Heading Jim

Jim Heading was 21 when World War 2 broke out in 1939. He was employed as a trainee architectural draughtsman with the Public Works Department and, as this was what was known as a “reserved occupation”, he was exempted from military service. However, after the Japanese entered the war and started their rapid sweep south in early 1942, Jim decided that it was time for him to join up.

He enlisted at Melbourne Town Hall on 27th February 1942 and spent his first week in the army at the big camp on Caulfield Racecourse. From there he was sent to Echuca for a month of basic training before being drafted to 2 Australian Squadron R.A.E. (Royal Australian Engineers), a unit in the 3rd Motor Brigade at a place called Rowville. He had never heard of Rowville before but was told that it was somewhere between Dandenong and Ferntree Gully.

Jim noted in his diary on 11th April 1942: “Left Echuca, Dinner at Bendigo. Arrived Dandenong 6.30pm.” He remembered going by bus from Dandenong station with about 50 other soldiers and arriving at a cold, wet camp.

The camp was well established with huts for administration and stores. It was located on the south-west corner of the Stud and Wellington Roads intersection on land now owned by the S.E.C. The large power lines bringing electricity from Yallourn to Melbourne crossed the camp. The entry via the guard-posted gate in Stud Road gave access to a large ring road along which the various units were deployed. Jim’s section was on the west side of the camp. He was allocated to a six-man tent which was to be his home for the next six months. His bed was simply a palliasse (a hessian bag stuffed with straw) laid on a ground sheet on the dirt floor. All his clothing and other personal gear was kept in a kit bag. Jim survived the cold Rowville nights by wearing as much clothing as necessary and placing his army greatcoat over his blankets.

The army day in Rowville started at dawn with roll call after which the tent had to be put in order for inspection. After breakfast there was drill, marching and training. The troops were also rostered on duties or “fatigues” such as cook house duty, sanitary duty, wood cutting, trench digging, guard duty etc. Cook house duty consisted of “spud barbering”, helping the “greasers” (cooks) and ladling out portions of the meal into the soldiers’ mess tins as they filed past.

Jim recalled that the food was adequate. There was a hot meal every day and plenty of bully beef and cheese. Porridge was served for breakfast.

Sanitary duty was less pleasant and the troops had a predictably uncomplimentary term for it. As well as cleaning the latrines, the soldiers occasionally had to make a new one. This was done by digging a deep long trench with picks and shovels, placing a frame with seats over the trench and enclosing the area with a hessian screen. There was no roof.

Guard duty, too, was a miserable task, especially in the early hours of the morning.

Being a sapper (that is, a private) in the engineers, Jim was trained in the specific war time skills needed by that branch of the services. As well as that, because he was a draughtsman, his special tasks were to prepare the schedules of manning details (which were constantly changing as troops were posted to and from the camp). He also had to keep the army book of military regulations (A.M.R.& O.s) up to date by incorporating into it the stream of amendments from army H.Q.

A glance through the brief entries in Jim’s 1942 diary reveals a good picture of his training and other activities. I have included Jim’s comments on these entries within brackets.

Sat 11 April 1942 – Left Echuca. Dinner at Bendigo. Arrived Dandenong 6.30pm.

Sun 12/4 _ Given leave until Wednesday. (Jim, like most of the troops in the camp was a Melbourne man. Leave was granted to them regularly.)

Wed 15/4 – Back to camp at 8.00am. Went to the pictures to see “Back to Frisco”.

(Films were shown often in the camp in the YMCA hut.)

Thurs 16/4 – March around camp. Knot tying. (Knot tying was taught as part of instruction in bridge building.)

Fri 17/4 – Shifted tents, Sewing. (Each soldier was issued with a sewing kit for clothing repair. No item of uniform would be replaced by the Quartermaster unless an unrepairable item was handed in.)

Sat 18/4 – Dug slit trenches. Leave until Sunday.

Mon 20/4 – Cut wood at Lysterfield.

Tues 21/4 – Shifted into No 3 troop. Rainy.

Wed 22/4 – Pay day. (The basic rate of pay was six shillings and sixpence per day. But because he was a draughtsman Jim received nine shillings and sixpence per day.) Knotting and lashings. Pictures at YMCA.

