ROBERT ERNEST DAVIES

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EARLY DAYS

Following the death of our father, the family moved to Daylesford (Vic). It being in the middle of the so-called Great Depression and in the absence of a Widows Pension, our mother was obliged to earn a living. She opened a small shop (morning and afternoon teas and confectionery etc) from which she scratched out a living while the four kids went to local schools.

In 1930, the family went back to Melbourne and lived in a succession of rented houses, mostly in the southern suburbs of Melbourne. Often our stay in a house was of very short duration, as it was necessary to chase cheaper rental I believe. Both John (Jack) and I attended Melbourne Boys High School while Frances and Shirley (the twins) went to Prahran Technical School.

Jack having matriculated, studied Accountancy part-time whilst working with various firms in Melbourne. The twins each became Nurses at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, each completing the three year course of training.

AFTER SCHOOL

I matriculated at the end of what is now known as 11th year, which was the usual thing in those days. On leaving school I took a job as a Junior Clerk with a branch of Imperial Chemicals Ltd and stayed with them until the start of the second World War.

One of the conditions of employment was that one should study Accountancy part-time so I started the course with the objective of completing it in five years. However, after three years, the War started. I was then 18 years of age and could not enlist for overseas service without the written consent of my Mother so decided to join the militia for full time service --- this was for service in Australia only and did not require consent. I spent almost a year in this way and became a corporal and then a sergeant. It was made clear to me that if I joined for overseas service, I would be given a commission so went to the appropriate place and signed up, putting my age up to 21 which meant that my mothers signature wasn�t needed.

SECOND A.I.F

At this stage there was rapid expansion of the Second AIF and they weren�t being too fussy about written consent etc. So after a week or two, I was commissioned as a Lieutenant and put on the fast track for movement to the Middle East, We travelled in comparative luxury in the 85000 ton Queen Mary. The next two years saw me in what was then known as Palestine, Egypt, Syria and the Lebanon. Four months after the Japs entered the war, our units were shipped back to Australia.

After a very slow voyage back to Australia, mainly due to bad weather, we arrived in Fremantle to find that we really weren�t expected as wed been so long out of touch --- the dear old Army more or less thought that wed come to a sticky end.

There was considerable messing about and changes of plan before the decision was made to send our Brigade group to Darwin. And there we stayed for about 7 months. There were a few air raids during that time but none of our crowd were hit.

During that time I was detached from my own unit and loaned to an Infantry Brigade Headquarters as a Liaison Officer --- not a bad job and my own unit was only about twelve miles up the road so I wasn�t too far away from my mates. Part of my duties as Liaison Officer meant that I was the contact man between HQ 19th Brigade and a Beaufighter squadron operating from a field named Coomalleigh Creek, about 30 miles south of Darwin. One of the flight commanders was an old school mate (Don Rose) who on finding I�d never been up in an aircraft decided to rectify the matter. This aircraft had a crew of two only, so for my illicit flight, I had to go in through the hatch in the floor then once that was closed, stand on it and hang on to the back of the pilot�s seat. My several flights were searchlight co-operation flights over Darwin and the major problem was that there was no way in which the illegal passenger could be supplied with oxygen if we went above about 10,000 feet. Don thought this over and told me that if I felt at all crook, just punch him on the arm --- all very scientific. I survived!

A 31 Squadron Beaufighter at Coomalie field

At the end of my stay in Darwin, I was sent to the RAAF School of Army Cooperation in Canberra to spend six weeks learning how to be an Air Liaison Officer. Quite good really --- 10 Army officers and 10 pilots all of whom had been in the Middle East. Lectures every morning then in the afternoons we�d do various training exercises flying around the general area in Wirraways

Then to the Atherton Tableland in North Queensland where I confidently thought I�d be sent to a job as an Air Liaison Officer. However that�s not the way the Army works and I was given a temporary job as Liaison with a new Brigade Group which had been formed to accommodate the two Militia battalions which had done a fantastic job in belting the Japs on the Kokoda Track. Really the purpose of the exercise was to teach them how to put up with the bulls--t they�d now have to comply with now they were AIF units. Those guys were real soldiers. In time, of course I had to return to my parent unit in time to go to New Guinea with them.

So--- aboard the troopship DUNTROON and off to the north coast of New Guinea to scramble down cargo nets hanging down the side of the ship to get into small barges to be taken ashore. Our Division was in action in the 100 mile stretch between Aitape and Wewak with the very tall Torricelli Mountains making life difficult. However the Army used its loaf for once and I was posted to a RAAF supply dropping unit as its Liaison Officer. I enjoyed this and used to fly most days with the �biscuit bombers� assisting with the navigation. However the fickle finger of fate awaited me!!

About a year before this, the British Army asked the Australian Government to let it have 1000 officers of the rank of lieutenant or captain, with jungle experience, to be discharged from the AIF and re-enlisted in the British Army for service in Burma. Our people said no way to 1000 but you can have 200. 1 think that at that time (late 1944) nearly every young officer applied --- including me. As the months went by, nothing happened except all of us had to front up to War Office Selection Boards Deafening silence followed.

