Chapter 16

In the first three months of this year, 1946, I was still in the RAAF awaiting demobilisation. Although living with my folks, I reported regularly at the 4PD (personal depot) in Adelaide, sometimes having duties such as Orderly Officer thrust upon me. Despite the war being over and demobilisation being imminent, on 3/1/46 I got news that I was posted to Uranquinty as were Dal, Mal and Jenkins. My posting was held up as I was having X-ray treatment for acne but I learned that Dal and John Jenkins still had to go.
This was a great time socially for me. Having met so many Adelaide fellows there was always someone around for company. We played tennis, went swimming or to the cinema or to dances in the evening. My diary lists numbers of people with whom these activities were carried out, many of whom I have not met since. Strangely one friend of Bill Macintosh, namely John Dilmackie married one of the girls in one group and lives now at Southport and through her I recently met her old friend Noeline Wellington who featured from time to time in my diary.
Dal, Mal, Jenkins and Bill Holland featured largely during this period up till the start of the University year. I do not remember whether they had returned from Uranquinty or had never gone.
The Hughes family asked me to play tennis at their grandfather’s court and thus began a pleasant association of several years and much tennis. Mal worked in Elders where Harold Hughes was, and this may have been the introduction to the tennis. Another possibility was that Mr. Chinner from Dad’s office put us in touch.
I had resolved to go to the Uni under the auspices of the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training scheme (CRTS) and was about to study Economics, which appeared to be the coming career. However, one wise counsellor advised me that there would be more opportunities in Science and steered me towards that area. I have wondered how that conclusion had been reached, as Australia did not have any sort of reputation for Science that I was aware of. The idea was to do a general course in the first year and decide then what speciality to follow. I had enjoyed Science subjects at High School and had thought I might study chemistry.
However Uni did not start until March, so there was time to catch up on a social life I had never known. I had gone from school to RAAF with only six months in between spent working at F.H.Faulding in Adelaide. I had not had much chance as a newcomer to the city to make any friends or start a social life. The January of 1946 saw some high temperatures, often over the century Fahrenheit.
On February 7th I learned that since November 1945 (3 months) I had been commissioned and was now a Flying Officer. I was discharged around 12th March 1946, and started at Uni while still in uniform. Getting other clothes (civvies) was not so easy as clothes rationing was still on.
The diary becomes rather blank at this stage as the lectures started in earnest. I was taking Physics and Chemistry, Pure Mathematics 1 and Biology. After three years of absence from it, serious study was a lot harder for the fellows who had been in the Services than for those who had just left school. However we probably put more time into the study than the recent school leavers did. I say this despite the evidence of the diary that occasional dances and frequent games of tennis are mentioned. These seem to have been the main diversions until I started playing golf with Bob Gilfillan. In the vacation at the end of the year I was invited to spend time at Jamestown with the Gilfillans where we harvested wheat. The son of Bob's brother Gordon, Ian is now a Member of Parliament in South Australia. The experiences of tractor driving, bagging wheat, sewing the bags and lifting them on to trucks were new to me. I found it physically wearying as it went on all day with little respite from the summer heat, flies, dust and exhaust fumes, but I enjoyed it.
In January 1947 during the summer vacation it was time to consider along which path the Science course should go. With another student (BC) I interviewed some scientists and other University people. Gradually it evolved that a biological slant could provide a fruitful and interesting scientific career. Of the subject options, Bacteriology and Biochemistry were decided upon together with Organic Chemistry or Physiology.
With at least a month to wait before term began I was ready to take on a job. A kindly fate stepped in. There was a quarantine scare at the time amongst fruit growers. The Queensland fruit fly had been found in fruit trees in the suburbs of Adelaide. The powers that be decided on drastic measures to stop its spread and eventually eradicate the fly. Advertisements appeared urging unemployed persons to aid in the stripping of all the fruit from all the trees in Adelaide. Considering the magnitude of the task, these were drastic measures indeed. What followed was a military style operation with the hierarchy based on countless gangs of about 20, with a leader, to operate in defined neighbourhoods. Each day we were trucked to the area, given sacks and gloves and then led to the yards of the poor defenceless, but often obliging, residents. Although we were denuding the trees of fruit that they had been hoping to eat, the residents often laid on morning or afternoon tea. Nor were such occasions marred by the presentation of the tea in enamel mugs or imperfect china. Often the best tea services came out for the occasion accompanied by food in sumptuous portions. Despite the heat and the strenuous nature of our job, we were all young and fit, and cheerful banter pervaded the atmosphere. Also, we felt that we were doing an important job, and hence we were thorough in carrying it out. Even so there did occur on some occasions, fruit fights. Bored with throwing the fruit into sacks or bins, some pieces were directed as missiles to unsuspecting members of the gang. If return fire occurred a mini civil war would start. Such outbursts were quickly stopped, reflecting the self-discipline of the ex-servicemen. One or two young schoolgirls in our gang followed up the fruit-picking experience by having a reunion and party at a Ball later in the year.
In August vacation, Bob and I went to Jamestown where we spent about 7 days mostly playing golf. After this break we were back to lectures and swotting. As the year proceeded, socialising diminished.
From diary notes this second year passed pleasantly with each week having its share of lectures and home study, about which I was rather conscientious, but with time for golf, tennis and social activity. This usually consisted of a film or a ball or an evening party. From reading through old diary entries, there does seem to be a lot of social activity, but that is deceptive because the work side was just not recorded. The extraordinary thing that the diary reveals was the number of people I met during the social activities and hence the number I left behind when later I left to work in Brisbane. Rather late now in 1993 (and even in 1999) to think of it, but had one stayed, there would have been a large number of acquaintances and some friends available. At no time since have I made so many friends in such a short time. I guess we were all young and perhaps there was the feeling around that there was a new start being made after the war. Certainly there were large numbers of fellows of roughly the same age with a common background of service in the Forces and a new interest in education and employment.