Thurs 23/4 – Building obstacles; barb-wire entanglements. Route march to Wheelers Hill. (They marched up Wellington Road – there was very little traffic – and then down Jells Road as far as the Wheelers Hill Hotel. However the marchers were not allowed to go in for a beer. There were wet canteens at the camp and Jim recalls that occasionally a soldier would end up in the “boob” – the guard-house lock-up – for being drunk and disorderly.)

Fri 24/4 – Lectures on camouflage and map-reading.

Sat 25/4 Making a standing derrick. Leave.

Sun 26/4 – Service at Red Shield Hut. (The Red Shield huts on army bases were run by the Salvation Army.)

Mon 27/4 – March and lecture on infantry by C.O. (The camp commanding officer was Captain Charles Seabrook who was a municipal engineer with Sandringham Council. Each troop had its own captain and lieutenant. In Jim’s troop it was Joe Muntz who was a shire engineer from Beaufort. The officers were easy to get along with and there was no major discipline problem in the camp.)

Tues 28/4 – Lecture on signals. Bayonet drill. Night manoeuvres at Lysterfield.

Wed 29/4 – P.T. Pictures at YMCA.

Thur 30/4 – Guard duty. Peeling vegetables. Heavy rain.

Fri 1/5 – Lectures on unarmed defence, gas tests, tanks.

Sat 2/5 – Lecture on gas protection. (All troops in the camp had gas masks.)

Sun 3/5 – Church in morning. YMCA in evening.

Mon 4/5 – Duty day. Lantern lecture on bren gun.

Tues 5/5 – Map reading. Issue of K.W.D. (khaki working dress)

Wed 6/5 – March in evening to Wheelers Hill.

Thur 7/5 – Night manoeuvres.

Fri 8/5 – Played basketball.

Sat 9/5 – March. Compass training.

Sun 10/5 – Service at Red Shield.

Mon 11/5 – Duty day.

Tues 12/5 – Map reading. Water supply. Rainy day.

Wed 13/5 – Semaphore and morse. Pay day. Basketball. Guard duty.

Thur 14/5 – March. Barbed wire entanglements.

Fri 15/5 – March. Barbed wire entanglements. Mess orderly.

Sat 16/5 – March. Inoculations (flu). Leave.

Sun 17/5 – Tea at Cathedral hut. (This was a hut outside St Paul’s Cathedral in Swanston Street where soldiers could get refreshments.)

Mon 18/5 – Lectures: Bombs, Semaphore. Pictures: “The Devil and Miss Jones”.

Wed 20/5 – Mess orderly. Pictures YMCA “Blind Alley”.

Thur to Sat 23/5 – Making paths. Issued with mess tin.

Tues 26/5 – Read “Pickwick Papers” (Jim got through a lot of reading in his three and a half years in the army.)Concert at A.S.C. hut. (ASC was the Army Service Corps who were in charge of supply. They organized concert groups to visit the camp to entertain the troops.)

Wed 27/5 – Played basketball.

Sat 30/5 – Bomb disposal training. Leave. Americans for evening. (Jim’s parents, like thousands of other families in Melbourne at the time, offered hospitality to overseas troops.)

Mon 1/6 – Orderly runner.

Tues 2/6 – Tubular scaffolding. Concert at ASC hut.

Wed 3/6 – Football at Ferntree Gully. (The camp had a good football team.) Pictures at YMCA.

Thur 4/6 – On Bivouac to Berwick.

Fri 5/6 – Camped at Aura (Clematis).

Sat 6/6 Left 9.30 for Rowville. Arrived 3.00 pm. Leave.

This was the life of an ordinary soldier at Rowville in 1942.

The Brigade moved out of Rowville on 27th September 1942 and went to Western Australia for 17 months where they were engaged in building camps. From WA at Mullewa, Mingenew, Moora and Northam, Jim’s unit went to Wagga NSW to do an engineers course. They were then posted to Darwin and from there to North Queensland where they were on standby to go overseas. However, they were never called on to do so. In retrospect, Jim had no regrets. From Echuca, the draft before them were sent to the Middle East and the draft after them went to Singapore and were captured by the Japanese.

“It was just the luck of the game. We could have been one of those” said Jim.

(Jim was not a local; he was living with his parents at Hartwell at the time of his enlistment in 1939 and the only time he spent in Rowville were the six months between April and October 1942.)

At the time of this article going to print in 1990, Jim, at the age of 72, was living in happy retirement with his wife Lorna in Mount Waverley).
Interviewed by Bryan Power