One night, down at a place called Cape Wom where we were actually engaged with the Japs, I received a signal from our Divisional HQ to make my way back to Aitape and arrange with the RAAF to fly me back to Australia for early movement to India. I WAS TO MAKE ALL MY OWN ARRANGEMENTS

There was an American landing ship unloading stores offshore so I went down and virtually thumbed a ride back to Aitape and organised with the RAAF to fly me back to Sydney -- all very unofficial, of course.

During my couple of days in Aitape, I remembered that my Mother had told me in a letter that one Lila Rowley was now serving in New Guinea with 2/11 AGH.

Enquiries revealed that 2/11 AGH was in Aitape, so I phoned the SISTERS� Mess and arranged to meet the lady in question and that evening, visited her in the Mess. I had met her before the War when both she and my sisters were at the Alfred Hospital and as a countyi girl she had been invited to our home for a decent feed as a break from hospital tucker. So I met up with her and in the next few days made the long air journey Aitape / Merauke / Port Moresby / Cairns / Charleville / Alice Springs / Adelaide / Sydney / Melbourne. Only the mental giants who controlled troop movements could tell you why it was such a round about trip! Anyway, needless to say Lila features prominently in this story.

THE BRITISH ARMY

The 180 of us who had been selected to go to the British Army were divided into groups of about 20 and put aboard various ships --- the war was still on and the Brits didn�t want to lose the lot of us in the event of the Japs sinking ships. My group of 20 embarked in Sydney aboard the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Begum and sailed to Thursday Island where we picked up some Fleet Air Arm pilots arid thence to the big British naval base at Trincomalee in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

The HMS Begum riding at anchor

We then commenced a pantomime of amazing proportions! Nobody knew who we were, nobody knew us and nobody wanted to know us. HMS Begum had to sail so we were put ashore and were billeted with a Royal Engineer Smoke unit, whose purpose in life was for someone to press Button B if the Japs turned on an air raid and cover the naval base with smoke. As the war ended a few days after our arrival, we didn�t see this performance. However we didn�t escape from the smoke unit and had to stay with them for about ten days.

Nobody knew who we were, where we were going. �-not a thing about us.

We started off on a wandering path --- our needs were simple ---- we just wanted someone to love us! We went by train to a town in the middle of Ceylon and found that all towns on this island had a thing called a Guest House where travellers could stay for a couple of nights and get a bed and a few meals. After that we went to Colombo where the procedure was repeated. Three days there and then onto another train to the other side of the island and after bedding down in another Guest House, we took a ferry to the southernmost tip of India (Talimanar) then by train to Madras. Another Guest House then train to Calcutta, same again to Ranchi , again to Lohargarhga, same again to Poona. By now the war had been over for two and a half months !

How did we live? The British officer is a privileged being and wanderers like us could obtain a bed and breakfast on request at any Army establishment. Money??? No problem -- simply go into any branch of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, produce your ID and get a small advance on your pay. So we survived. We eventually ran into a reasonably intelligent Colonel in an officers� mess one day who said he could fix our problem. Which he did and together with four of my mates we finished up in Poona, of all places. Eventually the five of us were commissioned into the Northamptonshire Regiment (the FortyEighth of Foot). The dear old British Army does not commission people into the ARMY as such, but rather into a specific Regiment. By this time I had been a Captain in the AIF and the Brits decided that I should become a Major forthwith.

So. I became a Rifle Company Commander in a Regular British battalion.

Two months after this the Japs threw in the towel. Either they had learned that Davies, Batters, Moore, Phillips and Nicholls had arrived in Asia or maybe it had something to do with the fact that the Yanks had dropped the first atom bomb a week or so later. Whatever the cause, Japan decided to give the game away. The War Office decided to send our battalion plus two Scots Regiments to what was then called Malaya. We travelled from Mumbai (then called Bombay) in great luxury in a very large ship which had been built for the South American meat trade. Every part of it was refrigerated and as we were travelling to Singapore virtually along the Equator. We had a great voyage.

In Singapore we disembarked, and my Company (A Company) of 105 soldiers travelled in a tiny clapped out troopship up the east coast of Malaya to a smallish resort town named Mersing. (any time you are in our house at Hervey Bay, look in my study and you will see a painting of the mouth of the Mersing River with all the native huts and boats). A Company loved Mersing.

We had a bit less than 1200 Japs to look after as they were now our prisoners. They were extremely well behaved. The news had now broken about the ill-treatment of the Australian and English POW�s and I think that our prisoners were determined to be good boys. We put them on to jobs like cleaning out the gutters in the town, digging up mines that they had buried in the beach sand (!!) and the more enterprising of my lads gave them useful jobs to keep them out of mischief. Several times I went into our soldiers� sleeping quarters to find a Jap sitting on a charpoy (Indian for bunk) cleaning a soldier�s Bren gun.

