking to this…” “Let’s go!.” I said, “Okay.” And we went. He’d only cut the bottom out of one of these big stockings and he had everything in his school port. And we’re going down towards the post office in Longreach and all of a sudden we saw this coot coming,

hurrying, this fellow I’d been talking to. Guilty conscience we took off like a rocket. We thought he was after us. And we took off like a rocket and I was that guilty, I told Dad what Jimmy had done. And he said, “Well you’ve got to go back tomorrow and take all that back and apologise.” Do you know what I went back the next day with Dad. I apologised to the bloke. He didn’t even know it had happened.

He was hurrying to get to the post office to post a letter before time. Guilty conscience. So he gave us some of the stuff you know. So I got some anyway. He was a good old bloke.

Yeah primary school at Allenstown. I never went to high school.

I didn’t mind it. I come reasonably

well in class you know. And I liked maths, I liked spelling and there’s not a word – even – I left school when I was in grade 7 which is the next step would’ve been to high school and I was only 12 when I left school and I went to work. And I had to do it to get money to help Mum and Dad. That’s when I left the Allenstown

school. But there was no – I’m not skiting but there was no word just about that I can’t spell. And maths I was good at. And another thing I didn’t tell you, when I was in New Guinea at Manus, during the war, I sat for my aircrew test and I passed the lot. With good marks and they were going to send me down to learn to fly in 1944.

But then they reckoned they spent thousands of pounds training me to be a radar and a radio man. No you stay there, so I had to stay there. Mum and Dad wouldn’t sign the papers for me to go aircrew. The 42nd battalion had called me up to go into the army and – in June July, June I think it was

’42. The 42nd Battalion called me up and I said, “Look I’m going in the air force,” and I got a discharge from the army, the 42nd Battalion. I’d passed their test too and I got a discharge and they went to New Guinea two months later and I’m still down here training. But the school times they weren’t bad. Apart from the times we wagged it.

Had about 1,200 students. Pretty big school, Allenstown

State School. Still there today. Oh another thing. We had the – they had the old wooden buildings and they were building a new building and it’s big brick building – oh stone now with high ceilings. This mate of mine, Lukey Gollick, again and myself – we were sneaking around in there when it was being built.

We got up a ladder and the ceiling was about 12, 15, 16 foot high. And this McConnachie the policeman come in. And he comes to the ladder and he says, “Come down here you boys, I know you’re up there Gollick and Nunn. Come down.” Anyway we didn’t take any notice and he come up so we run. And we were running across all the timbers in the ceiling. I got to the ladder the other end and Lukey missed his step and went straight through the ceiling.

And he hit the floor about 12 or 15 foot down and he was still running. Never hurt himself. I got down and we went. When I think of the things we did. And I tell you what when I was 12 or so or 13 I used to love electricity and I used to fix all the generators on me mates’ bikes. You know rewind them and all this. And make

crystal sets, radio. I built them and had all that sort of stuff.

By fiddling with them myself. I was interested enough to do electrics and that sort of thing. And actually my cousin liked radio too. Les Deakin. He was killed in the war. And he was in the secret unit here in Hamilton that were spying on the Japs, Morse code. And he

was one of the blokes that found – he was listening one night. Now this is digressing a bit again but still it’s a story. He was listening up there one night on the radio and the Morse code and he got a signal emanating from Brisbane. They traced it down to where it was and they said, “Right we’re going to raid that place.” They raided it and they got some simplifiers to the Japs. And Les was to go there

but he didn’t, he kept on the equipment there and they sent other people. And I think one of the blokes was shot and wounded or I don’t know if he died or anything. But that happened in 1943.

Probably Europeans or mixed race, I’m not sure on that call cause Les couldn’t tell me at the time. He died in ’44. So I never got the full story of it. But pre-war Les and I used

to fiddle with radios and he had another mate that was a radio crank and you learn. When you fiddle with these things. Like fiddling with a car isn’t it, or a bicycle. You learn how to do things. And there was a bloke living next door to me, Teddy Ogden. He was a funny man. He used to have a horse and cart and he would drive. And he’d, “Whoa back whoa back you duddy dastard.” He couldn’t say ‘b’.

Excuse me. “You duddy dastard,” he’d say. Anyway he decided to buy another truck. And they taught him to drive it up and down the road. He comes in this day and the brakes fail and he’s going past our house in his driveway down the back. “Whoa back you duddy dastard, whoa back!” And he went straight through the WAS DOUBLE QUOTE CHOOK pen and his garage and into the yard. What a mess.

And we often think of this old coot. Anyhow he had a radio and we – no-one had a radio and I had a crystal set. You know he brought a radio – that was really something. He’d be sitting there listening to it and those houses were only so far apart. You’d drive through. And I was at the window one night and listening to the radio in his house. And old Teddy’s sitting back. And

Gordie my brother’s come in and he’s switched the light on. When he did in Teddy’s house the radio blared up the sound. Went really loud. And I thought, Jesus! Teddy got up and he said, “Oh that duddy ting.” And he went over and turned it down. Just got back in his chair and I said to Gordie, “Hey Gordie I think when you switched our power on it done something in there.” I said, “Switch it off now.” Teddy’s just sat down in his chair.

Gordie switched it off and the bloody thing went down that low he couldn’t hear it. And you could hear him singing out “The duddy ting.” And he gets up and turns it up. And Gordie and I are laughing. All night long, switch on and switch off. Oh God we were giving him hell. Anyway this went on for years. And it went down through the Nunn tribe. All the boys’d do it to him. Never told him.

And we knew – later on when I come back from the war he come up to me. He says, “Oh Arnie thank you for going away, for fighting for us.” I said, “That’s all right Ted.” And I told him the story. And then he looked at me and then he started to laugh. He took it in good spirits. He said, “You duddy dastard, you duddy dastard.” We became good friends then. Oh God it was

funny. But you know these are sort of things we did. We had nothing. We’d fly kites. In Longreach we used to make kites and fly them and they’re be right up in the sky. Go in for dinner and they’d be still out there. We wagged once – in Longreach, Gordie and I. I told you when – going again. This is all mixed up. When we went to the Shell Company on another day we

wagged for three days. And we used to take Mum’s cocoa and stuff and potatoes and cook them. And anyway the railway station had a goods shed there. And it was up about truck height so the truck could back in and get all the gear off it. And we were hiding under there one day when Dad came in driving the train. And he saw us and we didn’t know. And Gordie and I were looking out and he saw us there. He went

and put the train away and an hour later he come along. He walked past and Gordie and I are laughing to ourselves. And all of a sudden he spun around and come back and stuck his head under and said, “Come out of there you boys.” Took us home and gave us a whale of a hiding. Into me with the strap. And then Gordie, he was on the kitchen floor and as he’d come around he’d whack him on the backside and he’d spin and he’d hit him again. In those you got a hit in the backside. And I think

today this is what’s missing with a lot of these kids. You don’t want to murder them but you’ve got to do something. It straightened me up. It made me learn. Anyway he took us to school. Now it was 11 o’clock this day and he took us to school. And the headmaster said, “I won’t give you the cane, I can see you’ve had enough.” And he stood us in the corner

and I’m in the corner and the teacher’s got her back to me and I’m going like this to all the kids and everything and they’re laughing. And she caught me. Oh God, then I did get a caning from him then. Got six of them. Oh we were – and you know what we used to do at the goods shed? They put their cases of apples on the ground and there was openings like that in the timber, around about inch and a half to two inches.

We had a piece of steel we used to put up and break the bottom out of the case and pull all the apples out. And bananas and stuff. Oh we were terrible. And the bloke’d get all the cases and he’d be throwing them to each other. He’d lift them up and put them, lift them up and put them. And he got to this last one this day and he hit himself under the chin. Nothing in it. Oh gee.

They were good.

Yeah Mr Messa. His sister, Julia Messa was our teacher, my teacher. He used to take scholarship which was 7th grade which I got to but I never sat for scholarship. I started work. He used to get everyone through. He was a brilliant man but he was a hard man. And his sister Miss Messa

used to teach us when we first went to school. They weren’t married, sister and brother. Miss Messa and Mr Messa. And there was another one, Miss Dart. And we used to say, “Miss Dart …..” And Mum made some cakes and invited her in one day and when she got in there we’d eat them all. Oh I don’t know. Me uncle come up and we were at the Allenstown school one day and he’d come from Sydney.

Uncle Bert. He bought us big slabs of chocolate. One each. Gordie and I got up to a big dresser and we pulled it on ourselves to get the chocolate and smashed it all. We eat all the chocolate. Ohh we were terrible kids. Kids of today. But they were harmless sort of things. Gordie lit a fire in a wardrobe once.

And shut the door. Luckily he shut the door or the fire – it was only smoking and Dad smelt the fire and come in and he put it out. Our place would’ve been gone. That was the Dowley’s in Margaret Street. Yeah I don’t know. But the teachers there, getting back to them, they were pretty good. You’d have to do your times 3 and 6, 3 and 3 are 6. But this is how you learnt in those days.

So I don’t know. In Longreach we had a headmaster there. We used to call him Baldy, old Baldy McLean. And he had a daughter who was a spastic you know. And he used to teach her there. And us kids would have to go and turn the tanks of a day and put bore water in them. The hot bore water’d go in this tank today and let it cool

and then we’d have to drink that one. And it’d go round in a circle. And this was all the water we had to drink from in Longreach – awful stuff the bore water. But old Baldy McLean he used to fascinate us, he’d take one of the classes and he’d take us some days. And there was an awful lot of flies. And he used to – a fly used to land on his face and he’d just go – and he’d get it. And he’d pull it right down his face. Us kids’d be looking at him and then

he’d throw it on the ground and he’d jump on it. Old Baldy McLean.

1929. I was six. He went to Longreach. And we were there – think we come back in ’34. Yeah that’s right. But when I started to tell you earlier

and I did about my tooth. I had bad teeth and they never took you to the dentist. I had terrific earaches and headaches and everything like this. Mum took me to the doctor after about 12 months and this tooth was bad. It was an eye tooth. Mum took me to the doctor and he said, “Come with me boy, come over to the dentist.” And Mum said, “He won’t take it out.” He said, “He will.” And he took me across to the dentist which was over at the back.

Sat me in the chair and he said to the dentist, “I want that boy’s tooth out.” And the dentist said, “But it’s all pussed up, I can’t do it.” He said, “I want it out, now.” So the dentist, he didn’t even give me a needle. He just got it and went … out she come. But I felt instant relief. My headaches went. It was full of pus all up in here. And in those days people never took you to dentists. Kids suffered. So Mum and Dad decided to send me down to Rockhampton

to Grandma and Granddad. I was down there with them for about 12, 15 months, living with them. And I went to the Leichhardt Ward School. And the Leichhardt Ward – my cousin – fellow that got killed later in the war, Les Deakin him and I were in the same class. I enjoyed it there too. It was only an all boys school. And there was a girls school over the road. And every Friday afternoon they’d bring the girls over and we’d had to dance with them.

And I used to hide behind the piano. I hated this you know. Anything to do with girls, not then. Anyway I’d hide behind the piano and the teacher’d come and grab you by the lug, out come on get up and dance. But we used to learn karate in those days. This bloke teacher taught us this, he got killed in New Guinea in the 42nd battalion. Yeah poor man.

Of all things sitting on the toilet. Sniper got him. Yeah poor man. Yeah.

Well I was thinking, what will I do? Will I stay in radio – get into radio. And the adjunct to that – I did know someone in 4RO Rockhampton [local radio station]. This fellow

who I worked for who had owned the fruit place, Johnny Ross, he said to me, “Well I know someone in 4RO, the manager, I’ll introduce you to him.” Which he did and they – every Sunday morning Leo Watkins and myself and a few other boys would go there and we’d be an announcer which was good. But it palled on me after on a while, I didn’t want to be an announcer. All I wanted to do was repair

work and things like that. But then you drift into a job. Which I drifted in from the fruit shop. I thought well this has got no future. And old Johnny Ross was still a good friend. He said, “I can see your position Arn, you want to better yourself.” And that’s when I went to Rickett’s. I went to Woolton Sons first and then I went to Rickett’s to learn bakery. And I was friends with Johnny Ross and his wife Lill

till they died you know. And when I went back to New Guinea in 1951 with Daph – married her and went back – he said to me, “Arnie you are definitely going back to New Guinea?” I said, “Yeah I’m going back John.” I said, “Why?” He said, “Oh nothing.” I found out later on if I’d had stayed in Rockhampton he had one fruit shop on the corner of Fitzroy and East Street, North Hampton.

He turned that into a newsagency and he’d given it to another bloke who was selling tickets in the casket down yonder and he was going to give it to me. Now if I’d had stayed there I’d have been a newsagent. But this is life. I said, “Well why didn’t you tell me?” Instead of sort of letting me go. But anyway. But I drifted into the

bicycle game. I liked that building bicycles you know. And while we were doing that we used to – the owner had a skating rink and we used to have to go and turn up the wheels for the skates and fix them. Retread. He had big retreading works. You’d have to go and retread tyres for the Mount Morgan mines and people you know, it was interesting.

Yeah it did. You had to look after them. I used to take them home on the pushbike – double them you know that special seat. Take them out, up to Granddad’s or anywhere. And look after them in the field. We’d play cricket and they’d play with you. Yeah you’d

do that sort of thing. With 11 kids man. The youngest was born when I was in New Guinea in the war. Girl. Yeah she’s 50 – she was born in 1940 – oh crikey when was Helen was born? 1945, well that’s

what 60 years now. She’s nearly 60 yeah.

Oh no didn’t mind a bit. Great. I think it is. Nice having young people around. Even today. I think to meself, oh I like kids I do and I get on good with them. And I don’t like these people that belt them and do

wrong things with them you know.

Well we often wonder that. We had – the house was only a little house. It had – on the left side looking at the house you had your front verandah which was filled with beds and we had to sleep out there. And it was

very cold in winter. We had no covering, just had the railings and the slat blind sort of thing, you’d raise up or down. Oh god it used to get cold. You’d hate to go out on a winter’s night. In summer it was great. But – you had one bedroom there and a back bedroom and the back bedroom had a big double bed in it. There’d be four

or five in that. Three at the top and the other two down the bottom. And then a couple in single beds in here and Mum and Dad in that bedroom and the lounge and that you know and so, when the war was over I come home I paid my deferred pay to a bloke to build on the back. And he built a section on the back of the house. A kitchen and turned the kitchen into another bedroom. I also built under

the house a bedroom so that my brother Gordie and myself could sleep there, downstairs. Which they did. Our house was a low set house. And you’re always hitting your head – underneath – you had to dodge. And Dad had to restump it once. And he wouldn’t put it any higher. cost money. I said to him, “Dad put it up higher.” Another course or so.

“No.” He said, “Haven’t got the money to do it Arn.” Because it cost money even in those days and you were only getting 3 pound six a week or six dollars or something. Not much to feed 11 kids. Didn’t get any help from the government you know like you get today. No it was hard. He had to foot the bill and that’s why we all had to go out to work you know. But it was an eraness

of kids all together, it was great. We’d have a get together. You’d be called to your meal and there’d be a rush, who was there first had the best. We had a table 8 foot long, something like that and stools each side. And about five or six would sit each side and Mum and Dad one end of the table you know. We always eat well

as we could. My sister made a lot of stews and things which we enjoyed. Other food like, called a Chinese supper which is a mince with cabbage in or cabbage supper. And a bit of Soya sauce and various things, black sauce. But beautiful meal, we still make it here. I mean you grow up on these things don’t you.

And then as I said the dumplings. The other things you make in the grease very good.

No just anywhere. Only Mum and Dad, one each end. When Dad was away I might sit there or something like that. No we didn’t have that.

Oh yeah we were raucous.

The way we’d sing out and talk and go on. You’d gulp your food down and then you’d shoot through. And Mum’d say, “Where are you going now? You’re hardly ever home.” But quite interesting. I had a truck, a car sort of thing and I used to take them out a bit in that. You know you could put them in the back of a truck of those days, now you can’t. We’d get together and

whenever you bought a girlfriend home your brothers’d give her hell you know. Or else it was the other way around. When Claire brought her boyfriend home you know we’d all have a shot about something.

Oh the brothers’d say, “Oh you don’t want to have anything to do with him. We’ve heard stories about him.” Through the sister. This sort of thing. But no

it was all good fun actually. We often look back on it.

No funnily enough we were a good family. Do you know what when Mum and Dad died – Dad went – died in ’76 of a heart attack. And I was running Chesneys at the time as I said before and I couldn’t get away. I just could not get away and he was in the

hospital and we knew he was dying. He hung on till Saturday arv till I got up there in the aircraft. I flew up. And his legs were back. He passed away about five o’clock or something but they reckoned he waited for me. So you know, good man. So was his Dad, his Dad was a good bloke too, my grandfather, a great fellow. And Mum of course, Mum died

at 89. She was deaf. When she was 12 teachers clapped her ears like that, deafened her. Her mother died when she was 18, her sister died when she was 18 so she was left you know.

Oh God I tell you we never had hot water. We had cold water and we’d have to boil

the old cook pot for the clothes downstairs that you cook up on. Well we – every afternoon it was one of my brother’s jobs to cut the wood and I’d probably stoke it up or Gordie would or whoever was home and get the water boiling. And you know a big pot, thing like that and you’d carry it up in buckets and put it in the bath and about three or four’d have a bath in that water.

It’d be dirty as all heck you know. And then Dad. Just before I went away to war he said, “Arnie, we’re going to have hot water, I’m buying a chip heater.” And he bought this metal container – probably about three foot high, about a metre high, about 8 inches in diameter and you put chips, small chips in underneath

and hot water would trickle out. And you’d get under that – no shower and just have that in the bath. We thought that was great. And then eventually later on they got the hot water on.

Upstairs in the bathroom, near the kitchen. We had the kitchen there and the bathroom there. And the toilet was down the back, an old type of one. And when did we get upstairs?

The Rockhampton council was the first council in Queensland to put in septic system. And they dug down about 30 foot and they went all through all the garden – out the back yard. Did they make a mess. Dirt everywhere. But at least they put all big pipes through. And we had it in our toilet downstairs. Eventually, yeah when I come back from the war, when I paid to get that room on

we had a toilet put upstairs otherwise we were still going downstairs. And also we had the – but in Longreach it was a different thing. We had bore water on and bore water was a two-inch pipe and you could turn that on and we had a bigger bath than usual. We’d be in that

all winter. We’d come home. And you know the taps out there used to freeze. You couldn’t get water all morning. We’d all have sandy blight, all our eyes’d be closed. Mum’d have to have water put to one side the night before. No boiling up in kettles or anything like this – you had to light the fire. And that was my job. Light the fire first. Even when I went to work I’d have to get up first and light the fire. About five o’clock or so to get it going so you could have your meal or whatever it was, your porridge.

