Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

In Fred's words...

Well now on to my childhood and my early recollections of life on the farm at Sunny Creek Trafalgar with Mum, Grandma and Auntie and of course sister Mavis and brother Jack. The men folk were away gold mining and timber getting while the women carried on the farm. Grandad died in 1919. I do not have any memories of my dad who died on new years day 1920 when I was eighteen months old. I started school at Sunny Creek in 1925 and finished in 1931, completing grade 8. 

Sometime in 1940 I enlisted for overseas service and after a brief period of training I was discharged from the Fortress Engineers and sent to Geelong, back to work again at the Ford plant which was now a munitions factory.  It was about a year later I enlisted again, this time as unemployed, and completed six weeks training to qualify for overseas service.

Gliding through blacked out Sydney our train pulled into Pyrmont Warf where waiting ferries were to take us out on the harbour to board this huge ship which loomed out of the pre-dawn darkness.  Being among the first onboard, I, with five others were given a two berth cabin onone of the first class decks.  The ship, Queen Elizabeth, was at that time the biggest ship afloat.  Troops poured on board till mid-afternoon when we were told that, including the crew of 1,500, there were 10,000 persons on board.

Out into the Tasman Sea and some time during the night the ship swung south, made a wide detour south of Tasmania, then set a course north west for Freemantle.  All this information was, of course, gleaned from members of the crew.  Ashore in Freemantle for a march through Perth.  Back on ship again and this time with another ship, Queen Mary, sailing side by side and escorted by the cruiser, Sydney, we were heading almost north to a point just off Malaysia.  Here, is seems, a decision had to be made whether to disembark troops at Singapore.  After seeming to steam round in circles for a few hours both ships and escort headed west,  Then a few days later sailed into the beautiful harbour of Trincomalee, on the island of Ceylon.

Three days refuelling there then at sunrise on the third day we lined the decks to cheer Sydney as she glided past on her way home after two years on patrol in the Indian Ocean.  But alas, fate determined otherwise and she was sunk with all her crew just a couple of hundred miles from home.

Out of Trincomalee we made a sweep south of India then towards the coast of Africa then north to the Gulf of Aden and then entered the Red Sea.  Then we disembarked off the coast of Egypt about a hundred miles east of Suez, climbing down the side of the ship on a rope net hung over the side in darkness and wondering when I was going to get my feet into one of the many Egyptian fishing boats that were waiting below to take us ashore.  It was then that I heard the first words of Arabic spoken.  I felt two hands touch my legs and the words “Quis, quis quis Kaleena” translated that meant “Good good very good” and I was in the boat.  Once ashore, “Just follow the man in front” was the order so for the rest of the night, the next day, and the next night, we trudged through what seemed to be uninhabited countryside and some time the following day we came to what appeared to be a hastily built train line with a waiting train emblazoned with the words ‘Egyptian State Railway” and we were on our way to arrive later that night on the outskirts of Cairo.

A brief look at the filthy crowded city then on towards Alexandria then after a few days waiting around, crossed the Suez Canal at El Kantara then on to a training camp in the Sinai Desert. Took my position along the north bank of the Canal. While there I was lucky enough to get leave to spend ChristmasEve in Bethlehem and then Jerusalem for a few days and a swim in the Dead Sea. Visit to Mount of Oliver then the place of the Crucifixion. Then a few days at Tel Aviv. By barge then from Gaza to Haifa then on to the Litani River in Lebanon. By road to a position near the bridge that was built by Ceasars legionnaires about two thousand years before. Then on to Beirut and Damascus in Syria and to Aleppo near the Turkish border. Settled into positions abandoned by the French Legionnaires and had months of inactivity and waiting, for what I do not know. The Army does not give reasons for its decisions.
By this time the Japanese had entered the ware and were advancing towards Australia. Early 1942 Australian troops were being withdrawn from the Middle East to return to Australia and New Guinea. It was six months later that we were ordered back to Suez, there to board a little old rusty Indian ship, “Rajula” and with 700 men aboard, set sail for Aden for fuel, only to find upon arrival the terminal was on fire. No alternative then but to head to India still out of fuel. Got within 24 hours sailing from Colombo when we ran out and luckily a British cruiser, “Gambia” came on the scene and towed the oldRajula into port. Leaking badly the old tub went into dry dock for repairs. This gave us time for a brief look around the island of Ceylon. Went up to Kandy where one of Bhudda’s teeth is enshrined on a golden altar in the “Temple of the Tooth”. Just maybe, but the locals worship it piously. But the countryside is very pretty.
By this time the old ship had been made seaworthy and refuelled so back on board out of Colombo harbour to join a convoy of seventeen ships of which Rajula was the smallest and slowest. Escorted by the Gambier we headed south east into the Indian Ocean, destination Freemantle, we hoped.
During daylight the ships would spread out just keeping within sight of each other, then at sundown the convoy would come together in three long lines. An escort would then prowl up and down the lines of ships, her position only revealed when she sailed through a patch of phosphorescence in the water. Then momentarily the ship would appear as though she was passing through a brilliant ray of sunshine. An uneventful voyage until about two days from landfall and one ship was sunk apparently by a submarine.
A brief stop in Freemantle then on to Melbourne, then by train to a training camp at Rutherford near Newcastle, NSW. Then again by train, on to Cluden race course near Townsville, QLD. After two weeks there we boarded a pretty little Australian ship, “Taroona” for the run up to Port Moresby, New Guinea.
From there to the southern end of the Kokoda Trackby truck as far as the Round waterfall on the Loloki River. from there to somewhere near Givens Corner.
Weeks before we got there the japs had been turned back and were retreating northwards towards Kokoda. So for the next two years my unit seemed to get to places where there was very little action.
Due for some leave from this place, some poet described as “This land of haunting beauty, of disease and sudden death” I was sent back to Brisbane for treatment for tropical ulcers on my back, aboard the American ship “Day Har”. I was taken to Cooparoo Camp hospital for treatment and based there for some time.

My wife and family settled on our dairy farm near Gympie for about 26 years, before moving to Warwick. I never felt completely content with life in retirement but daily I am reminded to count my blessings.

Looking back now there are many things I should have done differently, then I am reminded of those words written a Millenia ago “the moving finger writes and having writ moves on. All your piety cannot call it back to cancel half a line, nor all your tears wash out a single word”