A Company stayed at Mersing while the remainder of the Battalion were located in Singapore, doing guards of Honour for Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten or policing the curfew or generally standing guard at the War Crimes trials.

After three months we went down to Singapore and joined the rest of the 48th of Foot in Gillman Barracks which had been built by the Brits just before the war --- very comfortable. We joined in the Depot Battalion work with the rest of the mob.

We were sent on a few days leave to a little island (Palang Bakan Mati) in the middle of Singapore Island which was by way of being a rest camp. (Years later Lila and I visited this island -- now under its new name � Sentosa -- during a short stop off in Singapore on our way to Greece.

So we alternated between garrison work in Singapore, exercises in the beautiful Cameron Highlands at an altitude of 3000 feet and a spell in Kuala Lumpur.

A DECISION TO BE MADE

About the end of 1946. we Aussies were invited to apply for regular commissions with the Brits and while pondering over this I received a letter from Brother Jack to tell me of a plan the Australian Government had to finance returned soldiers who had enlisted while under the age of 21 and had served overseas, to do University courses . GREAT ! One big problem however I had falsified my age on enlistment and by my AIF records had been older than 21 when I joined up in 1941. However, back to Melbourne attired in a British Army uniform with all the trimmings, I went into an Army Records office in Lonsdale St, expecting to get into all sorts of strife. However--no drama. I approached an elderly Warrant Officer and asked how did I go about altering my enlistment age. There were so many young blokes in the same situation that the Army had designed a special form . (�Just fill in this form and You�ll be right, mate�).

So in spite of my beautiful uniform, I was in no army at all and was able to go ahead and apply to Melbourne university to do a Medical course. There were a few hurdles. Had to go back to school for a year and do Matric. Chemistry, Physics and Maths at Taylors Coaching College (aka the Poor Man�s University). So that�s what I did the year after stopped being a soldier, taking the odd job here and there to supplement the smallish weekly allowance that the generous people in Canberra gave us.

A STUDENT

While waiting to get down to the business of starting my Medical course, there were certain things to do.

• earn a few pounds. Despite the tens of thousands being demobilised, there were stacks of jobs. I spent six months checking invoices at the Commonwealth Dep. of Supply and Shipping in Melbourne.
• Next Year --off to the Poor Man�s University (George Taylor & Staff) to study Matric Chemistry and Physics --- subjects I had not taken at school and which were essential to get in to the Med. course.

MEDICAL SCHOOL

There were huge numbers of ex-service people wanting to study Medicine and only three Med. Schools in Australia (Melbourne. Sydney and Adelaide). With rare genius, the Melbourne School decided to take over the now disused RAAF Flying School at Mildura and convert it into a Branch University for first year Medicine, Dentistry and Engineering. Hangars were converted to lecture theatres and Laboratories while the troops barracks became two person flats for students. All first year students were compelled to do their year 450 miles away from home and all distractions. There was a 50% --50% mix of ex-service people and young people straight from school. Despite all the gloomy forebodings, this was a brilliant success and was copied in other parts of the world.

The Commonwealth Government paid all fees, book costs, rail fares to and from and board and food. Each student was given five pounds (ten dollars) per week for general expenses. This was a gift for the first three years after that had to be repaid. Medicine being a six year course meant a fair size debt on graduation, Nobody worried at the thought of that. If you failed a year. you were OUT! A great incentive to study --- if you were tossed out at the end of five years, you were totally useless!

BUT IN THE MEANTIME�

Remember that Lila Rowley I mentioned earlier? She had now returned from the Pacific Islands where she was serving in the Army and like so many troops in those times came back to Australia harboring various tropical diseases and for quite a while either worked at, or was a patient in, the Heidelberg Military Hospital. As a fairly new civilian, before heading for Mildura, I had been living at Ivanhoe -just up the road - at my Mother�s home (actually the house belonged to brother Jack). I think that Lila will be telling you some important details when she is writing her story. She will doubtless fill you in on the steps by which two Returned Soldiers decided to get married on a combined income of about 20 dollars a week and five years study ahead of me.

We were married at Christ Church, South Yarra, (where as a school child I sang in the choir!) on 23 February 1949 and for the first few months lived with my Mother. With our combined deferred pay from the Army we bought a block of land at Rosanna 6 miles from Melbourne GPO. Cost us two hundred pounds. Our three bedroom house was to cost us two thousand pounds !

No washing machine (too dear) but the copper could be boiled up when needed. And of course the copper was most useful on those rare occasions when a crayfish came our way. Not kind, I know but a great way to get a Cray ready for eating. We didn�t have a refrigerator either - also too dear. However once each week the ice man came --- aka Bacteria Bill: he would shove a block of ice into the ice chest.

On the other hand the grocer would call at the front door one morning each week and later in the day would deliver the order. We kept chooks in the back yard and collected the eggs and could eat one every so often but once the chooks were given human names that little practice lost its charm. We grew our own vegetables, which was good.