Well when you got this blight you used to have to bathe your eyes with salt and water to get them open. And the whole family’d have them. All along Longreach everyone had them, from the flies. Terrible. Don’t get it now much. Yes. It was a real good thing to get a toilet upstairs, it was really something instead of downstairs.

Snakes and things. The sister or Mum’d want to go down at night. “Arnie.” One of us’d have to get up and go down with a torch. Or a lantern before the torches. I think back to that the old lantern. That was the days when I think back. And these children today I sometimes wish my grandkids could see back to then. I wish we’d had cameras cause you could

have taken all this sort of thing.

What you mean around the town or anything? Oh we just walked everywhere. Never went on the bus. We walked down town, three or four miles. Walk home. There’d be a group of us together. We’d go to the pictures we walked about two, two and a half miles to the pictures down town. And we never thought anything else of it.

That was the way of life. We used to walk of a weekend – we’d walk up to the gardens and that was about 4 miles from home. We used to go fishing. On our pushbikes we’d take our fishing rods and tents and we’d go fishing out to various places. The only time we ever went in a tram. The trams were in Rockhampton, Mum and Dad would put us, me in charge of about four of the

kids and we’d go up to grandma’s for Sunday lunch. We would go around – grandma would collect us and then she’d put us on the tram in the afternoon and Mum and Dad – well one of them would collect us at Margaret Street. And they’d pay the fare and it was quite good. Otherwise when I transgressed to a pushbike I doubled one of the brothers up there. That’s all we ever did. Went to relatives most of the time.

Just your birthdays, Christmas. Christmas was a great time for us kids because you know the shops didn’t open of a night-time like they do now, here. The only time they’d open would be Christmas Eve, they’d open till nine o’clock and that was a big deal. And you’d walk down town to that and you’d go to the shops and buy what you wanted. And then Christmas

Day we’d get up and the stockings and things’d be filled with what they could afford. Dad used to make us toys out of treacle tins and that sort of thing. Tobacco tins. Like make a train and things like that. cause they couldn’t afford it. And I can’t remember getting any toys except the ones that Dad made.

Never. cause they couldn’t afford it.

Yeah my favourite was a toy gun that I did get and trains that Dad made. And I used to make them meself later. That’s all you had. No things like teddy bears or anything like this to take to bed.

Yeah I’d get the new ones at times and I’d hand them down to Gordon and it’d go to Norman. But Norman shot through when he was 11 and went out west. And he was shearing. Learnt shearing and he stayed out there most of his life.

Yeah 11 he shot through. You weren’t made to go to school. It

came in later. Yeah he shot through out there. And he’s still living. He’s living at Dolby – out that way somewhere.

Yeah we went to church. Went to Sunday School Sunday mornings. We were Baptist and we went to Sunday School there and church at midday. Yeah we were fairly religious as far as that’s concerned.

No. Not a lot that I can remember. I can remember some things but you know in Longreach I went to the State School as I said and I had mates Bobby Bryant and them went to the Catholic school. And we used

to have shots at each other. And we’d say, “Catholic dogs swim like dogs in their holy water.” And they’d say, “Protestant like…” back at us you know. That’s the sort of thing that used to go on. But we were friends.

Yes we all did a lot of sport. I played hockey, loved it. I used to get up and practise. I played for Rockhampton against Brisbane.

As a – on the left wing. See I was a left hander. And in hockey you’ve got to play right handed because the curl’s that way on a stick. But when I was on the left wing I could turn it around and hit being a left hander and I used to get some goals that way. I loved it. We used to play cricket, that’s another sport. My brother Gordie was a great cricket player. My cousin Ray Cooper he

was picked to play for Queensland and Australia. Wouldn’t do it. He was great. We could never get him out. He’d make two and three hundred of a Saturday arv playing for Rockhampton. And him and a mate of mine were picked to play for Queensland first but with the idea of playing for Australia. And Ray said to Claude, “You going to go down Claude?” Claude said, “Oh I don’t know, are you going to go down to Brisbane?” “Oh bugger it.”

And they wouldn’t do it. They were bloody mad. I was, I’d have jumped at it being a kid. But that’s life. And Ray is still alive today and I often see him and I say about that and he says, “Yeah I was a mug wasn’t I?”

Yeah I did, we did. That crystal set I told you I built. We had three sets of ear pieces

plugged into it and we’d take one ear piece out and we’d have that up at the aunty’s place. I’d take it up to the aunty’s place and the cousin had a big aerial coming in and we used to listen to the rebroadcast of Don Bradman playing in England when he was making all those big scores. And I can remember in 1938 my uncle Fred died – there. We all had one each and he was that excited he had a heart attack.

Bang he was gone. Yeah and Uncle Fred was a wonderful singer. He used to sing in the eisteddfods.

Yeah he was that excited listening to Don Bradman. Yeah 1938.

Too late for him. Well if you did you’d have to go to the nearest doctor.

And an ambulance, get an ambulance. There was ambulances around but they were pretty slow in coming. Pretty slack in those days. But he was gone and that was it you know. Yeah so I don’t know. But there was the private hospital and the general hospital in Rockie or in Longreach – we had different ones like that.

In Longreach I can remember my brother Ronnie. Arnie, Gordie, Norman, Claire, Trevor, Ronnie – fifth, sixth down. He come out from under the tank and my mother was rinsing out her teapot you know how they – with hot water. And she tipped it out – scalded him all down here and we had to rush him to hospital. The only way we got him to hospital was walk him up. Three miles.

He was in hospital for months you know. And he’s still got the scars today. Hot water.

No I think they put some sort of paste on him or something. That was at the public hospital and the private hospital – some other girl was burnt that week and she never had a scar. Ronnie did. So I don’t know what they

did to her. Something better. Yeah. I don’t know.

Yeah most of the time. If you had chickenpox or something you would all have.

Oh I don’t know. I would say we had just about anything that

went you know. Flus, colds, any colds that went on. We were lucky you know, we never had asthma in any of those kids. And do you know out of 11 children, 9 of us are still alive. Not bad. And the other one – one of them just died last year – lymph gland cancer. Mum and Dad – Dad as I said died of heart and Mum died of heart then too at 89.

But out of 11 of us – there’s 2 girls that are still alive and 7 boys. Which is not bad. And Helen’s 60. So between 60 and 80 – my age – yeah still going.

No I don’t actually. No I don’t remember. I can remember my children getting it.

When we – we were living in Melbourne at the time. We up to Bacchus Marsh to see a RAAF [Royal Australian Air Force] mate and when we got up there his children had it. Of course we were living in Melbourne the next week – David and Susan come down with chickenpox. David picked on here and he’s still got the mark today. You know I can still remember that. They mark.

Yeah it was a pretty big bakery. Rickett’s they used to do about – oh what’d we do? 30, 40,000 loaves of bread a day. There was probably 10 to 15 of us doing the bread. You’d have the few men doing the doughs at night and when you did the doughs you had

not the types of bread you got today. We’d have a white and a brown and one called a proserra. And a proserra bread was starch reduced. You’d take all the starch out of the dough. You’d make the mix at the night-time, then you’d pour 50 or 60 buckets of icy cold water into it and that would get the starch out. It would operate and you’d have to take that starch away.

You know in the water and put it in the vat and dry it off and they’d get the starch and they’d sell that. And you’d have to put your hands in up to here. Icy cold water in winter. And you’d be – oh trying to get it out you know. I can still remember that. And we had 3 or 4 ovens there and you’d …

It was about people – it was a light bread, like light milk. This sort

of thing. Proserra bread. It’s like some of these light breads you get now. And we’d end up…

Oh yeah. Big ovens and you’d have to peel – you’d have to chop off a two pound loaf, knead it up and put it in the tins. Shove it in the oven and be there for so long – take it out again. You did all facets

of the job. You learnt so many a week on each one. And you’d get expert for 2 pound. You know bang bang, you’d throw it on the scale, it would be spot on every time. It’s marvellous how you can do that, weighing up something. Then they also – there was a – they had a pastry cook section at the back too. Completely different to us.

They wouldn’t work Thursday. They didn’t work Thursday so us louts used to go in there and knock off – like that bun loaf we had. We’d get the bun loaf and we’d slice it – right down the length of it and stick it on our oven, make toast and we’d pinch their butter and put it on it and oh we’d have a slaver of it you know. All of us young louts working there. Well the other blokes did too. And when – old Herberton

bloke was the fellow in charge of that, he used to go mad. Next day he’d say, “You so and sos have been in there again” you know. He tried to stop it and never stopped. For years we were there. For those 23 months we’d go in there every Thursday and we’d have a ball. Cakes, knock off anything. Cherries, tins of cherries. Oh you’d be into them. But then you had the area where the bread would be

not drying out but put in the bread containers. There was no such thing as cutting them like today, slicing them. they just delivered and we had blokes on motor bikes getting it and taking it out and delivering it, in trucks. You’d have to go and bag up the starch and they’d send that away, sell it.

Don’t think there’s much more to say about it but it was an interesting job. You’d be working away there and you’d get hit behind the ear with a lump of dough. Some bloke’d slam you and then there’d be a dough fight. Till the foreman put a stop to that. But they were all pretty decent blokes to work with. There was one swine of a bloke – he used to give me hell. cause I was a skinny little runt and I still am and he used to chuck off me, all the time. “Oh look at his legs, look at him.”

Later on I come back from the war – I run into him and he said, “Oh gees…” – he apologised. He said, “Sorry Arn I used to be a mongrel wasn’t I?” I said, “You were a mongrel Trev.” And he was too. But we became good friends as I grew up.

Oh yeah. You could take a loaf or two home of a day. Sometimes I’d take a few more with the family. They let me. The foreman’d say,

“Take a few more Arnie.”

It would go to a piggery. A bloke would come and cart it off to the piggery for feeding the pigs. This is a thing they don’t do today. They don’t allow it. All the bread or the old fruit in those days – when I worked at the fruit shop the pig man used to come and get all the speckled stuff and take it out, feed the pigs. Bread the same.

Cakes, everything. They don’t do it now. All the new laws you know.

Thinking back it was probably about 9 hours. We’d start at 5 in the morning, 12, 1 o’clock – sometimes 2 o’clock depending on – some days were bigger days than others. But, you never got -

oh yeah a few odd days you got away at 10 o’clock. If you hurried through and got the doughs through in time. I often think of that you know. Might have been a baker. My cousin did his time the same time as I did at Smith’s Bakery and when he come back from the war he went and finished his bakery off and he became – had his own business out at Bigiral [?].

This is the baker who was a good cricketer I was telling you. Him and his wife had the Bigiral Bakery. They used to do it for the mines out there too. Yeah.

Yes. We would go down – Dad’d have 6 weeks holiday in the railway. That was in two years, every two years. And we’d go down to Yeppoon

or Emu Park. Most of the time Yeppoon which is outside of Rockhampton. And they always had a house booked with side verandahs and that. And we’d go down there and we’d have a ball you know. Go down on the beach and swimming and Mum and Dad never knew where we were. It was a real risk – Gordie nearly got drowned one day. Ross Creek, Yeppoon. Some bloke

saved him you know. Tide was running out and there was quick sand there and Gordie was caught in the quick sand. He couldn’t get out. And this bloke swam over and got him and saved his life. Quick sand was taking you down with the water. And anyway us kids used to do all sorts of things. And we played up so much one time there, the first week that Dad sent us to school at Yeppoon. We were supposed to be on holidays.

And the schoolmaster couldn’t believe it. We were the first kids that we did six weeks of schooling there at Yeppoon.

Oh I don’t know, I forget now but we were larrikins. Probably wouldn’t take notice of Mum and Dad you know. We’d run down to the beach early in the morning and we’d be up before them. At 4 o’clock and rush off down to the beach you know. Down there all day. We had a pretty good life actually.

Mum. But she never hit us much. Just a whack on the backside. Only time I’ve ever seen Dad hit anyone is when we wagged in Longreach. I told you. He was a very good man, a gentle man. Mum didn’t like to hit us but she had to. Keep us in trim.

Ah we had a cat of nine tails. A piece

of leather about so long with three tails cut in it. I’ve still got it here. I’ve kept that. I cut one of the tails – there was three tails on it and I cut one of them off. When I was a kid. I’ve got it there.

No. You just took it. That’s how you learn to

take life isn’t it? Someone hitting you or something like that. That didn’t hit us that much. They spoke to us mainly. And stopped us and made us go to bed early or something like that. You go to bed now. We used to do that. One night we played up like hell and Stephen Reg a mate of mine, Mum said to him, “You go home Reg

get out of here, go on.” So Steve said, “All right.” He goes out the front, he goes around the side and gets up the side of our house, dives inside the window on the double bed where the three of us were asleep. Or fooling and we started to fight you know. And then Mum come in and did she go mad. “Get out of here I told you to go home Reg.” But we often think of those days and that Stephen Reg he was a great friend of my brother’s.

They went to school in the same class. I hadn’t seen Stephen Reg – 1941, ’42 when I come down here for the air force tests. I went and seen him here. Never knew where he got to until about 6 months ago and this brother Norman rang me up. He says, “Guess who I run into.” I said, “Who?” He said, “Stephen Reg, he’s up at Toowoomba.” I’ve never met him but I ring him now and again.

He’s married and his wife’s crook and all this but all those years. And we were on the phone for hours. He’s saying, “Remember when I used to …” you know, talking about it all, it was good. And reminiscing eh.

Yeah yeah dog. We always had a dog. Didn’t have any cats.

One dog for ages yeah. Nippy. Yeah I’ll always remember that dog, Nippy.

We had him in Longreach and you know he got mange, in those days they got mange. Hey maybe I’ve disconnected the one up top off. Oh well doesn’t matter.

Oh little bitser [mixed breed]. Part of the town. I don’t know. More a gingery looking dog. Yeah. Nice dog.

Where? We were given to him – given to Dad in Longreach you know. And he got this mange and council said we had to destroy him so the council bloke took him out to the pound which was out at the dump, three miles out of Longreach. And we were thinking, oh Nippy’s gone now and he come home again. He broke the rope and come home. So they had to come and get him again, must’ve destroyed him then.

We were only kids you know. Yeah. I like dogs they’re nice. We had one here and he died.

Oh no I was at the bicycle shop. Yeah bike shop. And that – when the war broke out I was at Pedersie’s bike shop. I was

learning Morse code as I said – 1940. I was going down the railway and learning that. In the air training corps, learning maths and all that.

Mm yeah. I can remember listening onto the other radio Dad had that war had broken out with Germany you know. And my thoughts was, oh gee a war. Oh

yeah. Yeah I want to do training to go to that you know. And the actual course I wouldn’t be old enough, it’d be over before I could get to it you know what I mean. But it wasn’t. I ended up four years in it.

Knew a bit, yes. Daph’s – I used to read up papers and books on it all you know. I thought it was a senseless war like this one

was you know. When I was a kid. We used to be taught that at school. The flag and that sort of stuff. Oh we were pretty conscious of all those things I think that we were fairly well taught about war. Boar War.

Well it’s something we don’t want. But if

it – if you’ve got to protect your place well you’ve got to haven’t you. Help your people. I think it gets instilled into you from the day you’re born, when you’re living in a country. You’ve got to put your might up for the country, do your best you know. Which is hard at time.

Yes.

The only way we ever did was now and again Dad’d take us down to the Anzac memorial in Rockhampton. That was down near town, we’d go there. That’s about all. But there was nothing to celebrate about it because – actually Dad missed the World War 11 – World War 1 – he was – well he was born in 1900 and he was in the railway and they

wouldn’t release him. Same as my brother in World War 11. He wanted to go. Right or wrong, he wanted to go in the air force too. You know I ended up with – five of the Nunn boys were in the air force over the years. Yeah when you work it all out. Two of them – one bloke 36 years, one 20 odd years. 20-25 years. And then the other ones

did the national services. I did my four in the war. So I didn’t realise this till Gollick and I were just talking about this sort of thing.

Yeah. A lot of worry. cause the Japanese were coming down so fast and quick. It was a bad thing. Everything was concerned. And when the Kokoda Trail – they were fighting

up there and we were sort of – oh getting close to Australia – they’ll be here soon. And then they were going to have what was known as the Brisbane line here. And all of the north was going to be burnt. All the houses, everything destroyed. So nothing left for the Japs. And they were going to bring us all back down here, everyone. I was only 17 then, 18 and they were going to do this.

But it was close. That Kokoda Trail do and the other thing, the ships you know saved Australia I think.

We did to a degree and yet a lot of my mates who were a lot older than me were joining army and air force and that, and going overseas. And when they were in training and I was thinking, oh gees I want to get away. And they come back, they go overseas

for 18 months and come back you know. In Italy, in Germany and then they were thrown out back into England. All the air forces and the army. But in Malaya when the Japs come in that’s what made it more concrete. I thought to meself, well here we’ll be in it now. Definitely be in it.

Yes

yes they were telling us. The train – when they brought the 7th Brigade and the 8th Brigade and the 9th Brigade back to fighting in New Guinea, they were in training in Sydney off the boats and they were bringing them up on trains up north. And we were going down to the railway station in Rockhampton. And trains were going one after the other day and night north.

And then the Americans come in and they were going north and they were all around Rockie. But I got to know various blokes who were going up and I wrote letters to them during the war you know. I met some of them after the war. Yeah Bill Babs a bloke from down Lismore. You know various people and they were going to New Guinea. Some of them come back, some of them didn’t of course. cause you never got letters again. And then when I turned 18 I went in the

air force and that. And one thing led to another. But gee you never saw so much traffic. You know in Rockhampton there’s a street on the water, on the Fitzroy River. One day we saw truckloads of aircraft coming along there and they were lined up all along there, Kittyhawk fighters minus the wings. Just the body of a Kittyhawk and a wing strapped next to them.

They were going to the aerodrome at Rockie to be assembled and flown to New Guinea. And we went out and these aircraft – we goggled at them because we’d never seen anything like it you know, the modern types. We only knew the only paper aircraft. And I thought, oh well there’s a chance I might fly one of these but I didn’t. That’s life.

Yeah.

Well I wanted to learn more to be able to fly. So I joined an air training corps. Mum and Dad let me join that. I joined it when I was 15 I think it was. Yeah just coming up to 16 and I did maths and meteorology. And all that sort of thing. And navigation.

At the same time as I was doing the Morse at the railway so we were pretty busy, us young fellows. A lot of young blokes – we were all staunch in doing this sort of thing, where you could.

Two nights a week and then two nights a week in the army. Oh yeah. And then Saturday and Sunday the army’d have you down there too.

