This is my personal experience of my tour to Australia. Australia here I come.
I have read Gordon Wilcox’s “Back in time” in the Winter Atom Magazine and I think he missed out a bit on the Comet flight, but I’m pleased he had a safe journey. The Comet had a bad start in life.
When I volunteered, at RAF Hemswell, I was going to Australia. I too was posted to RAF Cliffe Pypard. There’s a pub not far from the camp, you go down a 20 degree slope to get there. Coming back up it was a nightmare but six of us managed it. We also took off from RAF Lynham but we went in an RAF 4 engine Hastings.
Boarding the plane I was met by an old school friend of mine who was stationed there. Actually he was there to greet me when I returned in March the next year. In our local pub in Grimsby every time I met him he would tell everybody
“I was there when he left and I was there when he came back”
The Hasting doesn’t fly very fast, and it’s noisy, we usually did a 7 or 8 hour trip. My first time in an aeroplane and I was sat by a window getting a good view of the scenery below, albeit there wasn’t a lot to make out at the height we were at, but where the sea meets the land and the towns and villages we flew over were impressive. Over the desert parts I kept my eye open for camel trains, I didn’t see any though. The plane wasn’t pressurised but we were not allowed to smoke.
The first day took us to Tripolitania. Miniwauller’s Grand Hotel is where we stayed the night just outside of Tripoli. We knew we were in a different country when we stepped off the aircraft. The heat was intense.
At the hotel it was a breath-taking trip the fifty yards across the courtyard to the restaurant. I should have said breath holding because the Camel stables where along the left side of the courtyard. Four of us got a taxi into Tripoli and drove along what looked like a promenade alongside the beach. We didn’t stop as we were put off by the armed police. At least we had a look.
We took off the next morning heading to Habbanyah in Persia, which is now Iraq, which is an RAF camp. It looked like it was in the desert. Bagdad was about 20 miles away. If we wanted to go we were informed that the best thing to do was hitch hike a ride on a camel. We didn’t bother.
We took off the next morning, heading for Bombay, now Mumbai. We didn’t go far when we turned around, jettisoning fuel as we went back to Habbanyah. One of the engines had a fault. We stayed there all day and night while the faulty engine was investigated. It was found that the fault couldn’t be repaired until we reached Singapore. We wandered around the camp most of the day, in the desert heat. We did find a scorpion but gave it a wide berth as they can be dangerous. I spent some time sun bathing, getting used to the heat.
The next morning we took off with four engines and when we levelled off at height, the faulty engine was turned off. It was still desert to begin with so I had a nap but it did improve and we flew over more greenery and civilisation.
We stopped at Bombay, now Mumbai, for a short period of time and were taken to a hotel for a meal before flying on to Negombo in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. Most of the flight we went along the coastline and the views were very good. We stopped at an RAF camp again. Some of us went for a walk around the area and we passed some coconut trees. There were coconuts on the ground and as we went over to them a chap said, in good English, “don’t pick them up they’re privately owned”, so we walked away.
We saw a lot of local people, some women in colourful dresses.
The next morning we took off as before, 4 engines until we gained height then 3. We were heading to Singapore, mainly crossing over the sea so the views weren’t up to much until we reached what I found to be West Sumatra, and then a short distance to Singapore.
We stayed in Singapore, at RAF Changi, for 3 days while the engine was repaired. What a place Singapore was.
If you have never been to a place like it then you haven’t lived. It’s all hustle and bustle no standing still. Sellers will follow you down the street trying to sell you their wares. Cameras, Watches, Jewellery and you don’t accept their price. Everything is bartered for. What a place and that was and it was only Changi Village, I never got to see Singapore that time. I never realised what was outside of England. Fortunately I was posted to RAF Seletar, in Singapore, for two and a half years in 1965, with my wife, so we got to have a good look.
Finally we set off to Darwin on Australia, with 4 working engines. It was mostly sea we were flying over and an occasional island.
We landed at an RAF camp outside of Darwin, just in time for the evening meal. From my limited knowledge I could tell we were in Australia. Back home I knew it as were the mutton came from, I wasn’t wrong. Our plates were full of mutton, not much room for veg. It was very good though. Some of us decided to go into Darwin, a few miles away. We managed to get lifts in cars going that way. Darwin was not what we expected. It wasn’t very big but spread out a lot. There was only one pub/hotel, so that’s where we went. It was terrible in 1974 when a cyclone devastated the city. It had grown a lot by then to what it was when we were there.