To supplement our allowance, Lila did some nursing from time to time at the Repat. Hospital and at other times assisted the pharmacist in the local village. During University vacations, I�d take jobs -- one time working on the assembly line building Mickey Mouse radios but mostly working at the Rosella Tomato Soup factory giving some clerical assistance to the bloke responsible for buying all the fruit.

Employees could walk through the factory eating as much fruit as they wanted and could buy damaged cans of fruit or soup for next to nothing. If there were no damaged tins, the lads would damned soon damage some for you. No fun, I assure you carrying a box of a dozen tins of curried spaghetti up the Rosanna Hill to our house. It wasn�t just the hill -- it was from the factory to the Richmond station, then change trains at Victoria Park (complete with the dozen cans) , get out at Rosanna then up the quite steep hill to the house. Any wonder I can�t eat curried spaghetti?

By now you will have figured out that we didn�t have a car -- in fact such did not eventuate until we had been married for five years. A little red Morris Minor with a fold down hood -- secondhand needless to say, but greatly loved.

Finally the time came for my final exams and right in the middle of them, my Mother died which didn�t help much. This was quite unexpected. Then just before the Conferring of Degrees, the beautiful Wilson Hall burned to the ground and our grand ceremonial was transferred to the Union Theatre -- not an impressive venue, so that was the second disappointment. I asked Lila�s Mother if she would like to attend in place of my, Mother and to my great pleasure, she said that she would be honoured. That was on a Saturday afternoon and on the Monday, I visited the Medical Board and signed the Register and so became a legally qualified and registered Medical Practitioner. To complete the procedure, I was then advised that I had been appointed to the Royal Melbourne Hospital which was exactly what I wanted.

During my 12 months as an RMO, one of the Senior Physicians (Bill King) asked me was it true that we wanted to go to country town to practise and advised me to spend the next year working in a suburban group practice with a boss who could be of great value rounding off what I�d learned at RMH and the Children�s and Women�s Hospitals. So the next year was spent working with and under a great man named Frank Bacon, who not only was an excellent practitioner but also a superb teacher. Fortunately; the practice was not very far from where we lived so not too much time was spent in travelling. It was during this twelve month period that Peter Robert put in an appearance so that when at the end of the year, we were ready to go bush, we were a family..

So, at the start of 1958, four of us arrived in Tongala to take over the practice. (FOUR ??? yes, we took the family cat with us.) I was the only medico in the town -- population about 2500 but with all the ex-service people making up for lost time, the birth rate was spectacular and I used to preside over the birth of about 130 babies annually. Car radios had not been invented and the mobile phone was about 20 years away. Once I went off on a home visit or to a hospital in another town, Lila was faced with a problem if I was wanted in a hurry for any reason. However, our phone system was in the pre-automatic era being what was known as the �wind-and-wait� type. For the doctor�s wife to find out where the doctor had gone, she�d wind the handle on the antique device and when the operator replied, ask where the last phone call for the doctor had come from.  She would then phone that number and if I�d left there, the householder would know where I�d headed for on leaving. Very efficient.

During the ten years that we stayed in Tongala (known to the locals as �Tonnie�, of course) we built a new surgery and a new house and Graeme and Ian arrived to join the family. We made a number of car trips south to visit both the Rowley and Davies families. These excursions were made difficult because (a) I always had to get a locum to mind the shop when I was away and that was never simple until the Base Hospital at Mooroopna decided to make Resident Medical Officers available for weekends (at a fee) so that the solo practitioner could get a bit of a break. Medically they were satisfactory but there were problems ---- we had one Chinese bloke who used to clean his teeth at the kitchen sink which involved much spitting (Lila did NOT approve). Another one -- an enormous Italian bloke --- we booked into the local pub for the weekend where he was notable because at something over 20 stone, he was so heavy that he broke the toilet seat.

The second difficulty was that in those far-off days, it was illegal for service stations to sell petrol between 6pm Friday and 6am Monday which meant having to carry cans of petrol in the boot with the luggage � not really desirable.

We did have one holiday in a seaside flat at Cronulla in Sydney � big adventure �we flew from Melbourne in a dear old DC3. The kids enjoyed the beach but Peter became a bit upset that the prawns and fish were really dead!!! A bit strange for the keen fisherman he eventually became.

I still believe that 10 years in a solo country practice really completes medical education.

It had its moments though. We had no Blood Bank of course and if I wanted blood for a patient they would put it on the evening train from Melbourne which came in at 9.30 pm so when I heard it blow its whistle at the level crossing up the road, I�d jump into the car and head for the railway station. Before being able to give the blood to the victim, it was necessary to cross-match the donor blood and the recipient blood. No lab. closer than Mooroopna and that didn�t operate at night so I did it myself using a Mickey Mouse device I�d obtained from the US, fully aware of the fact that if anything went wrong, I�d be crucified by the Medical Board.