Oh no no we were just like this. Well you know ordinary clothes. There was – there was no such thing as a uniform until you went in the RAAF or the army. But while you were in training no. Just a matter of learning that’s all. No

no uniforms or nothing like that. All the uniforms were reserved for the men going straight in because Australia wasn’t producing too much at that time. We had to gear up and that was a bad time. From 1942 when the Japs come in till about 1943, ’44 when we got into full production doing aircraft and everything. It was very bad. And the food was

taken down. You had all the rations you know. People didn’t have food much. No – it was touch and go. Very very close. And you might hear that from other people too. It was touch and go times.

Yeah I definitely recall Pearl Harbor. I woke up in the morning and it was my birthday. It was the 7th there

and the 8th here. 8th December and I turned the little radio Dad had on and they said, Pearl Harbor’s bombed. The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor. I said, “But on my bloody birthday, oh gee. Oh I’ll be in it now Dad.” And they started to call blokes up straight away, the older group. They’d say the 30’s and 40’s and 21’s and that. They’d gradually come down and they got to the 18’s. It took them – well I turned

18 in December and I wasn’t called up till August so that was 8 months. So they were coming down – or going up the scale. They were getting organised, put it that way. They had a lot of blokes out building camps everywhere, civil defence. Yeah. They had nowhere to put them. Tents going up everywhere. And then when the Americans come in

we had to provide all the foods for the Americans and they got the best. Yeah and our mothers and fathers going without to a degree and kids. And they were all growing crops where they could, they were digging air raid shelters. And the Japs went to Townsville and bombed there. Then they come down to St. [Saint] Laurence, down there and they thought

they’d come to Rockie to bomb but they didn’t. Yeah.

No they didn’t tell us, we only found out later. They didn’t want to worry all the people but they probably – I don’t know how they could have done it. They probably would have withdrawn from the top so many people. Scorched it and kept bringing them south.

You would’ve heard it on the grapevine then but I don’t know how they intended to do it.

No they didn’t. We never sort of discussed getting away from anything. We were living there and that was it.

No. Didn’t know any at all. No. Life just sort of carried

on the same. We were doing our work. That sort of thing.

Yeah, yes you get called up to the army. Everyone at the age of 18 had to go into the army. Or else you could get a release

from the army if you’d previously signed up for the navy or the air force. Well I’d already been in training for the air force and so had the officer in charge of the army. His son was my mate. Allan Stenhouse in Rockhampton and Allan and I had been doing the air training corps work together. So I went and seen Mr Stenhouse down at the drill hall. And I said to him,

“Listen you know that Allan and I have been doing this for years now and doing the Morse to go in the air force. Can you give me a release?” He said, “No they won’t do it. Oh all right.” And he gave me a release and that’s the only way I got in the air force. Oh they were very strict. And even my brother-in-law was taken in a similar time to me and he went to Goondiwindi. He was there for two years.

And they took him out and sent him back to the meatworks at Rockie because he was a butcher and he used to work there and he did the butchering. They wanted men to produce beef for the Americans and us. There were 300,000 Americans around Rockhampton.

About

- the army work training would have been about 7 or 8 months. Yeah that’s about all. But I was in the air training corps work for about 2 to 3 years doing that before. You know they’ve got no record – they’ve lost all the records, which is typical. It was chaos then. You know. You’d go down and they’d call your name out and they’d tick you off the roll. Well all the rolls were lost. Yeah.

Yeah I did. I said, “This is not for me, I want the air force.” I was lucky. I would’ve done it. I would’ve gone into the 42nd Battalion. A lot of my mates were in it, the 42nd Battalion. They went to New Guinea within 3 months. I would’ve done it. But you think to yourself I want

to do what I want to do. I’d make a better pilot because I had all this knowledge. And even flying and that went to waste. It was interesting. But anyway that’s life.

No you did it in the drill hall in Rockhampton. We all did it there.

Because all the 42nd Battalion was down at Yeppoon then. They transferred – as they got more people they called up they’d send them to a big camp at Yeppoon on the beach and the drill hall was kept going for the new future intakes. Like us young fellows you know. 17, 18, 19, whatever until they wanted you. You were on their roll call for that.

That’s the way they seemed to work it to me anyway.

Yeah yeah. One of the papers there says he was in 42nd in strength such and such. But not allocated to a unit. So I was on their strength you know.

Oh marching mainly and learning to fire guns. Go out to a range and that, fire

the .303 rifle. And pistols and that, and throwing bombs sort of thing. You’d go out to the range, they had over at north Rockhampton. Yeah it was interesting too. I wasn’t getting that in the air force but I was getting the knowledge in the air force. Doing the air training corps.

Yeah that’s true. They were short. That’s why we had broomsticks. You were marching around with brooms in your hand instead of you know, instead of a gun. The only time you saw a gun was when you went out to fire at the range and then you only had a few. It was a big shortage. They were busy producing down Lithgow and gradually started to come through. Even when I went in the air force, I didn’t get a gun

for a long time.

Oh nothing much. You knew there was a shortage. You thought to yourself, well the country’s not equipped for war. They’ve got to build up. You thought to yourself, my God we couldn’t win a war with this. And these other people are fully trained and we weren’t. We were

lucky, we come from scratch. There was only 12 million. No 8 million in those days I think it was.

Oh yeah they said – “Grab one of them. Get one of them each and you train with this.” Well it made you do the different things you know. Even like a bayonet practise and that sort of thing. Till you got – now and again

later on as the guns’d come through you’d get a practice and have the bayonet – stick it in the bloke. Made there in a straw bag.

No just a straight broomstick, yeah that’s all. Just the old broomstick. Now and again you’d have to broom the place. You’d get a real broom.

When they didn’t have enough instructors for you. I think a lot of us at times too – but you learnt to drill. And a lot of us – it made us take notice. You know straightened you up. You thought, well this is getting me ready and unarmed combat – a bit of that, you learnt that. Knifing people. You learnt little things that you wouldn’t learn

outside. Today they’re learning that outside.

Oh yeah I was thinking, oh well if I’ve got to go you know. I was called up in June for the army and that’s when I got the release for the air force. So I went in the air force 2 months later. Yeah. But I would’ve been in the army in June only for

– Mr Stenhouse giving me that. But sometimes I wonder what my life would’ve been you know if I’d stayed in the army. I detested the thought of the navy. I didn’t want to go out in that flaming sea out there. A lot of blokes loved it. A lot of me mates went into the navy.

Oh they were just

blokes that had been made corporals or sergeants. They’d only been in the army probably a year. But they learnt a bit more than we learnt, we knew. And they had to show you.

Well they were similar. Just blokes who were interested in the air force and waiting call up. And they’d done a bit more training than we had.

They imparted a bit of their knowledge to us you know. And it was more knowledge than we had. Navigation like – navigation was some navy blokes. You know blokes that had shipping, out of ships. They’d teach you navigation by the stars or whatever you wanted to. Or you know show you how the compass worked and all that – plot a course. Navigation. And meteorology – all about the storms.

What not to fly through and all this sort of thing. In the navy once – and we even learnt, the navy ones did how to tie knots and we learnt that too. Tying certain knots. I forget them now.

I always loved aeroplanes. I used to go out to the aerodrome when I was a youngster in Rockie and see the planes when they come in.

I used to ride the pushbike out there for days and watch them you know. Yeah when I was 15, 14. It was good. Something about what you get to like. You just want to do in life. And I tell you this, if I had’ve been a pilot in the war, I wouldn’t have got out after the war. I would’ve stayed flying cause I loved it. Even when I learnt you know in Rockie

and I went to New Guinea. There was no training or no aircraft up there for you to fly so I had to drop it. I got my licence and then it was gone. And I was up there for 25 years so the bottom sort of fell out of that then. But if I’d flown in the air force I would have stayed at TAA or something. One of my mates who went in the same time as I did was Noel Peacock.

He learnt to fly and he used to fly the DC3s and he used to come to Manus and I’d see him when he’d come up there. Later on in the war. And I said, “What are you going to do after the war? Keep it on Noel?” He said, “No I’m going to get out.” I said, “Oh you’re a bloody idiot. Here you are” Something that I wanted to do and he got it just like that. His Mum signed the papers and his Dad and when the war

finished he got out and he went and he married a girl in Rockhampton. And he was working for this Sammy Dean who owned this furniture factory and he was working on the bench just doing a little bit of work. And then he turned around, married the daughter and Sammy wanted him to be the foreman. “Bugger it I don’t want to do that.” Till the day he retired at 60 odd he was working on the bench, just doing little things.

Didn’t have any get up and go. And he left all that behind him. And this is the way life is isn’t it? If it’d been me I’d have been into Ansett – and TAA offered him a job when he come out of the air force. “No I don’t want to do it,” he said. “Going back to Rockie.” Yep.

Nothing much. Mum and Dad just said, “Oh you’re not going air crew. You’ll get killed.” But I said, “Yeah but I’ll get bloody killed if I don’t go. If I go in the army I’ll go to New Guinea in a few months.” I said, “I can get killed up there, easy.” “Oh we’ll let you go ground staff.” Which they did. And I thought, oh well it’s better than nothing. It’s a step

in the right direction. And I went in the air force and did that and when I turned 21 I signed as I said before, I sat for the exams and passed, medically and the other. But it was too late. cause they had that many pilots then.

Brisbane here. Eagle Street in Brisbane, that was the recruiting base. That was where

we did our medical there and we came there on 5th August and they took us down in trucks to the Roma Street, put us on the train and took us to Maryborough. And we did a few weeks there of basic training, with guns this time. Rifles, not sticks you know. And we did that and unarmed combat, all this

sort of thing. And then we were transferred to Canberra by train. We had our inoculations and all the needles they give you. Jesus they made you sick them things. Yeah.

Straight away at Maryborough. When we got to Maryborough we were all issued our uniforms there.

Yes they usually fitted. They picked them out you know

certain ones. “Here try that on, try that on, try that on,” you know. It was quite good.

Oh yeah it was yeah. Proud day. You think, well you’re in the air force now. And you’re training you know.

Yeah it helped. It definitely helps to have a bit up your sleeve.

Compared with some of the other gangling blokes that were there, coming in from the bush. And some of them were terrible. But then I suppose I was terrible too when I first started.

Yeah pretty good. All the blokes get up and go sort of thing. They all wanted to learn that way. They knew the country was at risk so we all had to get up and go.

Do something. And when there’s a group of men together, you seem to think more that way. I’ve got to fight for me country, you know. Than one individual. When there’s a group of you you seem to do more. With all your mates and that. I’ve had four mates and they’re still mates you know. Oh one’s dead now but the other three are still mates, the other two are still mates.

And when I see Cyril McLean, he’s up at Yeppoon, when I see him we natter about old times and get on very good you know. And you know I’ve always looked at men – when men come up and love a man up, it’s not the right thing to do you know. But Cyril comes up and he loves me – “Arnie g’day” – and you don’t feel out of it.

You know it’s a mate you know. He’s been there and done that with you you know. And the other mates – St Lucia way he lives. I never see him much at all. He’s deaf and just about had it poor old Ted. Anyway.

Only two weeks. That’s all. cause they were trying to push us ahead. Later on some of them were doing 3 months, 4 months of basic training.

But they wanted men trained at other things. Like electricians and instrument makers and engine fitters and air frame fitters. Various blokes had to be pushed through first, quick to make a unit up, a squadron to go to New Guinea. Or over to England but mainly to New Guinea then.

Yeah it didn’t worry me. Didn’t worry me one bit.

The more you – I just wanted to learn it that’s all. I thought, oh here’s my chance to learn radio you know. When I was an electrician I had no thoughts that I’d get into radio. Until on the last day of the course, at Ultimo Tech they said, “Well your course finishes today.” And they had a list of who passed. All of who passed. “Now you go out to squadrons now or do you want to do radio?” So I said,

“Yeah” put my hand up for radio. Young mate Cyril didn’t. He stayed electrician. He went to Maryborough as an electrician. He went to New Guinea later. But just the way life goes you know. I made up my mind I would learn as much as possible. Having left school early. I thought, I want to learn something. Instead of

just finishing when I was 12 and not knowing a great amount. I never went to high school. And then in the wireless work you learnt a lot of logarithms – maths, deep maths you know which was a good thing. You learnt it.

No it was decided. When I went to Canberra and we did

our basics course at Canberra for 2 months. Then you had to file up metals and make shapes and get a thing that would fit that way and then you could turn it around and it’d fit that way. And you couldn’t see light. You know filing to show how good you were at making all these things. Also at the same time you would learn electrical, magnetism, maths.

Language, all sorts of things they were teaching you in a quick course to see what you were best suited for. And I excelled at electrical so they made me an electrician. So when the course was finished, “Oh you’re an electrician.” So that’s the way you got it. Teddy Finlater my mate, he was an instrument repairer. He used to be a watch repairer in Rockhampton. So they made

him an instrument repairer because, fix up instruments. That’s the way it was. But we had to do instruments too cause we had to repair them in the field too.

By train. Oh gees, the old trains had the seats across you know. And all your shoulders were rubbing and all the scab on the what’s-his-name? You know they gave you a needle

and it takes 14 days to swell up and on the 14 days you’re on the train and they’re all bumping together and a lot of the blokes, all the scabs’d come off. They were sore. Got down to Canberra, took us about 3 or 4 days to get to Canberra cause there was other trains coming north with troops going up to New Guinea. And we were nothing, we were just going down on the train. So we got to Canberra, 3 o’clock in the morning in the middle of winter

in August. No August September. Yeah 5th August, 5 and 7, 12 and 7 are 19. Yeah it was about the 20, 22nd of August and that’s a cold time. And we stood and we stood outside the railway station till 8 o’clock. And that’s from 3 o’clock in the morning, just in our overcoats, all shivering. Nothing to eat, nothing since the night before and we’re all standing there like this you know. And they were making us tough

you know. They didn’t care. So 8 o’clock along comes the sergeant, from the camp. Just over yonder. “Line up, march, line up , march. March over there. Get your palliasses.” And that’s the sleeping thing. It’s a bag you put straw in. And you had to in your uniform put the straw in. You can imagine those wool uniforms, took all the straw and then you had to clean all your uniforms. And this took you till midday. Got not brekkie.

Not nothing. They were toughening you up. And so at around about 12 o’clock I think you had your lunch. After you cleaned yourself up you know. And then you started straight away marching and that. And then they said, “Righto tomorrow you’re going on your course.” And they marched you down to the school, showed you where you had to go and then every day you marched there and back, there and back. I didn’t mind it there with all the different

things I was telling you. In Canberra they used to keep you busy on a morning of a Saturday because there was a train that left Canberra at 2 o’clock. It was like a rail motor – 2 of them carriages going to Sydney and the blokes used to dive on it and go to Sydney and you weren’t supposed to. So they made us all line up and we’d have to

fill bags with sand, we’d carry them over and put them near the medical place today up about 8 foot high and the full length of the building. And the next week we’d have to carry them from there and put them back over here. Just to keep us occupied on a Saturday morning so you wouldn’t run off on the train. And then at 12 o’clock you’d have your lunch and at 1 o’clock you’d go on a route march all around Canberra. And they had places there, they’d take you all around

different areas and you’d go for miles and miles. And there was various places where all the single girls lived. And you’d pull up near there and all of the blokes’d shoot through in there. And when you’d get back to camp there’d only be half the blokes there. They other blokes were still with the girls you know. Oh God.

Oh sometimes sergeant’d get mad about it. But the blokes didn’t care.

They come back Saturday. Oh the girls didn’t care. They were a lot of the office girls you know. Could’ve been your mother, I don’t know – who we all used to go and visit if they lived in Canberra. And then Sunday we’d go – I used to like to go to the museum. Big museum in Canberra. And also

the Institute of Anatomy, Science – I used to go there a lot. It was interesting. And you know in Canberra now there’s – where the railway station come in our camp was right near where the milk place is now. The dairy mob. That’s where our camp was.

Well it was very hard. Very very hard with a lot of maths, trying to learn more you know.

But I learnt it. I mean when you get – you had to do study at night you know. You weren’t just in there for the fun of it. They wouldn’t let you out at night, the only time you’d go out of a night was the weekend. But every night of the week you had to study till 9 o’clock after tea which was 6 o’clock. Had instructors going around in the rooms there with you teaching you and if you’ve got

trouble – “Oh maths all right, do this do that.” “Oh okay.” They’d come back and check you. This is how you learnt. And then also after 9 o’clock was a comradeship – the WAAAFS were there and they had one big hut – was a welfare hut. And you’d go in there, it was cold as anything, – you’d go in there and they’d have hot coffee and all this sort of stuff. Tea and hot scones made and oh

9 o’clock to 10 o’clock, half past 10 you could have that. And then the weekend – I used to of a Saturday night go to the rec [recreation] hut at Manuka Oval. And we’d have dances there. The girls were dancing. You’d go home with them. It’d be a dozen of us all going down the street. ‘Lily Marlane’, that song come out then. The German song.

‘Lily Marlane’. “Underneath

the lamplight…” That one. Awaiting for Lily Marlane. And all sorts of songs come out and we used to march home with the girls singing this. And you know, we’d have to be in camp at midnight. And some of the boys like this friend of mine Teddy. Teddy got meningitis in his back. And meningitis broke out in that camp and we had to – the doctors come and they took lumbar plunges

in our back here. Our spine and the size – they’d stick a needle as big as that pen in your back and get all the fluid out. Because – see you didn’t have meningitis because it was in your spine. And Teddy got it and about a dozen blokes got it and a couple died. And we were – weren’t allowed out of camp for about a month until it went you know. Went there’s a group of blokes together I suppose

diseases spring up you know. Yeah.

Oh yeah terrible thing. Oh yeah everyone had to have a lumbar plunge. Damn big needles going in your spine to get the fluid out to see if you had meningitis or not.

Well I don’t know whether they did cure them or not.

With it you know. I don’t know cause I just know there’s a few died. But a few got over it, they had them in hospital so they must’ve been giving them something.

Oh yeah, yes you had tests every week. Yeah you’d have to study certain things. Electric motors and electric trams, how they operated and in Sydney and in

Melbourne, when you went to Melbourne they’d take you on the trams and show you. Take you to the tramways and that. Yes very good. And the police in Melbourne – we used to go up there and see how their radios worked to see how aerials were made. No it was interesting. I enjoyed it. Even in Sydney there, when I went from Canberra to Ultimo

College we used to build radios. You start off with a 1 valve, and 2 valve, 3, 4, 5, 6 valve and that was the test at the last. And they’d test you every Friday was that day. Hands on job. You’d go and make – solder it and learn soldering and wiring for repair work and that sort of thing. Reading of the area, everything. You know to learn all the

colour coding of resisters and condensers you know. Black, brown, green, orange, blue, yellow. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. You remember it all you know. And Ohm’s Law states this, all the different laws about frequencies and wattage and electricity current.

A little bit of everything. The electricity, instruments,

engines, all about motors, filing and making all frames. If you had – say you had to make a radio up you’d have to make the whole thing out of metal. You’d have to file it and all that. Learning which files to use and which drills to use. And you had this knowledge imparted in that two months crash course. It was very

interesting it was.