My good friends at the time were Bill Holland, Daryl Halliday, Mal Shannon and John Jenkins. Over the years I have seen quite a bit of Dal and John but not more than one sighting of the others. This has to be corrected now, as only a fortnight ago Bill Holland called on us here in Burleigh, to my great pleasure. He is a dentist, just retired, at Port Lincoln in South Australia. On retirement he was interviewed by the local press and written up in that journal with a photo of him now and as he was in the RAAF. As it happened the only photo he had was one with me in it so I too made the Port Lincoln Times or whatever. Bill did not stay long, but we hope to catch up later in SA. He has, with wife Maureen (Gallagher) produced 11 children and has no fewer than 27 grandchildren. (Now make that 28). I should have asked him what he did in his spare time.
Of Mal Shannon a particularly likeable fellow, I have heard news from Alan Chenu and the Whitecrosses. Apparently he spent much time flying for small airlines in New Guinea and was accredited for all airstrips there, which was quite an achievement if you have seen the flying conditions that pertain. At one stage Mal joined Qantas to convert to Constellations but found that life was not for him. Where he is now we cannot determine. In fact, at this typing some years later, we have caught up with Mal again. He lives in Boondall, a suburb of Brisbane. Mal was a sturdy, blue eyed blond who was a good sprinter, a quiet but happy soul with an intense desire to fly. He cared little for the details of everyday life and was even clumsy in some of his activities more from the attitude that they were unimportant. As a result he fell victim to numbers of incidents of accident proneness, and gained the title of Clubber Shannon. A story is told of an episode in New Guinea that could only have happened to Mal. The refrigerator in the story was the type with a gas /kerosene flame activating the mechanism. It became faulty and folklore had it that on such occasions one should tilt the frig to the horizontal for a period and then restore it to vertical and relight the flame when it should work. Mal volunteered to tilt the frig and that is where it all went wrong. He grasped the refrigerator in a bear hug, and tilted it. Further and further it went steadily, but finally it fell with Mal underneath, both being forced through the floorboards of the room.
On one occasion I asked him to come home and have a drink with us. The usual greetings and formalities over, Mal was given a glass of beer as we sat to talk. It wasn't 5 minutes before Mal's glass was broken-just how I can't remember, but it illustrates the way things happened to him.
In December I learned that I had passed the examinations in Organic Chemistry 2, Bacteriology 1 and Biochemistry. The same day I noticed that there was a comet in the night sky. I am not sure whether that is a good or a bad omen.
For me the year 1948 started with a vacation job at the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science (IMVS), in the Bacteriology laboratory where samples from the Adelaide Hospital are tested. This was great experience in practical diagnostic work and stood me in good stead in later years. It also confirmed my feeling that Bacteriology would make an interesting career.
Soon after the exams were over in November, the permit to buy a new car came through after a wait of about 13 months. Dad, Mum and I flew to Melbourne in a Douglas Skymaster at the breakneck speed of 256 mph. From Melbourne we travelled by train to Geelong and then to the Ford factory. After picking up the car we drove to Colac. After an overnight stop we went on through Mt. Gambier to Robe for another overnight stop. Not noted in my diary was the speed at which the new car was to be driven. This was still in the days when new cars were “run in”. This meant that some designated speed, usually 30 mph, was the maximum speed allowed, but that variation in speed was also important to adequately “bed in” the new parts of the motor. The car was a 1948 Ford V8 sedan in pale blue. The registration number was SA 232-716. After being without as car for so long, Dad was in his seventh heaven. The car had a lot of power and ran smoothly. The country we saw on the way to Adelaide was new to us and thus very interesting as well as being attractive.
At the end of the year I learned that I had passed in all three subjects. All that swotting had paid off. During the “swot vac” I had averaged 10 hours of study daily over the 10-day period. The diary for 1948 lists quite a few summer temperatures over 100o F even into February.
Diary lists quite a few temperatures over 100o F. even into February, and there have been 53 days without rain. On 24/2/48 it was 106.3oF.
The job at IMVS lasted for a month and I had some vacation left before returning to Uni. classes and 3rd Year. Much of this time was used in tennis, swimming and cinema visits with friends. The fact of having been in the Services within S.A. and then the Uni. brought me into contact with many people of my own age and there was seldom any problem about companionship in these days.
Dad had an operation for hernia and spent a fortnight in hospital. He had never in his 60 years been in hospital before, so he faced it with some trepidation. It did not take him long to find that he enjoyed the attention of and flirting with the nurses. During this time a "hurricane" with winds of 81 mph hit Glenelg, and at last some rain fell. I was playing plenty of golf with various partners, and getting scores around the low 80's at North Adelaide.
As winter came on, so did dances and balls at week-ends. Around August we put exhibits into the Varsity procession. The preparations on the Thursday were hilarious and even more so on the day of the procession, Friday the 13th. The theme of our contribution was “Do not get typhoid in your milk supply”. There was a famous case of the spread of typhoid fever from a milkmaid who carried the bacterium. She earned the nickname Typhoid Mary. Various atrocious puns about lactating were on the placards. One due to me was something like “The udder side of the milk story”. Perhaps I could include some photos of my compatriots and myself in “drag” or in baby clothes.
Tim Barrett visited from Queensland in the hockey team and on Saturday we went to the Hockey Ball with Joan Holland and Sue Mander (Dixon). On most Saturdays there was some ball to go to.