After a few years, I decided to speed the business up and by now being President of the local RSL and being much better known, was able to obtain the blood groups of all the Old Diggers and would call on one or another of them to donate blood for immediate use -- after my primitive cross-matching ,of course. All of this business had its lighter moments of course. One night I was confronted by a woman who needed a transfusion quickly; I consulted the list of donors that I always carried in my bag and phoned one Kevin Kelly, one of my old soldiers and told him to come to the local hospital pronto --took a pint from him into a bottle and immediately transfused the patient before we operated on her. Next morning, Kevin phoned the hospital and enquired �how�s Mrs X�. The Sister asked are you a relative to which Kevin replied  �no, I just want to know how she is ----I gave the blood last night and I�d been on the grog all day and I was afraid she might have a hangover this morning !!

There�s a limit to how much of that sort of thing one can stand so we decided 10 years was enough. Our next move was to Sydney and I�ll tell you more of that when you reach the section headed �HOMES�.

HOMES

In a way it is not surprising that we�ve moved around quite a lot and have lived in quite a number of places since we�ve been married. As Lila has written, she came from a family that didn�t move away from the Mornington Peninsula. On the other hand, after the death of my father when I was very young, we lived very much like gypsies, moving from house to house where the rent was cheaper and where my mother could eke out a crust, to support her four kids. (Keep in mind that there was no widow�s pension in those pre World War II days).

So, for a start, Lila and I shared my mother�s house in Ivanhoe (except it actually belonged to my brother Jack !)

As service people, returned from overseas service, we could avail ourselves of a low interest loan for housing purposes ---- we did this as mentioned earlier, and had a small house built in Rosanna, about 10 km from the centre of Melbourne, but actually then the absolute outskirts of the metropolis. And there we stayed until I had finished my medical course six years later. As we had decided that I would go into a country practice, about eight years after our marriage, we sold that house and moved to Tongala (140 miles away) accompanied by our family cat and Peter who had by this time, put in an appearance. In Tongala, for the first few years we lived in a house that we rented from the local hospital ---- fairly basic --- outside toilet which for the first few years was serviced by the �nightcart man� but after a while the hospital committee decided to install a septic tank. Some years later, we bought quite a large area on the fringe of the township and engaged a local builder to build a house designed by an architect (in retrospect he was a bit of a bushranger). We had farms alongside and Peter (and Graeme and Ian who had arrived on the scene), could be quite interested in the cows and calves next door. Television had just come to Australia in time for the 1956 Olympic Games and we had installed a 130 steel mast with 30 feet of antennas on the top, with which we could watch the primitive TV programmes from Melbourne. Tthere was a regional station in Shepparton (about 60 miles away) but its programmes were lousy.

Anyway, the TV didn�t matter much because in a severe storm, the mast was blown down and it almost looked as if an aircraft had landed in the paddock!

The time came to move on � I think mainly because of the demands of a solo one-man practice in a country town. It wasn�t tough only for the doctor, as the doctor�s wife had a hell of a job trying to keep the practice running while her husband was tearing around the countryside after his patients AND at the same time looking after three little boys.

From this �one man town� we moved to Sydney. And what a change that was! We had managed to sell the Tongala house and now, again with the aid of the War Service Homes Commission, we bought a house in Rose Bay. Couldn�t see the sea from the house but from the front gate (with a hit of imagination) you could see a hint of water.

One of the big thrills of that place was the fact the flying boats used to moor on the water just down the road a bit and every day or so one would take off to fly to Lord Howe Island. We all learned to sail (after a fashion). Lila, Peter and I sailed a 16 foot Corsair yacht while the two little boys sailed a 8 foot Manly Junior ---- with absolutely no success in races, need I say. After a while we bought a small motor boat and did some exploring of Sydney Harbour. Actually we did a lot of exploring of Sydney and its surroundings and finished up knowing a lot more about the Harbour City than a lot of the locals.

We had a few modifications made to the house to make it more suited to our family. The three boys all went to Cranbrook School which wasn�t far from the house but entailed a short bus trip which was regarded as a big adventure.

I had gone completely away from running a practice and took a job as Deputy Medical Secretary of the Australian Medical Association in New South Wales. To keep my hand in medically I used to spend every fourth weekend working on the Eastern Suburbs Emergency Medical Service which covered the King�s Cross area and one used to see life in the raw. Paid well, however.

In some respects, it was a bit of a mistake to spend four years in what was virtually a medical administrative job, however it did broaden my experience of the medical world in Australia because in country practice in Victoria, I was in many respects very isolated.

One of the medical couples with whom I became friendly were on the wrong side of 70 and after being in rural general practice had gone into the more or less infant specialty of Occupational Medicine. One day, Naomi --the female member of the couple- asked me if I�d ever thought of doing likewise and after a few long discussions with me, told me that the job of Chief Medical Officer at ICI Australia was coming up and said that she thought I should apply for it. It would mean a move back to Melbourne but that wouldn�t matter.