Been anything.

Yeah. After I’d done the electrical because it was all tied up to me. And being interested in radio before then. Good.

Yeah Ultimo Tech. There 5 months. Out at

Oceanic Hotel, Coogee Bay.

The wool sheds – you know where Darling Harbour is? Well Darling Harbour – if you stand at the front of Darling Harbour where the museum is and look – that’s Harris Street that goes down there. The next thing is the Ultimo Technical College. That’s where we were and the wool shed was there and that was all stopped off. The cars or nothing could go through and we used to march

the bull ring there. And in that Darling Harbour – I went to see it 8 years ago – there’s a big clock in there, a great big clock made by a German bloke, pre war. Beautiful thing. Cuckoos come out and all this. That was at the Tech College at Ultimo and we used to go and look at that at 4 o’clock on the arv when we finished and before we went to camp.

Mates and I’d sit fascinated watching this coming out all the time. Every quarter of an hour. Blow me down I go to Darling Harbour and here it is. So I spoke to the bloke and he took me around in the works of it, for a walk around. He said, “Oh gees.” He said to everyone in the crowd, “this man remembers this from 1942 when he was in the RAAF.” It was interesting.

Good. I didn’t mind Ultimo either. It was quite a nice place. A dirty hole but still it was bad. The tech college was quite good. Very nice place. We used to you know do a lot of electrical and radio work like I told you. And up towards Broadway in Sydney

we used to go up there. We had the top floor and that’s where we used to do all our practical work you know, build radios and all that sort of equipment. Yeah I liked it. I liked Oceanic better. Coogee Bay, it was good. Go swimming and that yeah.

Yeah it opened me eyes because my uncle was in charge right near Martin

Place he was in charge of an accountancy firm. Uncle Bert. And I used to go to his place and he used to take me to – there was Mick Simmons had a big store there. Games and all that magic stuff, Mick Simmons. And Mick Simmons’ sister, Uncle Bert went with her and she lived at Dover Heights. Big area of Sydney. And I used to go there of a weekend and have tea with them Saturday night and things like that.

Wash the – wipe the dishes for her and she used to say, “The first time anyone’s ever wiped the dishes for me.” Anyway she shot through with a Dutch airman so Uncle Bert was real unhappy. Yeah but I liked Sydney. And also he took me down to Kings Cross to have a look at that. Oh opened my eyes. All the blokes drifting around you know dressed up as girls and that sort of thing. And I ended up getting accommodation – I had accommodation for a while – I told you

had those ticks and that biting us. Near the big Catholic Church near the end of Hyde Park. I got accommodation at a place there and there was a lot of air force blokes in this big unit you know. Over the road from us was a lot of chorus girls, they used to pack in some of these shows like – this is the army but some of these shows – I can’t remember now. And we used to get free tickets and go and watch them. The show. It was really

good there.

Only the fact that we kept whingeing about the ticks biting us and all the red marks on us. And we were telling everyone around town these red marks were from ticks. And it was in the paper and we were threatened to shut our mouth. We’d either shut our mouth or else. And we did and they ended

up saying, “Who wants billeting out?” So the lot of us put our hands up and we got billeting out and they gave us so much a week towards accommodation. And we used to go of a morning, leave there, Hyde Park walk through the park and go to Central Station. And on Central Station they would give us a breakfast for nothing. We knew where to go, we’d go and have a breakfast. When we come home of a night we’d walk

back into Hyde Park and they had a recreation hut there built and you could get a salad tea with sweets for nine pence. That’s about 8 cents. And that’s what we would do going home. So we had our meals you know. And at lunchtime at Ultimo they would give us a meal. So that’s the way it was. It was quite good.

Yes. Yes the air force took it over.

Yeah they took it over and we just bunked in there, different room. You know I was right up on the top floor, probably the maid’s room. Blokes’ quarters right up top. Quite good. We used to – in the main dancing hall they had there we used to play basketball and things like that. We’d make a mess of the floor with our hobnail boots. Yeah. But I liked that area, Coogee.

Oh yeah.

Terrific lot. There was army bases everywhere. I used to – the girl that I worked with she was a distant relation of mine in Rockhampton. She joined the AWAS [Australian Women’s Army Service] and I went out to a camp there, an AWAS camp to see her one day. Went a few times. But by gee they were big camps. There were a lot of people all around the area. Every town

had big barracks you know.

No. I don’t know about that. I think, I think there possibly were because you used to see them around the town. And possibly so. Yeah there must’ve been because there was a big blue, that’s right. This mate of mine who was the instrument

repairer in the air force, he was doing his trade. He was based at Bondi Beach at the Astra Hotel, Bondi. We were up in his room, we heard a big blue and went and had a look and the Australians and Yanks were fighting outside. Getting stuck into each other. Big blue. This was on for about 2 or 3 hours before the cops could stop it. So I don’t know what they were fighting over.

That’s right.

It got that way here in Brisbane you know. They had big brawls here and they used to make the Yanks come in after lunch and the Aussies were here in the morning. Had some big fights. And the American Negroes had to stay over the other side of the bridge, they weren’t allowed into the main city of Brisbane. Only over the other side of the bridge. And they used to drive the big trucks out to Amberley and that. And there were a few accidents out

there and people got killed. Anyway a couple of the black Americans come in over the bridge one day and the white American MP [military police] shot them. Weren’t allowed in here. That was it, they didn’t care.

At Ultimo? The electrical and the radio. Yeah the radio courses. Yeah that was very interesting.

You do probably 3 to 4 hours of basics of radio equipment and all that and learning about radio waves and that sort of thing. Electronic waves. And all the call signs, the codes and various things. And then of an afternoon you might do a bit of practical. Aerials or whatever. Whatever they had on for the day. Electric motors. Transformers.

Rewind transformers. Little bit of everything to make you versatile. cause when I went back to New Guinea, when I was up there, lots of time. I’m digressing again. The transmitters we had were possibly, oh bigger than a big refrigerator. You know these big high refrigerators Coca Cola have. Well each one was as big as that and we had about 13 or 14 transmitters there.

And you used to have to routinely check each one you know. And the power supply was in the bottom and they were on rollers. Pull out the power supply with the big transformers in and condensers and that sort of thing. And when you were repairing them you’d have to pull all that out. But they were very dangerous because you’d have 3,000 volts, high tension on them. And when

you pulled it out you had a discharge across the condenser – you’d pull this lever around and it would discharge all the electricity in it. Do you know what. It took about 2 to 3 hours to discharge one condenser, they were so big. And dangerous. You know if you put your hand on them you got 3,000 volts in it. Because the dielectrics in it would hold a charge and it would bang –

you’d zap it out but then more would come out of the dielectric you know. Dangerous thing.

Keep doing it. Until you couldn’t get another spark and then you’d think, oh ho, you know.

Yeah long time. If you’ve got a repair, you’ve got to put a new board in. Like they put boards in today. If it was urgent. But – oh I’ve been burnt a few times with it – zapped.

On my arm it was, I was zapped a couple of times. All your hands’d get all burnt like a microwave. And nearly electrocuted one day. One bloke stuck a match in a switch and stuck it on. And he went at 3 in the morning and I took over his job, repairing this big transmitter. And I switched all the power off, you know you’ve got safety precautions to follow. Switch them off, switch this off.

Went around the back and I had to change the coil. And the coil was made of like a plastic material with all the wire wound around it. Different points on it where you can lift it up and change frequency. They wanted a frequency change after I’d fixed it to a degree. And actually I was testing. And I put – I used to make a habit of putting my fingers in the ends and you feel a trembling. Did that when that power was on. It was on

all right. And I found this bloke had jammed a match in the main switch and it broke in there and I – you couldn’t see it. By gees deadly. 3,000 volts. It would’ve fried you you know, instantly. But sometimes the mates up at the transmitter they’d say, “Arnie change the 3160.” I said, “Okay I’ll do that.” I’d set it up, I’d go around the back and I get it going and I’d go to change the aerial switches.

And as you do that they hit the key up there. And you’d get a charge through you. Ooh they were buggers. And then on the phone you’d have the phone still off the hook and you’d say, “You so and so.” “Oh we caught you did we?” They were having great fun they were, you know giving a charge. Burning your hands. Anyway.

Oh very new. Pretty new.

Made by AWA [Amalgamated Wireless Australasia] and STC [Standard Telephone Cables] in Sydney.

Standard Telephone Cables, they were a Sydney manufacturer. Receivers, they were made by – oh I forget the name – they called it an AR7. Made by a Melbourne mob, Stern or Stein or something. They were a beautiful little receiver. Loved them. I had 5 of them after the war.

I bought them in Rabaul.

Oh the best was the American. Their equipment was wonderful. The likes of that receiver, you can see it’s well built. If you look under that, oh. Well built equipment American. Australia was good I’d say. Well they were all pretty good.

Even that Japanese I suppose. And built to last in the jungle, in the tropics.

Only 5 months. Wait a minute. 3 months on the electrical. 8 months and 5 months on the other, on the radio. But then another 7 months later on in Melbourne.

Well you did think that way. If you were doing these things. You’d think, oh will I get there. But the moment at Melbourne Tech when they said, “Next week you’re finished the course and some of you want various areas. And you’ll be going to Los Negros.” Me. You know I said, “Oh well that’s good.” At least you knew where you were going.

Oh finding out a lot on the radio. And also through the pipeline. People coming back would tell you. You know you’d meet a bloke in the street and you knew if he’d just come back from New Guinea because your skin was yellow. The Atebrin turned you real yellow and you knew the bloke had been in New Guinea. So you’d say, “Oh you just come back mate?” “Yes.” “Where were you?”

“Oh Milne Bay, Lae or whatever.” “Oh, how’s it going?” Then I’d say, “I’m just going up.” “Oh this and this and this, be careful of that.” You know you get something through the grapevine.

Yeah well the electrical work. Electric motors and things like that. I loved doing them you know. But I think it was all much of a muchness. It was all

new to me and interesting. Very good.

Well this is true, I think this helped a lot. Because a lot of blokes were finding it hard to get through. There was some blokes that failed their pilots and nav [navigation] courses and that. They’d have to come back onto your course and get various things. And they only failed it mainly because colour blindness or medical. You know and they’d say, “Oh Jesus this is a hardest

course than the flying.” You know. Some of them were even full pilots you know.

Well I didn’t consider it too much. I just thought, oh yeah take it with a grain of salt. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. I’ve always been a fairly lackadaisical type. I never let a lot worry me. All me life. Even today I don’t let

much worry me you know. Things happen, they happen.

Oh God don’t. I used to write to 23 girls. Yeah I did. When I was in the war I had this girlfriend there, Nancy. Nancy Duck. Nancy ‘Quack Quack’. Lovely woman. And she used to write to my mother and talk about when she’d come to Rockhampton to live. And I thought,

oh Jesus she’s getting a bit serious, this girl. The day war finished she wrote and I got letters from her. She was a very nice woman you know. And I met her at a sing-sing there one night, private home. And she had a glorious voice, she could sing. She used to sing at weddings and all that. And my sister did too. She used to sing – she’s got a wonderful voice. She sings at weddings. And Nancy used to write and say, oh when I come up there we’ll sing a

duet and all this sort of stuff. Anyway the day war finished and I had to come down I never wrote again. I often wonder what become of her. Poor girl. But then again she might’ve ended up with someone else. She would’ve you know. And various other girls that you met at Sydney. Nurses, the hospitals and various things.

Mate when you’re on duty if nothing was happening, you weren’t doing anything you’d just write.

Yeah just various ones you got to know over the years. Some in Canberra. Valerie Desmart in Canberra I remember her yeah. And another one in Sydney, her father was – he was in charge of Long Bay Goal. So I can honestly say I’ve been in Long Bay Gaol. But not for robbery reasons. He took me through it you know. They sued to live in the grounds.

Yeah. Interesting. Go through and see all the prisoners. Good. Oh no there was quite a few girls in me time. 5 at one time. Oh gees. I might look an old bugger now. Oh gee.

No I didn’t drink. I used to smoke a little because they used to -

I didn’t smoke before I went up to New Guinea. And then we got issued cigarettes and we were with the Yanks. We weren’t with the Australian troops, we were with the Americans. 5th Air Force. And they used to issue us with 2 cartons Lucky Strike. 2 cartons a week. The Australian army or air force ration was 2 bottles of beer a week. And a mate and I used to go across to Manus. This

fellow that was in charge from Rockie, Bill Shanks and I we used to go across to Manus. We’d go down to the wharf and get a boat, you know one of those barges. We’d say, “We want to go across to Manus.” “Okay jump on.” Hours run. They wait for you, they wait for you, they wouldn’t go. You go up to all the stores and we’d buy some beer. And we’d charge it to the Australian government. And we’d have beer.

Oh God everyone was doing it. Larrikins you know. We used to make grog, we used to make sly grog.

Oh you had a container that you’d heat up and it would super heat the stuff going through it. Get a 44 gallon drum and stick your lot of corn. They’re idiots they’d send us thousands of tins of corns. So we’d open it all up and stick it in the 44 gallon drum

with coconut and it’d all ferment. And then we’d pour it out into this container and heat it up and pure alcohol would come out. And we used to sell it to the Yanks, you used to get $20 a bottle. And they used to buy it. One of the Yanks died but that was because he was knocking alcohol off and the instruments in the aircraft. He was breaking the instruments and getting the alcohol out. But he was one of our customers and I thought, God strewth.

We found out that’s what he was doing.

Oh just on your finger that’s all. Awful muck.

Oh potent. Alcohol, 100%. But a lot of blokes were doing it. We were all making foreigners. You’d get a two shilling piece. Then you’d hammer it all around the outside and flatten it out to make ring size you know. We’d drill out the inside with a little drill then we’d file that

all up till it would fit your finger. And then that piece you took out of the middle you’d – we had a special zig and you’d bend it all around and make it a square. And you’d get bits of toothbrush and cut it and put it in that or a bit of pool shell. And you’d get $20 a ring from the Yanks. Gee that’s another thing I had. A lot of surrender notices of the nips. Used to put out. Drop

on us you know. Don’t know where they are. Just thought of that. Must look for them.

Oh yeah they knew. They knew you were. But what else – you had time on your hands after the real battles were finished you know. The war. All you had to do was keep the equipment on the air and keep operating and do your jobs every day. And then you’d have a few hours off. You’d be in there but you’d have nothing to do.

Just keep an eye on the equipment and wait for them to ring up to change frequencies from receiver. And you would automatically sit down in the little workshop you had there and start to hammer – you know do these jobs. Everyone was doing it everywhere.

Yeah.

Electrician and wireless assistance program.

To Melbourne, I did wireless maintenance

mechanics and radar course. Telephone too. Went out to Fisherman’s Bend there for 2 weeks and did telephone linesman work and fixing up telephones. We had to do all that.

Well just – you know the old fashioned telephone line out there. Fixing them up and repairs. And lines, getting up on the spurs and up coconut trees and fixing it up. Go out when you had a big

storm. One day there, the American Liberators used to take off around about 3 in the morning – it’d take them till 3 in the afternoon to get back to Guam, and we’d go off at 3 in the morning and come back at 3 in the arvo [afternoon] from Truk. One morning there was a big storm on, they were taking off and one of them slewed into a big American camp and killed hundreds. Just blew them up. The bombs were all on it you know.

And they ended up blew our lines out and we had to go in this terrific rain and that. With our ponchos over the hole and fixing all this up. Took hours to do but that’s the sort of work you had to do. And they come back of an afternoon. One afternoon there there was a Liberator down at the end of the strip. They had a crew of – I think it was 7 or was it 10? I forget now.

And they were taking the dead off and various ones wounded. And another Liberator – they were coming in one after the other, all the time. And another Liberator come in and his brakes failed and he went straight down the lot and he killed – I think there was 87 killed. There was doctors and nurses and everyone there. Just straight into the lot and … just went up. Some terrible things. You see accidents yeah.

Yeah I think so. The worse thing was when, this you know – friendly fire. Like happened in our war like Vietnam. Friendly fire. Your own men getting shot up by the Americans or us dropping bombs on the Americans or something like this. And that’s a bad thing. You think, oh it should never have happened. That’s a bad thing, that worries you. Yeah.

We used to put spurs on your feet. You had your boots – you know you had a piece of iron strapped around here going down and had pointers like that going in. And you’d kick them into the pole and pull the other one out and kick that out and go up. Up you know. Very hard at times some of those poles. 65 footers we used to go up. They were very very hard like they were just

like your telegraph pole here but were 65 foot long and there was about another 15 foot in the ground. I don’t know where the Yanks got them from. We had six of them around the station – you had to go up and walk.

Harness, safety harness. You’d put around when you got up there. It was a leather, you know around your gut and the other put around there. And when we were coming down we’d slide it

down and then pull your feet out in case you slipped. And that was – when I say that Les Hughes slipped and hit me – it knocks your spurs out and then you just slide you know. Dangerous.

It was pretty hard. You’re up there for 2 or 3 hours. You’d be really tired when you got down. See the mere fact that when we used to get up there, what we were doing

we had, you know those radio masks you saw out there – alloy out there. 30 foot high, which is about the same height as that one I got there. And it had coax cabling going up and we’d have to pull it up from the ground with the coax cable and get it up there and one of you’d be leaning back on the spurs and you’d put your arms around that and pull your gut into it. To hold it while the other bloke put special clamps around the top. And once he did that you were right.

Took a couple of hours before that was done. And you would have about 10 foot of it and about 20 foot sticking out above the pole and that was the VHF [very high frequency] mast you know.

Yes. Yes you had to help your mate. We’d take it in turns. One’d be up top today and the other one’d be down – you know the next day.

Yeah. Yeah I used to work with Les Hughes and myself we went up together.

Oh that course was 7 months.

Lot quieter I thought. Yeah a lot quieter. We used to go out various places on the weekends like I said. You had to do – see the Exhibition building in Melbourne. Do you know Melbourne at all?

Do you know the Exhibition Building?

A great big building it is. Oh they had it all divided up.

Now they’re still using it for shows off flowers and art and all this. It was divided up with hessian up that far from the floor, about 2 foot from the floor there and going up. And 30 or 40 blokes’d be sleeping that one. 30 or 40 in the next bay, all around. Everywhere. And one night, one bloke comes home drunk. And the Exhibition Building was a dangerous place for fire.

We were threatened all the time not to smoke cause it would catch fire just like that. Tinder dry and they had guards going around everywhere, all the time. They had a great big organ in there and they had to take all the bellows out of it because the blokes’d try to play it and it would blow the place apart. And they took the bellows out to stop it. Now that’s the thing I didn’t like, we had cold showers there. Oh it was terrible in winter. Anyway these

buildings. Well I was in this one and a bloke come home drunk in the next bay, Saturday night about midnight and he got the big fire hose and turned it on. And hosed all the blokes in bed with the cold water. Big fire hoses. There was screams and there was yells and the MPs, MPs came around and put him in the clink for it. He got – I don’t know how much time he got. Oh I was glad it was

that bay and not ours.

