Now with the wet firmly set in, with its
relentless daily downpours making everything miserable, even travel
on horseback was very difficult. Everyone knew there was little
likelihood of a Japanese landing in such conditions, or of being
relieved by another section for several months. The only thing to
look forward to was the arrival of the supply vessel bringing fresh
food and mail. And with Christmas looming, everyone was concerned
that poor weather, or a tropical cyclone would delay the arrival of
the boat or even prevent it from coming at all. For the men of
Joe’s section, just getting through each day of their deprived and
isolated existence had become almost unbearable. The only exception
was Snow. For the Aboriginal tracker, life at Eagle’s Nest was just
fine.
*
One morning in early December, Koko was given
just ten minutes notice to gather up his personal belongings before
being transported from the internment camp at Hay to the prisoner
of war camp at Cowra. When he climbed into the back of the waiting
Army truck he found Yakimoto’s group of airmen were already aboard
and sitting under the watchful eyes of two armed guards. Behind the
truck, four more armed soldiers sat inside another vehicle waiting
to escort the prisoners to Cowra.
Yakimoto seemed surprised that Koko was being
transferred to the prisoner of war camp and soon after the truck
left Hay he began to make conversation. He spoke in Japanese and
for the first time he showed Koko a degree of friendliness. Koko
put Yakimoto’s sudden change of attitude towards him down to his
transfer to Cowra being confirmation of his status as a bona-fide
Japanese prisoner of war.
By mid-afternoon the small convoy reached the
main gate of the purpose-built POW camp. It was situated just
outside the small town of Cowra on a grassy plain in farming
country and had been originally constructed when the Commonwealth
government had acceded to a British request to have European
prisoners of war housed in Australia. The concerns of the country
folk living in and around Cowra at having a Japanese POW camp in
the their community were eased by the presence of a nearby
Australian Army infantry training camp.
After the relatively relaxed atmosphere at
Hay, Koko was filled with foreboding by the grim scene that greeted
him when he climbed down from the truck. The austere-looking
facility was situated inside a huge circular enclosure nearly
half-a-mile in diameter. The perimeter was fenced with high barbed
wire and there were elevated guard posts with searchlights spaced
at regular intervals along it. Inside the fence were four
equal-sized compounds, also fenced with barbed wire, and separated
by two strips of no-man’s-land.
In each of the compounds there were long rows
of barrack type huts. Two of the compounds housed Italian
prisoners, both very crowded. The other two compounds were set
aside for Japanese prisoners but many of the huts were empty. Koko
soon found that he and the airmen from Hay were among the first
Japanese to arrive at Cowra. The few other Japanese prisoners in
his compound had been captured in the ill-fated landing at Milne
Bay and on the Kokoda Track in New Guinea.
In the days and weeks that followed, more
Japanese prisoners began arriving. All spoke at length of their
shame at being captured, but the stories they told gave Koko an
indication of how the war was going. When, towards the end of
December, the first prisoners arrived from Guadalcanal, Koko knew
things must be turning in favor of the Allies.
PART THREE
CHAPTER
TWENTY
Faith buried herself in her work after
hearing the terrible news about Dan. It was only by keeping her
mind busy that she was able to deal with her sorrow and keep her
emotions in check. She found herself almost grateful for the
enormous work load she was always carrying at headquarters and she
seemed to start earlier and finish later almost every day.
Faith’s hard work was appreciated by Major
Hunter and she knew he went out of his way to show his gratitude,
sometimes by driving her home after they had both worked late. And
he was always friendly and considerate, particularly on days when
she found it difficult to hide her sadness. Although she had never
mentioned Dan to anyone at headquarters other than Gus Welenski,
she suspected the sergeant must have told the Major about him.
By Christmas, Faith was coping better and she
spent the festive season in a pleasant but subdued atmosphere at
New Farm. With Mike away from home for the first time, doing his
basic training somewhere in New South Wales, Dick and Helen found
the house sadly empty without him despite Faith's presence. After
the awful news of Dan and with the frequent arrival of ships at the
docks with casualties from New Guinea and Guadalcanal, Helen and
Dick had constant reminders of the dangers that lay ahead for their
son.