I put in a written application as did a number of other people and after a while was invited to go to Melbourne where the Head Office was. Met some of the Directors and had to answer all sorts of questions. About a week later I received a letter offering me the job and setting out what was the offer.

For a while I wondered if Naomi had some sort of pull with some of the Directors but probably they were interested in the fact that I�d been a GP in a farming area and so was familiar with some of the chemicals being used by the patients. Whatever the reason we now had yet another house to sell and to up-anchor and make another interstate move.

As the new job was Melbourne-based this meant a move back to Victoria and some changes to be faced. Our house was about 2 km from the sea and 1 km from the railway. Each day, the boys went to and from school per bus which picked them up more or less at the front door. The new school (Brighton Grammar) was not as up-market as Cranbrook had been for which we were quite grateful. Having been introduced to Rugby in Sydney, the boys now had to become accustomed to Australian Rules.

A big advantage was that Sandringham was a convenient starting point on the way to Rye, where the Rowley family lived, and trips to the Mornington Peninsula were no longer a rarity.

So before long our larger family, Lila, Peter, Graeme, Ian, Jason (a little dog) a black and white cat which answered to various names and a stowaway blue budgie, lived at 100 Abbott St. Sandringham. As my new job necessitated quite a lot of travel, I was by way of being something of an intermittent boarder.

My sister Shirley (another wartime Army nurse) died in her own hospital after a long illness. Lila�s brother, Des, died far too young, leaving a young family. Uncle Jack�s wife (Betty --- another nurse) died after a long illness as did Lila�s sister, Alma. Lila�s father {Grandfather Rowley} had long since left us, having died before we left Tongala whilst the very small Grandma Rowley passed on during our stay in Melbourne.

So --- although life in our new environment had its good points, the extended family was having its bad times.

Our three boys were having changes to life style. Graeme joined the Royal Australian Air Force as an Apprentice Armament Fitter at age 15, which necessitated leaving home, of course. Peter elected to leave Brighton Grammar and transfer to Sandringham Tech. and from there to various jobs before buying some land near Casino in NSW. Where he is at the present time. He gave us our first daughter when he married Lvnne.

Ian stayed at Brighton Grammar and matriculated there, then proceeding to R.M.I T. where he obtained a degree in Computer Science. During our last six months or so in Melbourne, Ian moved to an apartment in Elwood which we had purchased and which he subsequently bought from us.

While all of this was going on. the nature of my job at ICI changed markedly in the area of Occupational Medicine in the Chemical Industry. My work was now almost entirely involved in Toxicology ---virtually a new science. A good challenge!! The reason that it was challenge was simply because at that time there were no courses in the topic available in Australia and one more or less picked it up by osmosis. I was fortunate that I now belonged to a world-wide organisation which was able to put me on the right track.

The timing was superb because almost coincident with my arrival, the company had to face up to major problems affecting people in the factory, the field and the environment.

THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

When I joined ICI Australia as its Chief Medical Officer in 1970, the job really was like an Army First Aid post than anything of greater importance. If any of the hierarchy developed painful haemorrhoids or suchlike, the customary thing was to get the Company CMO to offer comfort or whatever seemed appropriate.

Actually this was not in keeping with modern thinking as regards occupational medicine as it had become to be known. However, times they were achangin� as a popular song said.

In the chemical industry, new challenges were cropping up. For example, workers who manufactured blasting explosives were suddenly found to be liable to have fatal coronaries on Monday mornings!! But on no other days. Workers who were using a chemical known as vinyl chloride monomer were found to be developing a very malignant liver cancer called angiosarcoma of the liver. Why?? People in the paint industry were found to be dying of curious failure of the respiratory system. Why??

The Agricultural Industry was the area where factory workers and field workers alike were having major health problems and it must be remembered that this was very soon after the Vietnam War with the memories of Agent Orange etc.

Our parent Company (Imperial Chemical Industries UK) realised that things were going haywire and decided that it should tackle the situation head-on. They owned and operated the world�s largest non-government toxicology research labs, so decided to bring people like me from all over the world to study these problems. So in 1970, I went off on a round the world intensive study exercise to meet my opposite numbers from many different countries.

In passing, I should point out that this involved leaving Lila with the task of looking after our three boys for eleven weeks while I was away. Quite apart from corresponding by letter, we used tape recorders to send spoken messages and this proved excellent.

My travels took me to many parts of the USA, to factories and laboratories in England, Scotland, Wales, Italy, West Germany, France where I met colleagues from overseas and established very valuable contacts.

No sooner home than a far greater problem arose.

In agriculture in most parts of the world, a group of chemicals known as the bipyridils were being used to kill weeds in crops of all types but especially sugar. These chemicals (generally known as Paraquat were being known to be extremely poisonous if swallowed or if skin contact was extreme. Suddenly, in various parts of the world, it became realised that people were using this compound for suicide or even worse, to commit murder!