Oh terribly draughty and cold. You had 3 blankets and you were shivering all the time. Put your overcoat on to go to bed you know. Yeah.

Well it wasn’t much better, wasn’t much better. But – oh I rather liked Melbourne better I think than Sydney.

No it didn’t. No. As I said before you were training to do something. And you wanted to get it done that was it, you had to try and do your best didn’t you? And get away wherever you were going.

Good. Pretty good. I didn’t mind it cause it was better than what I was getting at home.

And not fighting me brothers for it. No it was pretty good. We – I tell you where the best food we had. Amberley. Oh gee it was good up there. They had salads most of the days. Beautiful salads. And I can always remember this great big place, bigger than my house. And an old fellow was in there cutting cheese up. You’d get cheese on your plate. Big chunks of cheese. I always remember that. Amberley.

Oh I think so. I think a lot were. Yeah I think they were because, well the services seemed – the people outside weren’t getting a lot of good food. It was taken from them to give to the services. Keep the servicemen going, for fighting. Yeah.

23.

Oh yeah a lot, all the time.

Coping quite well. They didn’t know – well they did know where I was going because I told Dad on the station when we were going through you know. I said, “Keep this quiet but I know where I’m going.” But oh no they were coping quite well. When the war had settled down

I was there about 6 or 8 months I – Bill Shanks and I used to go over to Manus Island on that boats and that. We used to go to Yank PX [American Canteen Unit] stores. And you could buy beautiful white towels for 20 cents each. And I sent home about 2 or 3 dozen of those to Mum. Do you know what, Daph’s still got a few of them. Mum gave them to her. And I bought meself American

officer shoes with lambskin – lamb wool inside them. Oh gee they were cheap as anything. They did themselves well. They had all Baby Ruth – they used to issue us with Baby Ruth chocolates, 24 a week. No wonder I had bad teeth.

Per man a week. As well as 2 cartons of cigarettes a week. And you know, when you’re in – in the bad times at the

start, the sergeant or someone’d say, “Oh have a cigarette.” And you know you would, and you’d smoke. But around about 40 years ago I cut out smoking. I couldn’t care less about it. I used to sell all me grog to the Yanks.

Oh no they’d give me $20 or something for it, American money. I used to print photographs.

Had a tent there and you’d go in and print all your photographs and sell them to them. So much a print. They’d give me the negatives and I’d do it for them. And they’d pinch the paper for me. 24 by 24 sheets. 144 in a packet that big, you’d get it for $20. They’d get it from their PX store – I don’t know where they’d get it from. I couldn’t care less. And you’d just cut it up.

I don’t know.

Well we used to do just the ordinary – they’d have negatives. Say they’d have photos of their girls down here in Australia. “Hey guy print me some of these off” or something. You know and you’d print the ordinary size that’s all. And I’d just cut it up. My mate and I

get some money out of it.

No I went from Melbourne to New Guinea. Straight to New Guinea.

By train to Townsville. From Melbourne to Townsville by train. I think I said it was 3 or 4 days I don’t know. And when we got to Townsville that night, the next morning I was in New Guinea, in Milne Bay. Whipped

you across straight away by aircraft. I didn’t feel like swimming. So anyway it – you know when you look at it, Milne Bay isn’t far from Australia. You know the point of Australia – Cape York. Milne Bay’s down here. Maybe not that much but it’s just across – Townsville’s down here. Yeah.

Oh I had. Everyone else was getting it but a few of us didn’t cause they wanted you up there straight away. Urgent so that was everything. I was a bit hostile about that. I expected to get it after I finished the course. I was saying to Mum, “Oh I’ll be home soon.” “Hello Mum, hooray Mum.” Yeah.

Oh yeah it was. Too right. My brothers and sisters, whoever could get down there. I think there was 2 brothers and 1 sister. Claire, yeah they got down there. Dad managed to hold the train up a bit and there was hell to pay but he did it you know. Being a driver he made do. But – and then I go to Townsville and bang across and I was in Milne Bay for

2 weeks. A week or two just making sandwiches. To give to the troops you know. But still that was an experience seeing them all come back wounded and that.

Oh some of them were cot cases in the aircraft. And you know you just go on board and, “Here mate you want a sandwich or some sandwiches.” You give them. “Thanks mate.” “A cup of tea?” And this is what you were doing all day. Filling in time you know till you got your word to move on.

Good. Very good. Tremendous big tent in Milne Bay. And a lot of blokes were like myself – all at the benches working, making sandwiches. Going out to the planes and that sort of thing as they come in. “Oh here’s another 4 planes coming in, you and you and you go out take them out.” But the Salvation Army were very good. They were up on the front line with the troops all the time, with the army boys they were in Kokoda

and Malay and Nadzab, you name it they were there.

Oh a dump. Milne Bay was – every afternoon at 4 o’clock it would rain. Terrible. A swampy sort of place. Very steamy. Very hot. And it still is today. Same sort of place. Yeah. I think I told you I went to Milne Bay

to Goodenough to see me unit but it had gone – they brought me back again. I – I don’t know. The only place I really did like was Rabaul. After when I went back there to live. But Manus wasn’t too bad I suppose for 18 months. You could always go swimming and that sort of thing.

I was going to tell you too about Hill 60 at Manus.

Hill 60 – we were right down there at the outer side of the strip. Our receivers were up this side of the strip and Hill 60 was around there. And the Yanks were fighting all around Manus Island there. And there’s a big river in between the two. The – oh I forget the name of the river.

And Hill 60 was on this side of the river and the Japs were on that. And they hadn’t realised there were so many there. And this was in May and we went around that way. 4 of us shooting as I told you when the Yank had shot a sniper in the tree. But they were getting stuck into them there a couple of days later and they tried to get up Hill 60 and it took them about 2 months before they finally cleaned it out.

They had holes everywhere dug you know. Yeah. So fighting and the old aircraft were going in and machine gun and bombing it and all this sort of thing. So they say in the papers that I read there was nothing about Hill 60 in any of them. But it was there and this happened. And a lot of blokes knew it. And before that I got a photo there

of a nip that I shot. He was trying to get off across between us you know. And you had to be careful, they were there. One of the blokes was on duty in the radio shack up at receivers one night. And it was a tent type of thing. He shot a Jap going through the tent. He was after food. This was months after. So you had to watch.

One of my mates he was an air gunner in the Lancaster’s Bombers going out of England all the time over bombing. And they were shot down. Keith Tennet his name was, from Rockhampton, went to school with him. He was probably in one of the photos that I showed you. And Keith he shot down a couple of German aircraft, MU109s [Messerschmitt 109s] and that. And in their fifth or so raid they got shot down

over a Dutch city and they landed in the snow. And I found this out many years later after the war. And the Germans got them and they hung them, all the crew. They were alive and they hung the lot. And they told the Dutch people the same thing’ll happen to you if you cut them down. So they were hanging up for 3 weeks in the snow. And I didn’t know this. After the war I went home and went up to Tennet’s house where I used to go with Keith.

Knocked on the door and I was going to say, “Hello Mrs Tennet how’s Keith?” How would it have been if I’d done that. But by the same token they were never home. So I only found out years later from one of me other mates, he told me the story. So you know that’s the luck of where you are. But they hung them. Bugger. But these blokes they shot a hundred and fifty or something like that

in that great escape.

Terrible.

Oh yeah there were 250 aircraft, 200 or 300 I’m not exactly sure now. I never ever wrote it down. It’s gone in me brain.

But we were – and I know I was on the 180th aircraft and we were all – they just drive up and down and 30, 30, 30, 30. No names just on the aircraft. And then they’d all taxi out and take off. You know it’s a big thing to see a lot of aircraft like that going out. And we were the 3rd aircraft to get into Milne Bay because in the storms a lot of them went to Dobodura and different other places you know

that the air force had up there. They got lost in the storm. And we were the 3rd to get in and we were the 180th to take off. And they didn’t crash. They all got in there, they all flew across to Milne Bay. Or in that area somewhere. All little strips you know. They had strips all over New Guinea. When you think about it. And one of me mates he was on a DC3.

He was in the navy, he come down on leave. Lost. Not heard of from that day to this. He left Manus and that was it.

Oh you just think, oh well could’ve been me, could’ve been us. But you don’t worry about it. It’s a facet of life.

I might be rambling on today but, I don’t know. Yeah you think of it. One of my mates he got shot next to me. The bullet went straight past me into his gut and killed him. So you never know when your life’s up is it?

Oh just he was sitting on a log and bang

the bullet just went past him. And another bloke was sitting there. Now this is a lighter tone. I was in my tent on Manus this day. This bloke Ryan, school teacher bloke with us. He’s sitting there, all of a sudden he gets his rifle and I’m over the other side of the tent over there. Picks up his rifle and goes bang and shoots a bullet between me legs.

And I said, “What the bloody hell are you doing that for?” He said, “Look.” And here’s a rat, he’s killed a rat. I said, “Oh you bloody idiot.” He just picked it up and bang without thinking. I had me legs like this, you’re sitting you know. If I’d had them like this I’d be in trouble wouldn’t I? Oh well.

Yeah.

Oh it was probably someone, some Jap or someone in the bush, a sniper who knows. You don’t know. This bloke from Rockhampton, 42nd battalion, he’s sitting on the toilet. We used to dig our big pits you know and they’d have about 8 of them across there. And they’re all sitting there, he just got shot in the head. Sniper.

Yeah. Lieutenant. So things happen. You wonder why. I see some things on TV [television] here and you think, Jesus that’s similar to what could have happened you know. Yeah.

They’d taken off. What happened, they’d taken off from Goodenough and Kiriwina Island where they were, the various areas on a ship, USS President Coolidge it was or something like that. And some of them were offloaded somewhere, 200 of them to make way for more ammunition stuff. So

they were there, some of them were on here and there was a few detachments still back on Goodenough Island but not the radio section that I was to be attached to. So we went there and it wasn’t there so they said, “You better go back to Nadzab and wait an aircraft. Because by that time the ship was nearly up at Manus. So that’s the reason. There was a heck of a mix

up at times. And particularly if the Americans wanted something in a hurry. They would offload the Australians because they were providing a lot of the gear and ships you know and they wanted it. And that was it. They would do that.

I thought, oh well if they find it someday or not. I was having a good look around while I was waiting. To see where I was going you know. But I still

would rather have been with the unit when they went in first. But still that’s life. Wasn’t meant to be.

Lae. I went on the Ormiston. That took us two and a half to 3 days before we got up there. And it was raining all the times and we were in these hammocks up in the top deck and all wet.

And we got to Lae and got off on those big – down the rope things going down the side. And went not into camp into Lae, they sent us straight inland into – oh crikey crikey what’s the name of that place in town – where I told you before.

Nadzab thanks. Nadzab.

And that was 23 or 25 miles inland. And we went in on the trucks into there and we were there, I was there about a week, a week and a half. Until they did this strip, made it a bit longer on Manus. Because it was only a certain length and they had to lengthen it for the DC3s and they were sending DC3s in with ammo and all this sort of stuff for the troops, the Yanks and for the air force to fire out of the guns you know.

And they were short on bombs. They sent a stack in and then and only then did they send us new recruits and the other ones they’d offloaded. So we were in a DC3 amongst the first lot of DC3s to land on that strip. And they were bulldozing from the end of the strip and bulldozing the Japs in with the bulldozers in their foxholes.

And they were, the aircraft – the fighters were taking off and dropping bombs or petrol tanks the other end, mainly petrol tanks and another aircraft come in and fire, and set fire to them and all the petrol was running in the foxhole. And as the Japs come out they were shooting them. You know they were all on fire. They had a – they had foxholes everywhere. Very wily – funny people. They’d dig a hole and cover the top

over and all this sort of thing.

Oh no. No we thought, where are we? They said, “Nearly you’re landing now.” You go down. When you get out of the aircraft you could see firing going on, down the end of the strip. The strip was a mile long by then. And we were probably half a mile away from it you know. But then later on we were taken from there back to the foxholes

we had in the ground. You know where they had the transmitters and then they were building our first radio shack, that first one I showed you. And then we went into that a few days later. Weren’t that long. Some of the blokes reckoned they’d been sleeping for weeks in the rain just putting their ponchos over them you know. And they were telling me about the various things that were going on. Some of the Americans.

They’re fools you know, some of them. They would string a hammock and there was fighting going on say a mile a way, or half a mile away. They’d string a hammock between 2 trees and they’d sleep in it. They’d get out of the foxhole and the bloke said, “You’re mad.” And they find some of them dead in the morning. Nips’d sneak in of a night and bayonet them. You know you stay – gees I’d rather have the ground down underneath me and looking up at the stars, you know you can see a bit better

can’t you. No. Funny thing war.

There at Manus yeah. When we got to Manus because the war was semi over in the other areas and they were supply areas

then you could call it. Milne Bay and Lae and Nadzab were all the big supply areas. But when I went to Manus – God the equipment that was everything. You’d have a full street like this loaded with tarpaulins, your tents you know. And then the next one would be crates and crates of bully beef. All out in the open and then the rain belting down on them but, you’d have to go and get so much of that for your stores

and that. They issue it to you. Gee they had some stuff. The Yanks’d bring it all in on the ships you know. There was only a few Australian ships in it. We were detachments to the Americans and, sometimes I think I’d like to have been with the Aussies themselves. The army and that you know. But, that’s life. You sort of think, oh well what’s happened done

sort of thing. But the Yanks were good people. They gave you things, they were very generous people, the Americans. Everywhere.

Good. We had the American Negroes guarding us in the end on the second transmitter site. They had ack-ack guns all around to fire at the aircraft coming in. And they used to love the Aussies. They’d come to our hut

our tents every day and talk to us. And we’d play cards and that sort of thing. And they’d say, “Oh you Aussies are great, we’d love to come to Australia after the war.” Because Australians were – well in America they said, they get shot anywhere they could – people – you know how they were in America. But they said, “You Australians take us totally different.” And we said, “Oh day some day you will.” But they were okay too – all of them were. I found them all okay.

Yeah.

Not a lot. Only the ones that had been down here. But there wasn’t a lot that knew about Australia and we didn’t know a lot about America actually although we knew more than they knew about Australia. I think Australians were more versatile – we were taught more at school. Than the Americans were taught about the outside world. I think so.

Lots of the Yanks’d go off to America – they’d say, “You want to come for a ride, we’re going back to America.” Yeah few of the blokes shot through and went to America. But did they get into trouble when they come back cause you weren’t supposed to leave the island. It was a war zone and you were deserting your post. You can be shot for it. But gee some of them got into strife. I’d like to have gone.

Not a lot. I learnt that they were mostly similar to us. They were, they were mostly similar people. Generous people, religious people some of them. And also, very sexy people. With the local girls. Yeah.

No here. Well even the locals up there. Now I’ll tell you a little story – I don’t think it’ll hurt you – you’ve probably heard worse.

When we were in Townsville – another time – we were there for a while. And we would go to a – the brothel. We’d line up. We’d get off early and the Yank’s get

off later and we’d line up. There’d be 20 or 30 of us there. And the Yanks’d come along and “Give you $20 for your position in the line up mate.” “Okay” and we’d go to the end of the line again, all day long. You’d make yourself $20 all the time. All the Aussies were doing this. Yeah. The Yanks’d go. You had nothing else to do.

I don’t think they knew. They were more interested in going in. Yeah.

Well I’ll tell you. We had 2 queers with us, one called Bill Lane and another bloke called – we used to call him Sylvester.

And they were from Kings Cross and they were queers. And they were the cooks up at the main camp. The Yanks used to line up there of a night to go to their tent. Every night they’d be lined up there. In the end the CO [Commanding Officer] got the word of it. This went on for about 3 weeks. Got the word. And they used to come down to the transmitting station where we had a spare tent. And they’d say to Bill, “Bill

can we use that spare tent this weekend?” He said, “Yeah no worries but no high jinks.” “No that’s all right.” And they’d come down and put their dresses on and put lippy [lipstick] on and parade around the tent. And we could see them from outside. But in payment they’d knock off the officers’ food and give us some of that. So we were eating pretty good at times you know. Until they caught up with them and the CO sent them to Australia. Oh I think they were making good money.

Yankee boongs used to (UNCLEAR). Oh terrible. Terrible things you know.

Oh you ignored it to a degree but you – amongst yourselves you’d run it down you know. You’d run it down. Terrible. We didn’t like it at all. Yeah. No I don’t know.

You got that way you turned a blind eye to what was going on, so long as it didn’t interfere with you. And what your life was you know. But it opened your eyes. I mean I went up there I was a raw kid and when I come back I was totally different you know. Like most of them you probably talk to. It changes your life.

Lots of things. But I think it makes a man of you too. When you first go away you’re a kid you know. When you come back you’re different. You can either be a man or you can be an idiot which some blokes – no I shouldn’t say an idiot. Some blokes get run down about it because they have bad experiences, a lot of fellows you know. If they’re in crashes or they’re in actual frontline fighting all the days

and times like my brother-in-law was. He’s full of shrapnel today and everything like that. And every day’s a winner for him you know. And he was in the 42nd Battalion. Georgy – yeah he’s in a bad way. So I know lots of blokes. Another one of me mates here he’s got half an arm shot off here, you see him now. Morrie. And he was in the front line up in the Kokoda Trail.

But I think life is – you know you perceive it differently after you’ve been in an area where you see people getting killed. What used to get me a lot was when the aircraft would come back and crash. You know and there were no wheels and they’d just land and they’d go up in flames and all people on them still get killed you know. And that one

I told you about, that aircraft crashing on to the other one. You’d be down there every afternoon watching them come back when you weren’t on duty or you weren’t out in a plane yourself. You’d think, oh heck I wonder what’s going to happen today you know. And that gradually – as the war got further away and the aircraft decreased leaving Manus to go up to bomb you know.

You sort of just thought, oh well have a bit of fun now. You’re swimming and doing things, fishing and that. Filling in time till you got back home. Every day was you know trying to get home.

No. No-one did. Amongst us no. Our Aussies weren’t interested in them. Gawd some of them were bloody terrible. Awful

looking. You know a lot of them are too.

I don’t know of it much except these boongs with the Australian blokes. I know that one fellow had a bit to do with a Mary [native woman] there. One fellow only but he came back to Australia on normal leave and that was it. We used to

at one of the places where you had your tent. When you’d go to the showers, you had your showers there. And the road was going along here and you built the showers that way that they couldn’t see from the road. But the Marys used to detour around. The blokes’d all be having a shower you know. And they’d be saying, they’d walk along and they’d say, “Sinaboina.” Sinaboina means very good.