Off we went the next morning on the last leg of our journey. We were heading to Edinburgh Field near Adelaide in South Australia. What a trip though, most of it over desert again. The plane was bouncing about, dropping suddenly as it hit volumes of thin air. A lot of the chaps couldn’t eat their packed lunch so I got extra as I wasn’t upset by it. I was going to sea in the Grimsby Trawlers for two years and never sea sick. Then here we were Edinburgh Field, I think it was RAAF Edinburgh Field, part of AWRE Australian Weapons Research Establishment.
Well here I am and the rest of the ground crew. Our first thing was an induction course. The first thing we were told was to wear long sleeved shirts and long trousers between the hours lf 11:00am and 3:00 pm. Getting sunburnt is a self inflicted injury and you will be on a charge. The aircraft were Canberra’s, In my short time in the RAF I have only worked on Lancaster’s and Shackleton’s, both are propeller aircraft. The Canberra is jet engine different but after a while with guidance I became efficient at the pre-flight and after-flight and general maintenance. The usual routine each morning was to carry out the pre-flight checks on aircraft that would be flying that day.
Some of the aircraft had been in service at Maralinga, in central Australia, on Nuclear Testing exercises. They were brought closer to our tents and our task was to clean off any radioactive dust. I don’t recall wearing any special equipment, just the khakis. Neither can I recall having any “dose meters”. A scrubbing brush and a bucket of water was what we used. A good scrubbing then every so often we would hose it all down and test the area with a Geiger-counter. Any readings then go through the cycle again. This was a regular thing all the time the other aircraft were away.
I had the occasional trip into Adelaide, a regular visit was to an ice cream parlour, I think it was in Kings Street. Lovely place Adelaide, but my normal visit on a Sunday afternoon was to Salisbury, about 4 miles from camp, a nice stroll for a couple of Aussie beers at the only pub then the walk back.
The AWRE was a big area, the actual scientific part was away from the RAAF camp and totally fenced off. One fine sunny Sunday me a chap called Jack went off with our cameras to see if we could photograph snakes. I think all snakes in Australia are poisonous. We were walking in tall grass, not far from the fencing, when a land rover drove across to us. Three Army looking police got out and asked us what we were up to. We told them photographing snakes. They didn’t believe us and took us to the AWRE gatehouse. They took the films out of our cameras. After a while they let us go.
We wandered further away from the site and in the distance we heard motorcycle engines revving up. We got nearer and found what I think was a motocross race track. We stayed a while to watch then found the main road back to camp.
Myself and one of the crew, Jack, took a weeks leave and went on the overnight train to Melbourne. We stopped ar the YMCA just opposite a park alongside the Yarra River. We spent a few days exploring Melbourne and then we hitch-hiked back to camp. One point we were dropped off at was Ballarat, an early gold mining area. There was a plaque by the side of the road telling all about it. The last part of the journey was eye opening although we didn’t see any wildlife, the trip through the 90 mile desert and the Adelaide Hills, passed Donald Bradman’s house, was an experience.
We carried on servicing the aircraft, and cleaning them until, I think it was late March 1957 when we were told we were going to Christmas Island. That sounded fine to me. I think we flew on an Australian airline, initially to RAAF Amberly, near Brisbane Queensland. Being young as we were, we had to explore. A lot of us managed to get lifts into the nearest town, which I believe was Newcastle. We were catching the train to Brisbane and had time to spare so we went into the nearest pub. Well when we walked in the door and ordered pints our dialect let us down. Well not really, all the customers were immigrants from the UK. They wouldn’t let us pay for our drinks, we could have stopped there all night but the train was arriving so we had to leave. In Brisbane we went to a nightclub sort of place which had been recommended, and had a good night. I think we got taxis back to camp.
Next morning I woke up with 13 gnat bites, we had mosquito nets but they hadn’t worked. I was itching all day. We took off heading I believe to a Pacific island, I don’t remember which one, to refuel, and then we carried on to Fiji. We stopped overnight at a hotel in Nandi Village.
Another fantastic experience was drinking Kava, the then national drink. We went into a barn and sat around in a circle cross legged, with some of the locals while two elderly ladies were in the centre stirring a big bowl. After a while a bowl of liquid was given to each us. It had a strange taste but I drank it all anyway. They say it was alcoholic but I think that sitting around cross legged and then standing up, could make one feel dizzy.
That wasn’t the end though. With my blonde hair and blue eyes I was looked upon like a god, especially by the children. I was taken to a local wedding ceremony and lots of people came to look at me, mind you I didn’t know what they were saying about me. They offered me a drink and I said I would like a cup of tea. It tasted like Kava. There was a lot of dancing going on but I don’t know if the bride and groom were there. I think it was nearly midnight by the time I got back to the hotel.
The next morning we took off to Christmas Island. We left Fiji on Saturday morning and arrived on Christmas Island on Friday night. We had crossed the International Date Line and gained a day.
Part 2 next week.
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