Incidentally, for no good reason, I have hung on to my passports and find that since my retirement I have flown out of Australia 29 times. One of these trips was the grand tour which Lila and I did to Greece, Egypt etc soon after we moved to Hervey Bay. The other memorable one was late in 1984 (after my retirement) when the World Health Organisation invited me to attend a two week International Conference in Geneva to discuss the whole question of Paraquat poisoning. They kindly offered to pay my air fares and hotel expenses with a side trip to London after the thing was over.

I should have smelled a rat when on arrival in Switzerland I discovered that I was to chair the rotten thing. It was superbly organised with interpreter services and limousines to take us from the hotel to WHO headquarters each day. I still have a copy of the 170 page report which I occasionally take a look at as a bit of an ego trip.

We had the weekend off and together with a bloke from Nigeria, I took a trip to a place in the Alps where the very first Winter Olympics had been held (Chamonix).

What did please me was that we were able to report that occupational exposure to Paraquat does not pose a risk if there is an adherence to safe working practices.

Armed with this official opinion, this made my task in the Islands much simpler and really made it easier to persuade the authorities in the Pacific that we were dealing with a behavioural problem.

To cut a long story short, it was up to the Pacific communities to figure out why these happy people were committing suicide and to find a way to overcome the problem.

So that ended my difficulties? Like bloody hell! Fiji, Tahiti, the two Samoas etc all decided to form National Suicide Awareness Committees and invited me to be a member of each!!!

At least now I could offer them a treatment for people who had taken a dose, provided the treatment was started within a few hours but of course this wasn�t always possible when the patient had to be taken to the only hospital on the island in question and there were no ambulances or helicopters.

I. was happy enough to be doing this work from 1983 to 1995 � it was a good interest and the money was good but what was terrible was that the ICI Brains Trust in the UK decided to continue the service that I had been doing but replaced me with an Indian doctor from ICI Malaysia, completely forgetting that Pacific Islanders � especially in Fiji and Samoa � absolutely hate and loath Indians.

So that was the end of my long and very happy experience in the Pacific and of course, the end of the nice cheques that came from London every quarter.

THE ANTARCTIC AND THE ARCTIC

It never did dawn on me that I might one day see the Antarctic or the Arctic but never, ever would I see both. Nor that Lila and I would see the Arctic together. Strange story!

When I was with ICI, the Chief Scientist in the Research Laboratories in Melbourne was a French/Russian named Grisha Sklovsky. Our work threw us together quite a bit. One day in 1976 he asked me if I had ever wanted to go to the Antarctic. I replied that of course I�d like to but so what. End of conversation.

Some months later, he told me that his brother-in-law was the chief of Expeditiones Polaires Francaise --- the French Polar service. Each year he had to organise an exchange trip to Dumont D�Urville, the French base in Adelie Land. A ship would come down from Le Havre in France, carrying aboard it a complete change of scientists to do the next 12 months down there. It would then take the previous year�s scientists back to France. With two complete parties down there, a problem existed in that, while the French Army had nothing to do with the operation, under their law it was compulsory that they have two medical officers on the Base in case of any medical drama. It had always been their practice to fly a second doctor out to cover the two weeks when the numbers were up. Grisha was a very pragmatic character and between he and his brother-in-law they hatched up a scheme to find an Australian who�d like a nice cold holiday.

No pay, of course, but they would provide necessary equipment and to take care of the legal side of things, would arrange for the doctor to be appointed Ship�s Surgeon to the Danish vessel M.V Thala Dan at a salary of 10 francs. All of this was before the days of video cameras so I took the advice of an RAAF friend of mine who told me to take a good 8 mm movie camera with me and keep it inside my outer clothing to stop the works from seizing up. This I did of course, and ran off reel after reel of film. (Twenty years later after we came to Queensland to live, I had it all put on to video tape and every now and then, sneak a look at it.)

The Antarctic is the most photogenic place, what with the penguins, the albatrosses, the seals, the icebergs and so forth. Lila became quite fascinated by it and we had thought of taking the (very expensive) one day sightseeing flight from Christchurch however it was very soon after that Air New Zealand crashed a 747 into Mount Erebos killing all aboard. Sudden change of plan!!

Forward about five years when I was about to make an overseas visit with Lila coming along too (she used to enjoy the view from the sharp end of the aircraft!). One of the chores that I had to do was present a paper on Chemical Causes of Cancer, to be delivered in the beautiful Finlandia Hall in Helsinki. I agreed to do this on condition that we could then travel to the very north of Finland, above the Arctic Circle. The organisers agreed so after I�d sung my song in Helsinki, we flew for two hours up to the very northernmost area of Finland. Not a penguin to be seen, of course, because they don�t occur in northern Polar regions. A nice way to spend a long weekend.