Sinagaga was no good. “Singaga” “Sinaboina” Gees and the blokes’d be laughing and going on.

Oh you pick up smatterings. Smatterings of it that’s all you know. I picked up a bit of smattering of

pidgin English at Manus. But my main thing was when I went back there after the war in 1949, didn’t take me long. I was working with natives you know. I’d say, what 12 months or so to speak pidgin fluent. You still do. You don’t forget it you know. It’s like any other language, you never forget, once you’ve learnt it.

And it’s very explicit language too that they use up there. “You go where?” “Where are you going?” “You go where?” Or, “You like him wanam” “What do you like?” “You like what?” “You like him wanam?” “You like what?” And all this sort of thing. Very explicit. Similar to our language. It is. It’s only just changed a little.

Oh only “emibugger up finish.”

“Emibugger up finish.” He’s broken. Or, “The car belong to me, emibugger up finish.” My car has broken. “Emibugger up.” “He bugger up finish.” If he buggers up it’s just broken a little but if it’s no good, completely it’s, “Bugger up finish.” You know that’s they way they speak it.

Fixing up the transmitters and going up the aerials, all that general stuff. Fixing up the – we had our own electrical light plants you had to maintain them too, put oil in them and all that. See the wiring was all okay. Check with the meters. Go around with an instrument called a Meggar [brand name of arials & transmitters, etc.] and meg all the aerial systems. Oh you always had a fair bit to do but you could always find time to fool you know.

And no we did that in every place. We had old transmitters in the first one and then later on they gave us some newer ones. You’d pull them apart and fix them up. Didn’t have much trouble with the later ones, they were a lot better than the older ones you know.

Oh yes we used to speak from the transmitters when

the lines broke down. Like if an aircraft blew up all the lines between we’d have to control them a bit. But mainly the controlling came up at the receivers. They had operators there who’d done nothing but controlling all the time. Speaking in the microphone all on Morse code. And if they broke down

and the pilot was in trouble we’d have to – we could control them from our station because we had microphones too to check the gear. And we could talk and we had receivers there on those frequencies and we listened to. Oh we used to listen all the time to the dogfights and everything that went on. And we’d built an amplifier and we had it outside the shack and we used to transmit it all out. And when the aircraft’d be coming in of an afternoon the Yanks’d be all around listening you know.

To what was going on. Very interesting when you hear all the blokes calling in. “I’m coming in, I’m going to crash.” “Can’t get the wheels down.” And you’ll be watching for him to come. Like you see in these pictures, similar sort of thing. They used to have hundreds going out every day. 3 in the morning, one after the other, take them an hour or so to go. Come back at 3 in the arv.

Interesting to hear it you know. We didn’t hear too many but we’d hear – we had a New Zealand group with us called – what were they? They flew Corsair aircraft. And they were Blue Leader, Red Leader and a Yellow Leader. And we knew them all. They were pilots we used to go out with to the pictures and that. And we knew them all by their own name. Blue leader’d

be John Smith or something like this, we knew what it was. And we’d be listening in on them. They’d say, the receivers would direct them out because there’d be a Jap snooping around somewhere or 3 Japanese aircraft. And they’d chase them nearly back to Rabaul and then they’d – be nearly running out of fuel and they’d have to come back. And they never shot him down anyway. But a few times they chased them and shot them down.

Particularly they reckon from Kiriwina – I wasn’t there when this happened. And a few of our aircraft shot them down at Kiriwina you know. But these ones, these Corsairs, these New Zealanders they were good blokes. We got on good with them too. They’d be – then we’d bust in sometimes and say, “Hello John.” They knew who it was. Transmitters you know. But we used to listen to the Americans but we never

run the American side of it. Never busted in on any of their work or conversations. But they used to do things for us because they had a lot more equipment you know. They could do it. If we wanted parts that weren’t available, invariably they would have stuff that they’d let us have you know. And if our transmitter couldn’t be fixed up they’d give us a whole new one. Good-hearted they were.

No. No I never had to do that because – no usually you got them back on the air. You’d be pretty busy trying to get the gear going again and you’d get them back on the air and you’d call them and say, “3160,” or, “3870,” or, “5168,” whatever the frequency was, “it’s back on air ready for you now controllers.”

And they’d get into it up at the receivers and they’d talk to them straight away. But now and again the Americans would say, “Thanks guys” you know when you’d get back on because they were on the frequency too. You know. But they made a torpedo base there too. We used to go out a bit with the Yanks. Out to sea and come back. Like that President Kennedy was on – he got shot up at

the islands when he was in the American navy. Those motor torpedo boats used to fire what’s-a-name? Torpedoes. They had them just near us and we used to go down the Yanks. Oh we used to go everywhere us Aussies. Talk to people you know. I never had any false talking. Sometimes you’d say, “Oh you bullshit artist.” Yeah.

But, yeah I sometimes wonder what it was all worth but. cause the Japanese got it all here didn’t they? The coal and all that. We fought over everything didn’t we for nothing. Lot of people killed.

I was watching on the other night all about England. Poor people of England copped it when they were bombing there – London and that – you know the Germans. And Coventry and those areas. Bad. A lot of Poms [English] copped it there. And then a lot of the Germans copped it too when we got into Berlin bombing. So what does it prove?

Proves nothing. Mm.

When we went out in the Liberators, the bombers. Well you’d go with them and they’d say, “We’ll put you on the waste gun today.” Because they were mid upper and down below and you’d be just in the waste gun because you’d be on one side and a Yank on the other.

And they’d say, “You watch that side and we watch this side.” And you go up get near Truk, get more vigilant when you’re going there. But when we got up there you know I was never there where you were attacked. From an aircraft but they were firing up at you with anti aircraft. Because they never had too many aircraft left to come out you know. But you still had to watch just in case. It was exciting.

You’d go there. But the real gunner that you were taking his place, he’d be there too. But you’d go along as a spare sort of thing in case he got shot. Oh gee. But oh yes, it was exciting for me. I enjoyed it, something different. You know instead of sitting on the ground having to do – as I said the CO didn’t want to know.

But yeah we went to Truk one day in the rain and went through and bombed it and blew up a lot of stuff. You could see it blazing into the air, must’ve been petrol or something, fuel. And they weren’t flying too high, probably around about 20,000 or something. Which is – but the anti aircraft couldn’t reach you. It was good.

When you’re a kid or a youngster it’s like driving these hot cars, hot rods around you know. Nothing’s going to happen to you. And a lot of these blokes will tell you that. Nothing’s going to happen to them but they did get hit. They got shot down a lot of different fellows. Especially these fighter pilots you know.

About average. About Average and what was the other one? Oh crikey. I’m having a mental block.

Sky Wolf yeah. Sky Wolf, About Average. There was another one I used to fly on at times. I knew the 3 different crews

on those you know. Sky Wolf, About Average and Hell’s a Popping I think. No it wasn’t Hell’s a Popping. Hell’s Angels or something like that, something like that. But I haven’t got a photo of that one, I’ve only got a photo of the two I think.

Oh they’d just make them up. What they want to put on it you know. And then the flight crew – the ground crew would paint it on for them you know. Whatever you want.

I tell you what. If I’d ever been a pilot you know what I would’ve had on my aircraft? The Flying Nun. I would’ve. It’d be appropriate. Often thought of that name. Yeah. But very interesting some of those aircraft they used to have on Manus. They had

night – Black Widows they called one aircraft. Had a twin tail on it. Black, painted black. And a radar on the nose. And when he was flying in the daytime you could see the parabolic reflector turning in the nose of the aircraft all the time like this. And night-time you just could not see them. Used to send them out. One of my other mates, bloke by the name of Fred Hay, he was a Yank.

He used to fly Lockie [Lockheed] Lightnings. He got shot down over Rabaul and hidden in the jungle by the maries, the natives. They saved his life. Yeah when I think about. In the wrong place at the wrong time old Fred but he got out of it, he was lucky.

Oh yeah. When the American and our ships that were there, bombarded Manus – well Los Negros, all around that area. That had these shells that would blast you to pieces and the Japanese feet were left there and their two toed shoes,

their thongs they used to wear. Two toed shoes that’s all they worn. And the feet were everywhere and you couldn’t find the bodies of a lot of them. There was a lot of bodies but a lot you wouldn’t find. Man they were there for months and months and the place would stink. That’s the reason we had flies and I think a lot of us had amoebic dysentery and things like that. And all this sort of thing and people were getting sick all the time.

And eventually they got most of them and buried them in a big pit over at the cemetery there near us. But you could get the stench coming out of the ground for months and months. Must’ve went on for six months. Terrible thing you know to see just feet lying there, no legs no nothing. Because these shrapnel I suppose from these big guns will just blast everything to pieces you know.

Yeah. You wonder what was going on. When you first run into them you’d think, gee it’s a Jap sandal there. When I first went there you know. And you’d soon wake up when you saw what was in it. I never – they reckon it was a terrific bombardment, all my mates.

Mates. You imagine that by 3 days or 2 days just day and night. They reckon they couldn’t sleep through it, just the blast, all the shells going over and bang bang bang. All the time. Yeah.

Well I just didn’t like them. I just didn’t. Later on after the war was over it was another thing. But I don’t like what they did, they didn’t have to do what they did. Murder

all our people. I mean you never saw us murdering all them. We put them in a prison camp and we were humane, we give them food and everything. They put us in a prison camp and kill you, or behead you for nothing. No didn’t like that sort of thing. Look at that what happened up in Borneo. Oh the 10,000

English and Australians were killed and only 4 got out. At Sandakan, that outfit. They – you know the story as I heard, the Australians wanted [General Douglas] MacArthur to give us more DC3’s and our troops would go in and drop into Sandakan and save their lives because the Japs were marching them from one camp to another to kill them.

You know not eat, feeding them. And MacArthur refused because he wanted all the DC3’s for the Philippines invasion and he would not give the Australian government the aircraft. We only had a few and we couldn’t do it, we couldn’t mount the thing, the offensive. So consequently all those blokes were killed for nothing. I don’t like what MacArthur did there. He kept it for the Philippines invasion, he could’ve let the aircraft

go and do that and then take them back. But he didn’t do it. Blokes killed for nothing.

No I learnt about the radar units at Melbourne. But I worked on radar units at Amberley.

Episode yeah.

Well they were just the – they were pretty big ones in those days. Equipment was fairly big. And they got 6 in and we were just familiarising ourselves

with them. You had to do certain things. You were going through the book, all about it. Press that, press that, press that, press that. You know I went press that, press that, press this, bang. The wrong sequence you know. And they had detonators in them in those days. To blow them up so if the enemy got them they would not be able to look at the circuitry. Mm I was in trouble but

still.

Oh it was only enough to blow – it’s like inside a metal case like that transmitter of mine. Just enough to ruin everything inside, blow the resisters and stuff apart in there you know.

Oh. No idea. I say they’d be worth at least 50, 60, 70 thousand pounds. It was a lot of money each one.

But you got to ruin things to learn haven’t you?

Oh I got spoken to. Questioned by the CO. What had happened. I said, “Oh I pressed the wrong button, that’s it.” “You’ve got to be careful, this equipment’s very dear and very precious.” It was a money question, it’s how it was needed.

I mean for radar, just coming out new, first time ever.

England. Marconi I think if I remember rightly. SCR [?] something, oh I forget what they were. They’d only just arrived.

Yeah oh it was something to learn. It was something to really learn. But it’s only like a signal going there and reflecting back and you had to know the certain things that did the job in it you know. Yeah. The tunnels, they called them tunnels for different things. And I’m starting to forget now all the different things in them cause I haven’t touched radar for

years. Haven’t been game to touch it since then. But anyway, yeah that was the days. And we had to – besides that American aircraft come in and some of them had radar in them and we used to have to go out to them. Take them out and have a look at them and that but they were different circuitry to the Pommy stuff you know. But it was the Poms that first

got onto it and sent it to America. And Americans developed it from then on.

Yeah to a degree you could. They had those – oh what do we call it in them – I forget the name – a magnetron. What they call a magnetron – it sent the signal like you have in your microwave now down along a trail sort of thing.

Very interesting. That’s all these are, radar units. But these have got transistorite stuff, in our day it was all valve.

No not that I can think of except like you say the electricity itself. Very dangerous.

Always had to watch or you could be buggered up. Some of those valves, the bigger valves if you smashed one of them you could get – there’s sort of a gas in it like a neon light tube – if you scratch yourself with that you get a bit poison in it. In those early days they used to have a poisonous substance in them I think. Bit like these neon tubes.

Oh no.

Well you’re putting the exertion on your stomach as you go up with your legs. You know you’re slamming your legs into the pole to get the spurs to stick in because if you don’t they slide and you’ll go down. So you’ve got to get them in. It’s all right with a coconut palm – you can drive them right in but not with a heavy tree – like these

poles out here, they’re hard wood, very hard to climb. And you’d have to drive them home and then you’d have to get it out again then drive it home further up. And it’s a lot of exertion on your stomach here, all your muscles. And that’s how if you do this consistently. Not only did we have to go up them we’d have to go up the coconut palms which were easier. Along the road they might have wires strung up and that sort of thing.

Oh yeah you knew you had a hernia. You know you have an ache, a pain in here, you think oh yeah. Hernia.

Operation. Cut your gut open and stitch it up.

Well the first time. And then it happened the second time in the same spot on the left side here and they put it. The first

time what did they do? Yeah the first time they gave me an injection in the back and I could watch them operating. You’re dead from there down and you’re alive up here and you can watch them in the glass up there you know, reflection. But you had to stay in bed 13 days in those days. Today they get you out the same night, or next day. And in those days you had to stay in bed

on your back. Anyway the second time, when I had it done at Greenslopes here, when the war was nearly over, they put a gauze in there and it strengthens all the area and I haven’t had hernia since. That’s 60, 58 years ago so that must’ve fixed it up cause I’ve done an awful lot of heavy lifting

in the factory in Rabaul. Big timbers and things like that.

Well all they did was give me Emetine injections for 6 weeks in the arm here. They’d just inject something called Emetine. Supposedly to get rid of the dysentery. But I still got

dysentery. But they give you this stuff and I had to go to the RAP [Regimental Aid Post] to have the injections every day. But they still today, the doctor here the other day told me, “Oh we know it as diverticulitis now we don’t call it that.” And they still haven’t got a treatment, all they give you’s antibiotics. So if anything happens now, I get it again now

as bad as I had it the other day, I was sick – I said to me own doctor, “Listen what have I got to do now Simon?” And he said, “You’ll have to have medical attention Arnie.” They used to give me some sort of tablets call Lomotil. You take them and you bind your gut up inside and stop it. But this was a bad go and he said, “You’ll have to have attention.” And I said, “What say I can’t get attention?”

He said, “Oh we’ll always do something for you.” Even if he had to come up here you know. So I can’t – if I get it now I have terrific pains, terrible pains in the gut. I was driving home from the sea down there. Went to Woolworth’s shopping. I was driving home and I got these pains, all through here. And I thought Jesus. And I’m driving home and I got within

two blocks of our place and I was in agony. Daph says, “Pull up and I’ll drive.” But she hasn’t driven since 20 odd years ago. Wonderful driver. Great. She learnt to drive in New Guinea in the mountains there. And she won’t drive, she lets me drive. I said, “No I’m nearly home now.” But by the time I got home it had gone up into my chest. I have a hiatus hernia, it’d gone into that and radiated back into my heart. Down here, felt like I had a heart attack. That’s when I went there.

He said, “Yeah you’ll have to have medical treatment in future.” And I said, “What say I can’t?” cause you can’t leave the toilet. He said, “Oh well we’ll have to come and see you, that’s the way it is.” As you get older these things get worse.

Oh yeah had that quite a few times in New Guinea.

Atebrin they gave us. We were taking Atebrin

every day but you still get malaria at times. And then when I went back to Rabaul I was on quinine. And quinine used to give you terrific headaches, I used to get bad headaches from it. And I ended up – I would say to them, “Oh blow this stuff, got something else?” So they had another type of stuff come out. Oh forget the name. German.

They made over there. And that seemed to hold it at bay a bit. And I was getting fever here a long time up until a few years ago. And I reckon it was malaria and the doctors were saying no. And my doctor here was telling Vet Affairs that malaria will hide in your liver. It’ll go and hide in your liver when you starting treating it.

And when they do tests they can’t find it because it’s in your liver. And the doctor said that and Vet Affairs said, “Oh no no, doesn’t happen.” So anyway.

Well only Atebrin and…

Yeah well 3 or 4 days you’d sweat fever, you’d take quinine if they had quinine. And that’s what a lot of poor

blokes died of in Malay and places like that. And the Japs had all the quinine in the world, they’d captured. But they wouldn’t give it to them. They died of malaria. Bad thing malaria. But now they seem to have got on top of it a bit all over the world. They tell me it’s coming back a little now.

Oh that was when I – well when we went to Milne Bay and we doing this, oh make a sandwich and all that, you got to know the Yanks. They were all dawdling around like we were, walking around. And they were off the submarine. Got to know them and they said, “Oh we go out on trips daily to check the thing, we go somewhere here and somewhere there. Like to come for a trip?” And I said, “Oh come one day.”

A couple of us went. And I said, “But what’ll your captain say.” “Oh he’s all right.” And they asked him and he said, “Yeah you come down here tomorrow.” And we did, we went on board, that’s all. And we were going out on a trip, running it for a day and they were checking out parts, engines and things, and radar and whatever they had on it. I don’t know what they had, I didn’t take a lot of notice. But I thought to meself, “By God I’d hate to live in these things.” And you know the poor buggers they

had a little place in the corner like that where they eat and up above them big pipes like that are going over the top and they’re all lagged from the steam, the heat. And the blokes had to pull themselves up and slip in there of a night and that was their bed. And these pipes were only that far above them. Oh you can have this. cause you can imagine if the things ever blew up

I’d hate to be in a submarine.

Yeah it submerged, they submerged, they did tests and all sorts of things. And the captain said that they had a fright. They reckoned some Japanese ships around, war ships and they stayed down and crept back towards Milne Bay – and come up again and tootle into the harbour and that was the day’s trip. Wasn’t a bad trip. But I

couldn’t do more than that. I wouldn’t like to go back on them again.

Oh God yeah. I would not like to live on them. I reckon they’re brave men that go on them, go down hundreds of feet down.

Well this is right I was. Well I used to make it my business to talk to people and get to know people and do things. I didn’t just sit around

at camp. Wherever I was I’d go for a walk somewhere and have a look and see what I could see. Not out in the bloody jungle but just somewhere.

Only – well I don’t know many blokes were in that photograph – it’d be about 12 or 15. And I think about 5 of them were 14 WT – wireless telegraphy, the other mob. At the end of our shack we had 14WT.

