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From Victorian Aboriginal Service in WW1

David Mullett, Service No. 500
Posted by VICGOVAboriginalWW1, Tuesday, 24 May 2016
SUMMARY

David Mullett was one of many Gunditjmara men from the Victorian Western District who volunteered to fight in the First World War. David was an intelligent and resourceful man, who prior to enlisting had attempted to carve out a career for himself as a school teacher and then a farm manager. The discrimination and racism he faced when pursuing a teaching career forced David to seek other work. The war presented an opportunity for gainful employment and wages equal to that of a white man. David served overseas for four years in the 1st Remount Unit of the Light Horse Brigade. Like other Aboriginal men serving our country, David returned from the war to find that this service did not protect his family from the very significant impacts of the discriminatory Aborigines Act 1915 (Vic) which gave the government wide reaching and invasive powers over the lives of Aboriginal people.

EARLY LIFE

David Mullet was born in 1872 at Lake Condah Aboriginal Mission to James and Ellen Mullett (nee Dutton). As a boy David excelled at the Lake Condah mission school and for a period he taught at the school. Family members recollect that he later attended the Napier St Teachers’ College in Melbourne and passed his teaching exam with flying colours. He then applied for a job at a school in the Melbourne suburbs but was rejected on the grounds that he was Aboriginal. This was a real blow to David and an end to his teaching aspirations. Only one other Victorian Aboriginal man, Joseph Wandin, is known to have worked as a teacher in the state school system in this period.

In 1904 David Mullett married Emily Maud Stephens, known as Maud, the eldest daughter of Emily Milton Stephens (nee Wood) and Harry Stephens. Two of Maud’s brothers also enlisted in the AIF Gilbert Stephen and Alfred Stephen.

David and Maud sought an independent life outside of Aboriginal reserves. In 1914, they were caretakers of a farm near Tarrawarra in the Yarra Valley. David was ‘in charge of about 1500 acres of land, stocked with sheep and cattle’. The farm was not far from the Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve which was home to many relatives and friends.

David was saving money to buy a house but his luck changed when he lost his job at Tarrawarra. The family moved to Melbourne and were living in a rented house in Carlton when David enlisted in November 1915.

ENLISTMENT AND WAR SERVICE

David enlisted at the Maribyrnong military camp in Melbourne. Maribyrnong was the depot of the Victorian Remount Unit of the Light Horse Brigade, and became known as Remount Hill. David was experienced with horses and the Remount Unit accepted men up to 50 years of age. At the age of 43, David was among the older AIF volunteers and and his wife had four children under the age of 15.

A week after enlisting David embarked the ‘Orsova’ in Melbourne and landed several months later in Alexandria, Egypt. For the next four years he was stationed at the remount depot at Jaffa Moascar, Egypt. During this time he developed a heart condition and was judged unfit for continued service. In May 1919, David disembarked in Melbourne and was discharged from the military on 7 July 1919. He was 47 or 48 years old.

AFTER THE WAR

Upon returning to Melbourne, David found out that his children had been removed from the care of his wife, Maud, and ‘boarded out’. It is unclear if he knew of these events while serving in the war. The removal of Aboriginal children in Victoria was widespread at this time, and men’s war-time absence made families more vulnerable to official intervention. Whilst he was away, the Board for the Protection of Aborigines (the Board) had also cancelled Maud’s military allotment (payment).

On 22 May 1919, Maud wrote to the Secretary of the Board to contest this decision. In her letter, she pointed out her family’s history of independence from the government:
‘David never Enlisted from the mission we are out earning our own living like white people’

The Board would not be swayed on its decision to deny Maud’s allotment of military pay and as a result she suffered great financial hardship.

Once reunited, David and Maud moved into a house in the Victorian Western District with some assistance from the Board and the Defence Department. Although they had set up a home, their children remained in institutions and as domestic servants in the homes of white people.

During the world-wide economic depression of the 1930s David and Maud requested permission to move onto the Lake Tyers Aboriginal Mission where some of their children and grandchildren lived. Reliant upon intermittent seasonal rural work, the depression deeply affected Aboriginal families. Despite this hardship, the Board denied the family’s request as, according to Victorian legislation, ‘half castes’ were ineligible for government support.

David moved around a lot over these years, as did many Aboriginal people looking for work, but he played an important role in the lives of his grandchildren. He passed on his traditional knowledge and skills to the young Albert Mullett, who would grow up to be an important educator and activist for Aboriginal cultural heritage.

In March 1938 David Mullett was living in the New South Wales South Coast town of Bega when he wrote to the military about several matters. He had lost his discharge certificate and wanted a duplicate in order to apply for an old-age pension, as he was only receiving £1/1/0 per fortnight (approximately $2.50) as a military pension. David also wished to attend the Anzac Day march in Sydney. He wanted to ‘wear the old uniform once more’ and asked ‘if there is any chance of being equipped with one (‘an old one would do’). The officer in charge at the base records replied that he could not assist him with application for a pension, or provide him with a uniform. David died a few months later in Bega and is buried in the Bega cemetery. His name appears on the Lake Condah Honour Roll as well as the Honor Roll at the Healesville Town Hall.

FAMILY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Margaret Donnelly
Doris Paton
Charmaine Singleton


SOURCES

Grimshaw, Patricia, Elizabeth Nelson
and Sandra Smith Letters from Aboriginal Women of Victoria, 1867–1926, Melbourne:
History Department, University of Melbourne 2002,
https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/42073/letters_complete_b5.pdf?sequence=1

Letter from David Mullett to Captain Page NAA B313 Item 117

David Mullett Military Record NAA: B2455, MULLETT DAVID
http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/NameSearch/Interface/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=4817821

Oral interview, ‘Living as Koori in Victoria’ interview with Albert Mullet by Wayne Atkinson, The Koori Oral History Program ,State Library of Victoria,1989
http://www3.slv.vic.gov.au/latrobejournal/issue/latrobe-43/t1-g-t2.html

Exploring Military History: http://exploringmilitaryhistory.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/remount-units-world-war-i.html?m=1

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT VICTORIAN ABORIGINAL MEN IN WORLD WAR ONE VISIT THE VICTORIAN ABORIGINAL WW1 RESEARCH PROJECT HOMEPAGE, SEE LINK ON SIDE BAR OF THIS PAGE.

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