But their concerns were forgotten for the
moment when Helen answered a knock on the door on New Years Eve to
find Mike standing outside, grinning from ear to ear, and wearing
the uniform of a private in the Australian Army Service Corps. Dick
and Helen were overjoyed that Mike hadn’t been inducted into an
infantry regiment like so many new conscripts. With her uncle and
aunt being firm pacifists, Faith could see that rested so much
easier on their minds. At least as an ASC dispatch rider he was
part of a medical unit which had the responsibility to save lives
rather than destroy them. Mike had six days leave and the family
made the most of his stay. Faith only wished fate had allowed Dan
to be there too.
Helen couldn’t hold back her tears the
morning Mike left to go back to camp. His train left Roma Street
Station very early but Faith, Helen and Dick were all there to wave
him goodbye. The platform was crowded with soldiers and Faith could
see that Mike was embarrassed by his mother’s show of unbridled
emotion. But he hugged her tightly, then shook his father’s hand
and turned to boarded the train quickly before his own emotions
betrayed him.
*
It was just five minutes walk from the
station to headquarters. Although it was still very early when
Faith arrived, Major Hunter was already in his office. As always,
he looked immaculate in a neatly pressed uniform and without a hair
out of place. When he saw Faith he smiled and beckoned to her to
come inside.
‘Good morning, Faith.’ Hunter gestured
to a chair across the desk from his own, then closed the office
door and sat close to her on the edge of the desk. He folded his
arms across his chest ‘I’d just like to let you know that I
appreciate everything you’re doing here,’
he said
softly.
‘Thank you, Major. I enjoy the work. I’m glad
to do whatever I can. I…’
‘Look…’ Hunter broke in. ‘I know how tough
it’s been for you lately. Sergeant Welenski told me about the
officer on Guadalcanal.’
‘Yes, I thought perhaps he had.’ Faith stood
up to leave. ‘Everyone in the office has been so kind.’
Hunter got up from the desk. ‘I was hoping
that perhaps you would start taking it a little easier, Faith—stop
working quite so many hours.’
‘Oh, I don’t mind, really. And there is so
much to do here.’
‘I know that, but I do think you should try
and relax a little more. Why don’t you start by having dinner with
me tonight? They say since General MacArthur has been living at
Lennon’s Hotel, it’s the best place in Australia to eat.’
Faith was so surprised she didn’t know what
to say. She was about to respond when Gus Welenski stuck his head
inside the office with a tray of papers in his hand ‘Oh, I’m sorry,
sir,’ he said apologetically. ‘I didn’t realize you were in
already.’ He laid the paper tray on Hunter’s desk. ‘These
requisitions need your attention, sir.’
‘Speaking of requisitions, Welenski, ’ Hunter
said as the sergeant turned to leave, ‘get hold of the motor pool
and make sure there’s a staff car available for me tonight. Miss
Brodie and I are dining at Lennons.’
‘Yes, sir.’
Welenski glanced quickly at Faith. Just for a
moment she thought she saw disappointment in his eyes.
*
By late January, the Nackeroos at Eagle’s
Nest would gladly have eaten the table scraps from the restaurant
in Lennon’s Hotel. The small craft which was supposed to bring
fresh food and mail from Roper Bar never arrived. Regional
headquarters advised that a vessel had started out but had broken
down somewhere along the hundred miles of navigable water between
Roper Bar and the open sea. Christmas dinner at Eagle’s Nest
consisted of tinned bully beef, tinned carrots and tinned peas.
When yeast and ground-up Army issue vitamin supplement tablets,
designed to prevent skin ailments, were mixed with it, everything
tasted the same. Everyone said it was the worst Christmas dinner
they had ever had.
By mid-February the supply boat still had not
arrived. Regional headquarters said monsoonal weather across the
entire Top End had forced several supply vessels to remain at
distant Nackeroo outposts in the Northern Territory and Western
Australia awaiting favorable sailing conditions. In the meantime,
all sections still awaiting shipments of supplies were told to do
their best to live off the land until provisions arrived.