They had a bit of our shack and we had the rest of it for our 114 mobile fighter control unit. All our gear. But we were all intermixed. If we had a problem these blokes’d help us, if they had a problem we’d help them. You know. We were still part of the air force.

Yeah evidently the Yanks had a 14WT mob too.

Or something like that. And they’d be calling and our mob’d be calling and they’d be getting mixed up when they were in flight. And it was pretty dangerous so they put a one in front of ours, make the 114. But the 14 WT still remained 14 WT, never changed that. So that was the reason they gave us at the time.

Always remained that from then on. Yeah. I suppose wherever they went from then, they were with the

Yanks.

Oh I forget now. I think it was about 12 hours on, 12 off something like that. And then on your days off you’d be the cook. And you’d get the bully beef and you have to make it a different way. Oh that was great. Oh gees it’s bloody awful. Some days you’d be dished up, just terrible.

How can you do it? Bully beef, bully beef, bully beef. We – as I told you we had these Yankee friends and the blokes that used to get me the Kodak film and that, we got to know them very good and they were in the depot where the aircraft’d be coming in from Australia. And they’d be bringing up fresh meat every day and these Yanks used to knock off pork.

Pork chops and bring them to us. And they’d come over with pork chops and fresh bread. And about 2 days a week we’d get pork chops and fresh bread, you’d never see it otherwise. And we’d have a plate of pork chops like that amongst 15 of us and the Yanks. Oh 3 or 4 big chops and bread, fresh bread. Butter, they’d pinch the butter from the officer’s mess. Oh the Yanks ate well you know, better than we did. But you know what, they

would swap us some of their food for our bully beef. They liked our bully beef. cause they were getting other stuff. They used to eat stuff called chilli con carne, you know that stuff. And a pink cabbage, German, Sauerkraut. Oh gees I hated that. You’d go in their mess and they’d have Sauerkraut on today, they loved it.

Oh yeah that’s right a real mess. And also they used to have ice cold tea and ice cold coffee. Nothing ever hot. Big urns of it. Ice-cream – oh plenty of ice-cream. I think I told you about the blokes having ice-creams didn’t I?

Didn’t worry us. We didn’t worry that much about it. We just knew without the Americans it would’ve been the Japs, so what the hell. That’s the way you felt. And just as well we had the Yanks.

Oh good. People said “That’s good we’re going to be protected now.” Which we were. Yes the Americans were in the war now and they’ll be helping England more and they’d be helping Australia here, more because the Japs had attacked their positions. Guam and all the different areas. Made a big difference to know that they were on your side and particularly when we heard about MacArthur coming down from the Philippines to take over here. And we thought

oh well there’s going to be a lot of equipment coming which it did. Yeah. We could never have fought that war without them.

Oh yeah the last – I didn’t mind the first move. Going from that point going out to around

where we were, it was still on the harbour. But I did not like going out into the jungle area right around you know. And it was a little known area and you’d go there – one night I heard noises outside and I went out with me rifle and there’s a Yank staggering out of the bush and I said, “Who goes there?” “Oh I’m lost.” And this Yank was lost from his unit.

And we – another bloke was there with me that night and we thought he might’ve been a Jap – could’ve been cause there were too stragglers, you never knew where they were. But I hated that. But luckily we were only there about 4 months and then the war finished and I come down here.

No they just shifted us from near the air strip and near the cemetery there. And I

don’t know to this day why and I think that hut was left empty there. I don’t know. Even when we come back to the airstrip. See I never had cause to go back around that area again because never had transport. It was a fair way to walk. I thought, oh I’d like to go back and have a look on the airstrip. And I didn’t actually. And when I left I left at 3 o’clock in the morning so I never saw it you know.

I found some penicillin in there once, a case of penicillin. Penicillin had just been invented and for the first time ever it was coming onto the islands. And I’m going for a walk one day up along the end of this strip and here’s a case about that square. Penicillin and it’d have the units name on it and everything so I took it. Picked it up and took it back to the airport and they were looking for it everywhere. It was going

to a forward area and they’d lost it. They didn’t know where it was. Worth thousands of dollars. In Italy they was flogging them on the black market for a lot of money. Pinching it and flogging it. Yeah a case of penicillin.

Oh no it was just fell off a truck when they were going out to put it somewhere. Yeah I remember that.

Only this one day when they were –

these nips were running around over the other side of the strip. And we were protecting where the equipment was you know. And you shot across the strip. And I managed to hit one, that was it. I thought, oh gees I killed some poor so and so. But they would have killed us too and the Yanks got into it too. Everyone was firing. And I know I’ve got a photograph there of a nip. Went over later on

and he was there. They were taking things out of his pocket and I got the photograph of him. And you know a funny thing when I was living in Rabaul later on, I had a Chinese cut my hair and he looked exactly like him. I thought, oh Jesus, you know. Yeah and glasses on. Looked like him. Yeah you feel terrible to do it but then again I suppose some of these blokes that were doing it all the time

they got immune to it. It was either them or us wasn’t it?

Yeah well that was another point. Around at the first transmitting station the idea was that they could’ve been around. Still in the area and down at that Hill 60 which was down that way from us, which we didn’t know about luckily at the time. We had to go up those masts. But we didn’t have

the big aerials we had at the other station. They only went up about 30 foot and you’d just get up and stick the wires on and come down you know. And we had no protection there, no Yanks around to guard us then but we got them later on. But it was nerve wracking. Particularly of a night. You’d have to go outside in the night-time in the full glare of a light. Switch on the lights and you had two lighting

plants. You’d cut that one down for 12 hours and start the next one. Crank her and get her going and think, oh Jesus some b… could shoot me here, you know they could too. But we were doing it, everyone was doing it. It never eventuated but it’s in your mind isn’t it? That things can happen.

They knocked –

no they knocked one of the transmitters – it was a long hut like this and the sea was over here and they came this way bombing and they came this way bombing. And I went out here and I looked and I could see the bombs and I looked and I could see them coming this way and I yelled out. Well the transmitters were all along that wall, the power supply was about that high and that deep and there was a master oscillator

and everything on top. And this Spud Murphy run in behind them and the master oscillator fell on him and he had shrapnel all through him. We had to rewire the transmitters, the shrapnel had chopped all the wires. But I was running that way like I would towards the front of my house and I’d be half way down, just past your car maybe. And the bomb fell and blew me over.

And then the next one fell ahead of me. So it probably would have fell where my front garden bed is. Boom in my ears but if I had’ve been standing up I would’ve been killed. I’m sure of it. Shrapnel and that.

Blew a bit in me back from the first one. Not much just in the skin here.

Oh me mates picked it out. That’s all.

Oh you feel it. You do feel it in your body. The blast you know.

Ringing in your ears. Yeah you get that, I had ringing in me ears. Had that for a few days. And we didn’t have to go to the hospital or anything like that. Well we didn’t in those days. When a thing happened you just let it go.

Probably a lot of it was our own fault. If we’d have gone – well it wouldn’t have been put down on our records because nothing was put on me bloody record. Should have been. All I have on me records ever – none of the operations are on my records. All it says, is malaria 26RSU, one day. But I was in 3 or 4 days and I’ve got proof. But ahh, you can’t get through to them. They

just don’t care, they’re waiting for you to die I think.

Well you just don’t think. You think, oh well lucky that’s all. That’s all you do, that’s all you can afford to think. I’m lucky. A lot of blokes were killed.

Some of our blokes were killed on Bat Island. They got – Bat Island was a little off Manus Island and the radar was on there. One of our radar units, 346 and 347, two of them. And this island was loaded with birds and all the bird material filled with lice and that sort of thing. And there was rats by the thousands. And the blokes were

there and they got – oh that deadly disease. Anyway 3 of them died. 3 of the RAAF boys died. And they – the Japs attacked it. Bill Shanks said to me one day, “Arnie you’ve got to go over to Bat Island now, you know radar and you could be going over tonight on a boat.” I said, “Okay.”

Packed me gear and then he said, “I’ll keep you here, I’ll send Roy Daleymore.” He sent Roy Daleymore and he got over there at 5 o’clock and 6 o’clock the nips attacked it. So you know, I thought, oh God. But they got out of it. The Yanks went over and killed them. And these blokes all got this – oh I can’t think – it’s a deadly disease where things like rats and that are. And they died.

3 died. And they took all the rest off about a week later and they were all sick.

Yeah like plague.

No I can’t think of the name. And that was Bad Island, just the end of where the whole Seaddler Harbour went right out.

Yeah I can. Oh there was hundreds of them. Hundreds. They reckon there was 800 ships going. Day and night for a week they were going out through the harbour and you could see them going. And British, Australian, Yanks all going. We were all lined up. Doesn’t matter, every day for a week they were tootling out the harbour. And when they were first

putting stuff on them, explosives and what not, one of the ships blew up and 800 Americans were killed. This ship blew to pieces. Shrapnel took the head of a captain a mile away. And all the ships around were riddled and they don’t know what happened to this day. So someone must’ve dropped something and it exploded everything in the ship. You know ammo.

Oh yeah, yes

it was – we were here and the main Seaddler Harbour – we had to go around over there to it and there was transmitting stations here and we heard this roar and we all looked and you seen the big smoke going in the air, in the distance. Probably about 6 mile off. A roar. We found out later what it was. This ship blew out. Colossal. Yeah

so some things happen, accidents you know. War time. 800 killed.

I was talking on the air later on in Rabaul to some hams you know. They’d been on the USS Saratoga, and Manus and different areas like that. And one of them said to me, “Do you remember when the HMAS Hood blew up.” That’s the name of the ship, the Hood, yeah. I said, “Yeah I remember. I saw it that day in the distance,

the explosion, 800 were killed.” “That’s right mate, that’s right, 800.” They knew, they were there at the time. Yeah all getting ready to go to the Philippines and they’re dead.

Oh no I didn’t think we would because the Yanks were building up. We were all building up. More

and more Australia – we were getting more units, more squadrons into action. But the Americans didn’t want us to go to the Philippines, they only took a few Aussies to the Philippines, they left us behind. To be the tail wagers sort of thing. Because MacArthur wanted to claim – he told them, “I’ll be back.” And he wanted to claim it. That’s what they reckon. He had a few journalists go up from Australia.

Yeah. But it was a good thing that they did that otherwise – and a good thing they dropped the atomic bomb because otherwise if we’d have gone into Japan we wouldn’t have won the war for years.

Oh he was all right. A so and so. A bit of a so and so. I bet a lot of blokes have told you that. Yeah.

He used to run down the Australians and that. And when the Australians were fighting on the Kokoda Trail and they beat back the Japs, he had General Blamey go up there and abuse our troops and say they were bludgers. And they weren’t, they were dead on their feet from fighting. Never forgot that. MacArthur you know had Blamey do that and bloody Blamey did it. Run down our blokes and our blokes

were hostile about it.

No. They never run them down or anything because we felt they were probably doing the best for us you know. Best they could. Yes some of them run down Blamey. Anyway I suppose there’s always that will but he was a so and so bloke actually. But

to go up there and tell your troops they weren’t doing their best. And they were dead on their feet and they’d beat the Japs down. They were real hostile those boys from Kokoda. You’ve probably got that from some odd blokes, they would’ve told you who’d been in Kokoda. And they were deadly. The bloke that lived in that 3rd house, old Ern, he was an engineer on the Kokoda Trail and he used to have to build bridges under fire, build these bridges and the nips popping them off

you know. Yeah he said it was a terrible place.

The what?

Yeah yeah good bloke he was. He used to natter away, we’d all – all the pilots and us. Actually how I got to know Lennie, my mate Bill Boyd from Rockhampton was in a tent

near him. And we went up there to stay and I had a camera and I took his photo. And we were sitting all around the stumps there just talking you know. And Bill said to me, “Lennie’s the first Aboriginal, the only Aboriginal fighter pilot.” I said, “Oh Jesus that was interesting,” you know. And then years later when I read that piece I gave you about that fighter pilot and you know the air craft he flew in up there, I said,

“God that’s the photo I got.” And it is and I thought I’d like to give it to his wife but they say she lives out St George or somewhere. He’s dead of course. He drunk himself, after he come back. cause he didn’t have much to live for did he? Poor people.

Before. When Paul Tibbett’s dropped the bomb on Hiroshima that was around about the 8th of August, I think it was. And the next one was 13th or something like that, a week later or something like that.

7th or the 14th so the Japs gave in on the 15th. They might’ve given in a day or two earlier but we were told on the 15th it was over. And that was 9 o’clock in the morning on the 15th August ’45, that the war was over.

Oh couldn’t believe what one bomb could do. And now look at the bombs they’ve got today. A lot stronger. Tremendous thing. They’re a deadly thing aren’t they when you look at it. And yet we haven’t used it since then, everyone’s been frightened to. Because once we nearly did when the Russians went into

- off American that island there. Cuba. It was nearly that. Kennedy bluffed them out of it. Gee if that’d started we’d all have been gone. Imagine all those rockets coming from Russia and ours going into there. It was close then. And then they were worried about China weren’t they.

Yeah it does. Lots of things make you wonder. Then other times I put it out of me mind. What’s to be will be, we can’t do much about it. We can’t, we’re just ordinary rubbish aren’t we to be used as fodder. War’s a futile thing.

And yet when you’re young it doesn’t worry you that much. You think, oh I’ve got to get there you know.

3 years, 8, 9 months. August, September, October, November, December, January, February.

Yeah about 3 years and 8 months or something like that.

Yeah I would’ve. I would’ve stayed, gone back in. I would’ve liked to stay on. I had hopes of going to Japan but they never did. I think they got in more of a panic and they had too many men on their hands and they wanted to get rid of a lot so they grabbed a mob and said, bang bang you’re out, you’re out.

You’re out, you’re out. And sorry they did it afterwards because they were short of men to do the jobs. And definitely and they must have been short of radio men and all this because they sent letters to me to say come back you know. Possibly that was the reason. I would’ve gone back if I’d have got that letter that time and I probably would have gone up in rank because some of my mates -

I met a mate out at Monto – at my brother-in-law’s RSL when he was out there one day and this bloke was a squadron leader. And I was only an ordinary LAC [Leading Aircraftsman] in my day. And I said, “Jesus Christ how the hell did you get that?” He was on my course. And he said, “I stayed in after the war.” And what happened they went to various areas and then the officers and people were all rushing to go…

As I said I went to Monto, the RSL with my brother-in-law and this bloke there, a squadron leader. I said, “How the hell did you get back?” And he stayed in after the war and a lot of blokes were getting out you know. And the air force was pushing them all out, officers and all. And he was at a station where they just kept on taking them up and up and up. And he went from an LAC up to a squadron leader in about six months

because they had no-one to do the work. And he kept on – and he was an officer in charge in the end. That’s what you know you could’ve been, you might’ve been if you’d stayed in.

I don’t know. Mum and Dad would always give me all my mail unless it fell down behind a wardrobe – who knows I never ever got it. And the copy I got it there -

1947. Was February 1947. But oh well it’s gone hasn’t it, that time. Yeah it’s gone.

No Mum’s long dead, Dad’s long dead. No I never expected… I was on the reserve and I expected they might’ve called me up some time or other. But

for them to call you up you had to have a good record and I had a good record. I see that now in there. Every station you went to they had to sign whether you were exemplary or no good or what. You know if you’d drunk or whatever. And the officer in charge had to do this and every one of mine was good. So – and it said on the end of the thing, do they require him back? And it says, yes.

So you know. I was in line to be called up again and then probably in 1952 when Korea was on they called me up again. I got that one. But I’d just married Daph and we were in New Guinea so they cancelled.

In the aircraft flying out from Manus – near Townsville. We’d just left Townsville. We left Manus at 3 in the morning and we got to Townsville probably around about 7 or something – or something like 8 o’clock and we got airborne again. Picked up a few people there, WAAAFs and couple of airmen and left Townsville and got airborne and it said over the air – we had an inkling

it could be happening you know. And that’s when I heard, we heard on the radio that the war was over. So I went – I was up on the cockpit with the captain and I went to the back. I said, “The war’s over, we just heard on the radio.” And a lot of us got up and there was dancing in the plane. Round the cargo they had you know. A great feeling.

Real good, real good when we touched down at Townsville

you know. And touching down at Archerfield. We come down here and we got to Archerfield – oh I don’t know, 5 o’clock, 6 o’clock in the night. And the DC3 just waddles along you know. From Townsville to here – yeah it would’ve taken a good 6, 8 hours and then when we got out at Archerfield they gave us leave you know. We all went into town, everyone was dancing in the street.

But we flew, I told you before we flew under – that was something to fly under the bridge in the DC3. But everyone was dancing in the street and singing and going on. Yeah it was a good time. Had to go back to camp the next day and got my leave, 54 days leave. Went home. Yeah 54 days. And after that I went to

Greenslopes to have the operation. After Greenslopes they sent me down to two places down at the Gold Coast. You know where the waterways are at Southport there, there’s one place called Huntington and the other one was called Runnymede and they belonged to Sir Leslie Wilson, the governor. And the air force had taken them over. So it was a recuperation depot so we went down there for 5 weeks after that

or 6 weeks you know. And we used to go out on the torpedo boats every day fishing. And they’d give us our sandwiches and everything and we’d go up and down the foreshore there and we were living like kings you know. It was good. And then the day came to go and have my discharge I had to come to Sandgate here. I was here about a week and we started getting our discharges. Then we went to

Wako where the army was being discharged – oh there was blokes going hell left and centre, everyone in a hurry to get out. Go home, start – get a job ahead of the next bloke. Oh I was starting to forget all that now. Bringing back memories again. Mm.

Yes. A bit concerned but then again

like I said, I was concerned but by the same token I thought, oh well I’ll go back into the air force if they want me. I was sort of like this. And – because being on the reserve. Anyway when I went back to Rockhampton they said, “What are you going to do?” And repatriation said, “Oh you can do a course in farming or a course in cabinet making or joinery or carpentry or whatever you want to do.” So

I picked carpentry and joinery. And I went to the Rockhampton High School and did a course in carpentry and joinery for 8 months solid every day. And then I went out to Bertie Nunn’s factory – he was a distant relation of mine and I did 3 years there till 1949, got my ticket and then went back to New Guinea.

Oh she used to transmit on the air all the time, all these beautiful songs that we all loved and you’d listen to her. You had to listen to these songs and she’d inter-space it with a – talks, “Oh, you Australian boys on Manus Island, we bombed you last night and you lost 50 aircraft.” Or, “We’re coming to get you again

tonight.” And all this sort of thing would go on. And she knew – members of 76th Squadron or whoever, us 114 Mobile Fire. “And we know you’re there.” They knew it all you know. They knew we were there. And she used to say, “Boys on Labuan,” or somewhere like that. The 50th Battalion’s there or something like this. And “We’re coming to get you.” And all this sort of stuff. And she’d try and frighten you. And they’d

fly over and drop pamphlets you know, all about various things you know. “While you’re up here fighting the Yanks have got your women in Australia.” And there’s a big Yank loving up our girls. In colour. They used to do all this. I’ve got some of them here but I don’t know where I put them. One of my mates on Manus, in a cave there he found 5 boxes of all these bits of paper, you can imagine how many was in it.