For the first twelve years of my retirement, ICI (UK) maintained me under contract to study and deal with certain toxicological problems in Polynesia the arrangement was delightfully vague in that I was required to visit Samoa, Tonga. New Zealand, Fiji, Tahiti and PNG at least once each year as appeared necessary to me. As mentioned, it didn�t take long for me to drop PNG from the list as I didn�t appreciate the change in the behaviour of many of the indigines.

I soon figured out a schedule by which I could fit all this into two trips of two weeks each annually. The highlight of all of this was the visit to Geneva (described elsewhere).

On my very last of these excursions, I was accompanied by two very good friends --- both toxicologists, one Kiwi and one Scot. At the end of our work in Tahiti, I insisted that we leave Papeete and spend a day on the beautiful island of Moorea --- surely one of the most beautiful places on the planet. (Lila, Ian and I had a wonderful holiday at Club Med on Moorea when we were living at Sandringham).

At the end of 1995, ICI(UK) decided that they would prefer to use a full-time member of staff on this job rather than an old retired colonial like me. They replaced me with an Indian medico, quite oblivious to the fact that Polynesians have an absolute hatred of Indians!!

Great pity for it to end --- Lila and I had used the loot to visit many parts of Australia that we wanted to see, such as Cape York Peninsula, Darwin, Perth, the Kimberley, Central Australia, Kangaroo Island, Monkey Mia, Tasmania etc.

THE FAMILY GROWS

While the years were passing. Lila and I had acquired three daughters. We don�t much like the expression �daughter in law�, much preferring the Samoan style of welcoming the wives of sons as �daughters�, in this way we have acquired three daughters. Peter brought Lynne into the family. We have Graeme to thank for our daughter Sharon, while Susan (Susie) came aboard courtesy of Ian.

Junior members arrived too. We have never forgotten dear little Lee who did not survive and we shared the sadness of this with Peter and Lynne and with Marie and Ian -- the other grandparents. The desperate anxiety of a few years when Simone battled with leukaemia --- and won the battle-- brought the family much closer together, and like us, Marie and Ian Hosking will never forget those days and weeks and months.

Our other grandchildren give us much pleasure. Melissa and Kimberley now very much young ladies while the most recent addition -- Juliette with the big dark eyes, just like her Mum (Susie) is a charmer. We are so lucky to see them quite frequently.

RETIREMENT

We have now spent almost twenty years in Hervey Bay and the first sixteen of those were full of unexpected interest. With our radio operator�s certificates that we acquired before leaving Melbourne, we threw in our lot with H. Bay Air Sea Rescue (now Volunteer Marine Rescue).

We were both accepted as radio operators and before long were allocated our own regular shifts on the radio ---- Lila on Sunday afternoon while I did the Sunday morning shift. Depending on the weather, this could be either busy or slack. As needs changed, the number of radio frequencies increased until we reached a maximum of 8, to say nothing of a phone which could he a damned nuisance.

We enjoyed the job even when genuine dramas cropped up and lives were or might be at risk or in extreme cases, lives were lost. We remained on the radio job for 15 years before deciding to retire from it. But that was not the end -- for a number of years Lila had been the Squadron Contact Person for Critical Stress Management and finally was elected Patron of the Squadron. (According to the Constitution of the unit that makes her the Titular Head of the outfit however it�s not an arduous task other than laying a wreath on Anzac Day, opening building extensions, attending commissioning of new rescue boats etc).

In addition, in many instances of real marine urgency, Lila had the experience of being the radio operator on duty and handled the situations well.

A few years after we joined the Squadron, I was elected Commodore (which is simply the marine equivalent of President). I held that job for three years then became the Hervey Bay representative on the Central Zone Council of Air Sea Rescue Queensland (Bundaberg, Round Hill, Gladstone and Hervev Bay). A few years later I was elected to the State Council of Air Sea Rescue Queensland which, soon after, changed its name to Volunteer Marine Rescue Queensland. In the fullness of time I became Vice President and later, President, holding each position for three years.

Perhaps I should add here that in any volunteer organization, there is a difficulty getting people to stand for office so all that one has to do is put his head up and he�s a cert to be elected. Nevertheless there was some satisfaction --- not in holding the title but in being involved in regular negotiation with the Queensland Government and visiting most of the 17 Squadrons dotted around the coast of the State

For the last three years, our involvement is restricted to attending the AGM and the Christmas party except of course, for Madam Patron who attends to her duties as required.

We retain our membership in the local sub branch of the RSL but have resisted any temptation to stand for office. Both of us belong to our respective PROBUS clubs. The word stands for something like Retired Professional and Business People but really I think it is POOR RETIRED OLD BUGGERS UNFIT FOR SERVICE.

We have become real Queenslanders but still enjoy watching Aussie Rules football on the telly but only when the Brisbane Lions are playing.

We have now (2002) lived in Hervev Bay for just on 20 years and will soon be regarded as locals. When we arrived here it was rather like seven little fishing villages with a population of 8500 it is now quite a big city with a population of 43000. Times do change !!!