Old Snow saw to it the section never went
hungry. He caught extra fish, a few snakes, birds and lizards, and
he skinned crocodiles that Joe shot around the mouth of Rosie
Creek. Smokey Peters, the farrier from the Kimberley, baked all the
fresh meat offerings in the deep glowing ash of an open wood fire.
He also baked slabs of rock-hard, tooth-chipping damper which he
called ‘West Australian waffles’ until he ran out of the basic
ingredients.
During the wet the only relief from the
intense heat and choking humidity was the usual evening downpour.
The heat was so intolerable that the men wore no clothing at all
during the day. But around dusk, swarms of mosquitoes and sand
flies usually made it impossible to spend more than a few seconds
outside the insect nets without being eaten alive. Green leaves
were always thrown on the fire at mealtimes because the dense smoke
they produced provided temporary relief from the pests which bit
right through protective clothing, even an extra shirt.
What had started out as boredom with the
daily routine at Eagle’s Nest had turned into a full-scale battle
for survival and everybody longed for the day when their turn came
to go to Katherine as the reserve company. Over time, all traces of
being a military unit had disappeared. The section looked more like
a gang of wild bush-rangers than soldiers. No-one had had a hair
cut since Katherine and no-one could remember when they had last
shaved or when the soap had run out. The only thing to remind them
they were soldiers in the Australian Army was the mandatory daily
radio contact with Roper Bar.
Weasel found the extreme conditions the most
distressing. Unlike the rest of the men, he had never experienced
the harsh, unforgiving environment of the Far North. He even found
it hard to accept that the inhospitable and hostile emptiness that
surrounded him was really part of Australia. He often told Joe it
wasn’t the Australia he joined up to fight for. As far as Weasel
was concerned ‘if the Japs wanted the bloody Top End they could
bloody well have it.’
Good news came out of the blue one morning,
when regional headquarters advised that the section was to be
relieved in late March and would return to Roper Bar aboard the
same vessel bringing the new section to Eagle’s Nest. The bad news
was that there was still no vessel available to transport supplies
to Eagle’s Nest, but a wide range of provisions had made it
overland to the Company C post at Borroloola, thirty miles to the
south-east. Joe was told that conditions permitting, he should send
a pack-horse patrol to pick them up.
Joe asked Snow if he’d ever been to
Borroloola and if he thought a patrol could get there and back
safely in the wet. Snow said he had been to the tiny settlement on
the MacArthur River years earlier and reckoned a horse patrol was
likely to get in and out okay although it might be tough going. Joe
told Smokey and Snow to prepare to leave the next morning and asked
for a volunteer to go with them. Neither Tasker nor Weasel showed
any interest until Snow said there was a pub and a store at the
settlement. Then both of them wanted to go.
*
Snow set off at a steady trot for Borroloola
with Smokey and Weasel following behind on horseback, trailing two
packhorses. Tasker, who had lost the toss of a coin when deciding
who went with Smokey, stood outside the radio hut with Joe and
watched them ride away. Weasel looked glad to be leaving Eagle’s
Nest behind him and for once seemed to forget his fear of
horses.
The going was easier than expected, with Snow
guiding the patrol directly across large areas of sparse scrub,
over rocky ridges and around occasional low lying swamps where the
horses and men stopped to drink their fill. By nightfall they had
covered more than half the distance. There was no rain that evening
and they camped under a clear starry sky, fanned by a gentle
breeze. Away from the coastal lowlands, the night air was
mercifully free of sandflies and mosquitoes. The next day went much
the same as the first and by mid-afternoon the column of horses
reached Borroloola.
Weasel couldn’t hide his disappointment as
they rode down the dusty main street. The settlement was much
smaller than anyone had expected. It was nothing more than a few
ramshackle, clapboard shacks, a shabby general store, a two-man
police station and a small run-down pub. Smokey asked an old man
sitting on the steps of the pub where the Nackeroo camp was and the
old timer pointed his beer bottle towards the end of the
street.