And he found them with two other Yanks. Him and the two Yanks, and they sold them. And when the new Yanks were coming out ashore they were on the wharf selling them to them for $20 a sheet of paper. Now imagine the money that they made. How many would be in a box, as big as that. God they sold them all. You know I got some for nothing. I said, “I want some.”

Yeah. Your souvenir things you know.

Don’t know. I think she was – I’m not sure. I think she was an English speaking Japanese. Don’t know who she was. I’ve seen it in the paper at odd times but not taken much notice. Tokyo Rose. Yeah.

One woman

they reckon. It was like over in Germany this Englishman Lord Haw Haw, he was broadcasting to England and he was an Englishman. And he was broadcasting to them you know, to give up and all that. All this sort of thing you know.

Oh no. We just sort of listen to the music and laugh about what she put over because we knew it didn’t happen what she said.

A lot of it was bull. She’d say, “Oh you had 50 aircraft blown up last night,” which we knew was a lie. There wasn’t even one aircraft touched you know. They just say these things you know. But other people elsewhere wouldn’t know would they.

Oh possibly down to Australia I imagine because nowadays they will.

Yeah probably getting into Australia although a lot of people didn’t have short wave radio. And I used to pick them up on short wave and that’s 3.5 megs or 7.5 megahertz, and things like that. The other people here would only have medium wave, they’d never had any of this other stuff you’ve got now. And they couldn’t get, couldn’t pick it up. And

you’d just listen, I used to tune all the time. The radio – have one there I built and I was tuning it all the time, getting different stations all over the world. As I said before, I had nothing to do. Except work and listen to the radio. But it was of interest.

Oh yeah Constance Doderidge. Yeah a woman she was living in Sydney. Her brother, Private Cornell or something, he was captured in Hong Kong by the Japs. He turned up there and for 3 or 4 years she never heard anything about him. And she had only just escaped from Hong Kong back to Sydney. And I was listening this night and they

mentioned his name and Cornell or something. And to his sister Constance Doderidge at such and such address in Sydney now. So evidently she must’ve wrote a letter to him and he got it eventually with the address. And the Japs put this out. They never put it out much, they never helped you much but I thought, oh I’ll write to her and tell her. And I wrote and she wrote back thanking

me for my letter because I was the first one, first letter she got to say that he was still alive. She didn’t know he was alive or not. So it was good. Something different.

Oh it made me feel better that you could do something for him you know. And there was a lot of other various ones that used to come through. I wrote to a few of them

but she was the only one I got a letter back from, in appreciation.

Oh yeah. Well first of all I’ll read – I picked up a POW [prisoner of war] message from Japan from Tokyo Rose about this lady’s brother being a prisoner. So I sent

it on to her while I was on Los Negros. And it was (READS) ‘Dear Mr Nunn, your airmail letter of the 24th October 1945 was most welcome as it contained the first message received from my brother in Hong Kong, Private Warrington Kenneth Cornick of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps. I have since had copies from other kind people but yours being the first was indeed a thrill although my delay

in acknowledging would appear somewhat discourteous but has only been because of ill health in the family which has kept me fully occupied. I do appreciate your offer to send any further message should you receive them and assure you that evacuees like me are grateful for I for one, have no short wave radio and cannot pick up Tokyo. Must cost you quite a little account in postage stamps for this good work so I take the liberty

of enclosing threepence in stamps to cover the cost of your letter.’ To me that was 2 cents. ‘By now you are possibly moved from the Admiralty Islands group and those of us sufficiently fortunate to be in the safety of places like Sydney certainly wish you all the best wherever you go. With my husband interned in Shanghai, my mother interned in Yang-chou and apart from my brother in Hong Kong the rest of my

relations are in London and Plymouth, I certainly look forward to the end of the war as you can surmise. Once again many thanks, yours sincerely, Constance Doderidge. Mrs W.J. Doderidge.’ So she had a lot of tragedy there didn’t she when you think about it. Yeah poor woman. So we were lucky, even a lot of us. You know that people like her must’ve had a battle to get out of Hong Kong.

Yeah anyway. No I used to listen on the radio all the time. I’d try and pick up all sorts of things. Like I said, from my young days to now I still listen to that radio I love it.

Didn’t at the start I didn’t. I thought to meself, “One day I’d like to go back to Manus and have a look at it and see what it’s like, after the war there.” And I know I would’ve liked to have gone back because I knew where a lot of aircraft were and that. And there’s a point I never said to you – while were on Manus,

when World War 11 finished in Europe, we had another 3 months, or 4 months fighting the Japanese we started to dump aircraft. And we used to taxi fighters down the strip to a barge, waiting barges. When we were off duty we’d push them onto the barge, take them 3 miles out to sea and push them into the sea.

Bombers we used to do – we’d push them on and take them out and do it. And Catalina flying boats. They’re still in their crates in oil and grease we’d dump them. Because the Americans had an agreement with Australia – a lend lease agreement which meant that after the war we had to get rid of it all. So they could sell us new stuff. But a lot of it still hung around. But we dumped thousands

of aircraft. A lot of us were doing that, filling in our time, you know waiting to come down. And when I think back to those aircraft that are still in the sea, 3 miles off Manus. Way way down. But I bet a lot of them are still in good condition. Awful lot there. Yeah. What was the other question, I’ve forgotten.

No no we just let them go. This radio equipment that I’ve got here and things like that. I had about a dozen of those Bendix aircraft radios that I got from the Americans themselves. When I used to go over onto Manus Island itself in the barges I got to know the fellows in the radio shops there. And I talked to them and they’d say, “Yeah you can have this radio.” And they’d give them to me you know. Well I sent some down with a fellow to Sydney.

And he was to send them onto my home. Never did, never got them. He pinched them off me. Poetic justice. Anyway I had about 5 and I ended up giving some to different people. I’ve still got that one as a souvenir.

Oh I thought to meself, it felt like coming home sort of thing. You know back into the tropics again which was good. And I had visions of the – see the nearest place I could get to to Manus was Rabaul. So I went to Rabaul and I thought one day I’ll get back to Manus and have a look. I never did. But I really liked

Rabaul when I got there. It was a nice town. Beautiful town. Pre war it was beautiful. Big gardens there with stuff from all over the world. There was flowers and trees from all over the world and had a terrific set up there. And of course when we bombed it we bombed it out of existence you know. So we had to go there and the government was thinking about going to Kokopo, which is a town about 20 miles out of Rabaul

around the point and building there to get away from the earthquakes. But then they decided to stay in Rabaul. And us young fellows had the job of rebuilding, houses and all sorts of things. And that’s how it started. But the houses were a temporary affair made with timber but with paper wrapped – oiled paper around it. All had that and they’d paint that. And it’s only

in the last 10 or 12 years since they had the big earthquake that they shifted to Kokopo. Now Rabaul is next to nothing. And Kokopo is the big town now out of town.

Yeah

yeah it is. You think, oh now they’re got to start cleaning it up. And I can tell you a story I haven’t told you yet in Rabaul. Being interested in radio I said to a friend of mine, “Do you know where there’s any Jap radio stations here?” He said, “Yeah we got one on our plantation out at Kokopo.” And I said, “Well Peter can I come out and have a look?”

So this mate of mine that was with me here, Jack Cashey and myself we went out this day, one Saturday afternoon and he showed us the radio station and it was underground. Big cement, had roof like 2-foot thick on the top. We went down these stairs into it, we spent 4 hours going through the whole set up and there was transmitters everywhere. We’d open this one up, we’d get a motor out of it, we’d get a transformer out of it.

We’d leave the next one, we’d go to the next one and this is what we did for 4 or so hours. Went home and took that stuff home. And I was at a radio club meeting about 3 or 4 years later and I was telling them about this station and they said, “Oh can we go out there?” And I said, “Oh I’ll see Peter and I’ll see if you can come out there” you know. So I saw him a few months later at the pictures one night.

And I said to him, “Listen Peter can we come out to see that radio station?” He said, “Oh I’ve got a story to tell you about that.” I said, “What’s that?” He said, “A couple of Catholic priests came out about a year ago on a Sunday and had a look at it and wanted to know whether they could come out and get some parts.” Because being the Sabbath for them, they went down into it with him and they fiddled around and they said, “Oh we’d like to get some of these parts.” He said, “Okay you can come out.” He said, “Would you like a drink fathers?” “Yeah.”

“Come with me up the house.” They got up the house, the radio station blew up. They’d triggered a booby trap that had been there since the war. And Jack and I were there 4 hours and we must’ve missed that one, where it was triggered in. We would’ve been dead in 1953 if something like that – so we were lucky there. So they never did get to see the station. It was all smashed. They reckon the cement was about 2 foot deep

on the top and it fell in on the whole lot.

Oh they weren’t as big transmitters as ours. Ours was more – a better class of transmitter. More simplified to work on. Although the Japs built them fairly strongly and solid. I think our gear was better. Although going on that little transmitter there, well done

that they did. Probably much of a muchness. Yeah. I think our equipment was much better than theirs. I think possibly a lot of their stuff was built earlier too. Might’ve been built in the ‘30s or something. They used them in China and that sort of thing, you know. They were into China ’32 or ’34 or something. Fighting there.

Yes a few come there. One Japanese used to come there and he was – how did I get to meet him? He was a captain of a Japanese destroyer. And he was the Captain of this destroyer you know when President Kennedy’s PT [Patrol Torpedo] boat

was chopped in halves by one destroyer, he was on the other destroyer next to it. And he was telling us about it when it happened. And we got to meet him because – oh I think someone brought him to our house to meet us. And he – when he knew we were in the air force and he was in charge of the Japanese navy at Rabaul later on and that’s why he came back to Rabaul to have a look around. And

he wanted me to give him this radio equipment here for the museum in Japan. I said, “No way. I’m keeping it.” He could’ve got all he wanted. Anyway – but oh I had a bit of interaction. There was another Japanese that came there – Bill Fukoshita – he was a nice fellow. He run

– oh what was the radio? National Radios. He was selling them in Rabaul and trying to set up a business. And he was just down from us. And I went in there one day to buy a radio and he sold me this radio cheap and he sold me a fan cheap. And we got talking and he showed me pictures of his kid and wife in Tokyo. And he used to come to our place quite often there. There was my mate

Jack Cassie was his friend more than me – because Jack had got to know him before me. And we used to get him there. And then we got to know a Japanese lady who was married to an Englishman. Imiko. And she used to dress up in a kimono for my children when they were small. Young Susan thought it was great. She gave her Japanese dolls and she deciphered the words on that

radio for me. She went back to Tokyo – she wrote to us for a few years and then we lost contact with her.

Oh my feelings were, I had bad feelings towards them after the war when I heard what they’d done and when I knew what they’d done with our people – you know killed for nothing. But feelings like that die over the years.

They definitely do die. And now I talk to them, I do talk to them. I haven’t got bad feelings about it, it was a war and that’s it now. It’s the same with the German people. We all fight for our cause don’t you? No I haven’t had bad feelings for years.

Well it probably broadened my outlook on life – want to make me travel a bit or go out of the country and have a look around. That’s what it did to me. And I sort of was a young lad just working in the early days and the war broadened my outlook it certainly did. And that’s made a big difference to

my life. So much so that I wanted to move on and I even wanted to go further a field later on but I got settled in Rabaul. Set up the furniture factory and that was it. I just sort of stuck there for 25 years, 23 years.

No there’s not too many. Although we had quite a few in Rabaul. A lot of boys had got their discharge there, out of the army and that.

I had a mate there, Col Lee – he’s living in Rockhampton now but he was with me in works and housing. And he got his discharge from the army when they went into Rabaul after the war and took it over from the Japs. He got his discharge there. He was there till about 1953, ’54 and then he came back to Australia. But there was a lot of people there. Arthur Brown he got his discharge there, he was in the air force there. He stayed up there and built a hotel.

Yeah yeah there was a strong expat community in Rabaul. A lot of Chinese in Rabaul. Nice people. Good friends. A lot of mixed race people. It was a real cosmopolitan area.

Yeah. Yeah – I was in it during the war. 1943 I think I joined.

Yeah been in it a long time.

Well they had a good RSL there. And it was good – we all used to enjoy. We’d march all together, all ex-pat blokes and then we’d go to the RSL and they’d give you lunch. And Daph and the children’d come there. Oh yes we enjoyed it.

We were all real friendly people there. There was probably about 1,200 ex-pats. About 1,200 Chinese and about 400 mixed race people who were quite nice people too. We had good friends amongst them all and we all got along good. Quite good. I used to like going to the RSL. I used to like marching there.

Mm we’d

- we’d march 11 o’clock or 10 o’clock or something. 10 o’clock I think it was. And we’d march down through the town to the RSL and then we’d all sit there and they’d have people and they’d open up – and they’d have drinks and that and then we’d have a lunch, a cold lunch. And the kids’d be there, playing all together. Really good, a heck of a crowd there. And the Chinese people would come there, some of them, some of the mixed race’d come there. And the mixed race had a

club and we’d go there. And it was really good. I used to really like it because it was part of the war area. You know and different to down here it’s not in the war, up there it was. And it’s hard to explain.

Well I liked the Anzac

Days up there better. Although I go here and I enjoy it but I’m only here a few hours. There I’d stay all day. Because you’re with a lot of friends who were in the war and just come out of a war. You had lots of stories to tell each other. And the wives would listen and the kids’d be looking at you you know. But still it was of interest. Yeah.

Yeah well in those days it was a sadder time because it was so close to the end of the war. Now it’s in the past you know, it’s gone a long time to us. It’s 60 odd years now. 60? Yeah something like that. It’s a long time.

Oh I like it. I still think it should be shared with the youngsters. I like to see the children going, I like to see the chaps

that go to schools and talk to kids, this is good you know. To keep it going. Not because of war but of what we fought for, you know for our country. You don’t like war. You don’t glorify war. But you like to have people – kids know a lot about it and why we went to war you know. And I think a lot of the kids do now, they know now.

It’s growing on people more every year, there’s more and more going to it now. We go down here at the RSL – Anzac Day’s now early morning and there’s thousands there. I haven’t seen such a crowd. Every year it’s getting bigger. A lot of people go so that tells you something doesn’t it?

Quite good. Yeah if they want to know things I’ll tell them. I’ll interact with

them. Yeah quite good. There are a lot of good kids around who want to know things. They’ll ask your story, history and that. I’ve never been to a school. Sometimes I think I wouldn’t mind going and telling them stories but I haven’t done much compared to a lot of blokes that do go there. A lot of these blokes have really been in the thick of it. I got a mate here, every – do you know

what’s his… oh crikey. The bloke that writes poetry, young fellow. Barnie, Barnie McC… Rupert McCall. Rupert McCall’s grandfather, Barnie McCall, he’s a friend of mine and he was in the Middle East. And he was in Tobruk for 18 months. Now they were the boys that had it

hard. And Barnie used to march with us and now he’s too old and he comes and sits. And we all sit together at the RSL every year and Rupert comes and his father and his brother and we all have a natter. And they all say, “Poetry, Rupert.” And it’s very, very good what he made up himself. And old Barnie sits and listens and he made a lot up about Barnie his grandfather you know. And we

enjoy it. Really do now. Because we’re in a little click you know. But old Barnie’s going on down slowly. We all are.

Oh yeah. I think you’ve got to maintain an interest in something haven’t you? Or you do go downhill. Yeah you do.

Radio. Well I’ve been an amateur radio operator – well I’ve been into radio since I was 6 or 7. I built my first crystal set when I was about 8. Electrically. Interested in fixing up generators, pushbikes when I was a kid. I went on to become interested in radio with my cousins and then I went off into the RAAF. And then after the war I sat for my ham [amateur radio licence]

ticket about 40 odd years ago. I didn’t do it for a while because I was so busy in the workshop you know. I sat for the Ham ticket in Rabaul and got my amateur licence and set up a station. Found a new interest which was really good. Talking to people all over the world you know. And it’s – what can I say? It’s probably

renewed my interest in life because you meet that many different people, you never know who you’re going to meet tomorrow. You know King Hussein of Jordan, he was a Ham and I talked to him years ago from Rabaul. Oh heaps of different people. As I said, Paul Tibbett’s who was Captain of the Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb at Hiroshima, he was a Ham, I used to talk to him. And I had another Yankee friend

that lived in Guam. And you know when the Americans used to fly the big B52’s backwards and forwards and all around and the Russians were flying the Bear, their aircraft around following them, I got to know this pilot of the aircraft the B52. And Davey Wintle was his name and he talked me on the aircraft radio – they’d be 24 hours in the air and they’d be flying between New Guinea

and back up to Guam and all around the other way. Anyway he’d say, “Just a minute Arn I’ve got to switch to the official equipment.” And it had 30,000 channels on it and it would tune automatic itself. And it was so you could defeat – you know a bit of a signal on this one, you’d say, “I am,” and then bang you’d hit another button, “doing this,” bang, another one, and the Russian couldn’t get it. Because there’s 30,000

different frequencies. They would change to. Anyway he changed the official channels and then he’d come back to Ham gear and talk to me. And he said to me one night he said, “Arnie you’ve told me where you live. There’s a U2 floating down in Port Moresby.” He said, “I want to – I’m going to fly down tomorrow and bring a starter down for it. And I’ll buzz your place in Rabaul.”

And he did. He came down in this big B52 and he roared across the town of Rabaul, 3 times, 4 times over my workshop because he knew where I was and I’m on the air talking to him. While he’s doing it. And oh Jesus people were saying, “What’s going on here? Oh that bloody Arnie Nunn with his radio!” But it was good. And anyway he went back to America, he was transferred back. And he was

teaching calculus in Ohio State University. Never heard from him from that day to this. But you know good friend, made a good friend for years. Various other things, doctors you know.

Well I think my military service was a wonderful thing, it did me good. Even though

we had our bad times and my bad times weren’t anything compared to a lot of people. But I hope that what I’ve been able to tell you today will help with the archives or something I really do. And no I think it’s made me a better person.

Well I would have a message for them to try and stop wars, if they can. Peacefully. Don’t fight.

Do it by peaceful means. And I hope this message to the people that are fighting overseas now too. That’s bad. What they’re doing over there. It’s supposed to be religion. It’s not. It’s warfare, isn’t it? Out and out warfare. No, I can’t go for this. I won’t name people but I feel that the world is full of good people but they’re being led wrong,

I think. And that’s all I can say, ‘I think’. And thank you very much for coming here today and doing this. I appreciate it.