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Contents.
Wagga Training School (1946 - 1951)
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Our lovely page 3 girl this edition is Adele Murray.
Adele came from a small country town and in July 1979 after she had turned 18, she caught the train to Sydney and signed on the dotted line and was part of the RAAF. Not long after the signing ceremony, she was on an aircraft down to Melbourne, where she and a few other girls were shepherded onto one of the RAAF’s blue buses and it was off to Laverton to start their rookie’s course. Boss lady back then was W/O Joan Wooten, a lady that was fair but firm and who scared the wits out of the young female rookies.
There were 60 girls on her rookie course, which because of the number, was split into two, 262A and 262B courses and where she says she met some amazing women.
After rookies, it was a move from one block to another, from rookies to Radschool, to start on 21 Comms Course where, being the only female, she ruled the roost.
In 1980, after passing the course, she was posted from one end of the country to the other, from Melbourne to Darwin, which although was a bit of a temperature shock, was a posting which she really enjoyed.
Being tropical, water sports ruled. She joined the ski club and spent a lot of her spare time at either lake Bennet, a small artificial freshwater lake about 80kms south of Darwin or camping out at Douglas hot springs, a national park about 200kms south of Darwin. She was involved in many interservice sports teams such as soft ball, volleyball, swimming and ten-pin bowling. The pool on base was also very popular with water that was always warm.
Being in Comms, her normal work day was spent locked away and with shift work, she didn’t get to see a lot of the other RAAF people on Base. Even after she’d been there for a number of years some people still wanted to know if she was a “new girl”.
She says one of here fondest memories from Darwin was the “75th Anniversary of the RAAF” tour they did of the Northern Territory.
In October 1981, she was sent down to Sydney on detachment to Kangaroo 81 (a joint military exercise). At Sydney they were loaded onto the HMAS Tobruk which was sailing to Rockhampton. Sailing out of Sydney Heads while lined up on deck was an experience she fondly remembers followed by a huge storm they encountered while up near Coffs Harbour, one which she would rather forget. The ship rocked and rolled so much she and the other RAAF people were constantly tossed out of their bunks. Navy conveniently forgot to inform them about the safety straps.
The ship pulled into shore at Yeppoon and, to the amusement of the Navy bods, the RAAF people who weren’t up to scratch with this sort of exercise, all ended up very wet. Back on firm land, everyone boarded Army vehicles and were trucked to the army camp at Rocky where she was to stay for about a month.
Accommodation was a bit of a shock, nowhere in sight was there any RAAF style accommodation, instead she and the other RAAF people were shown a line of tents and told to make the most of it.
Work once again was all shift work which was difficult when working and living out of tents when you’re not used to it. Coming back to the tent in the morning after a night’s work and trying to get some sleep, under hot canvass, was a challenge but there was a bit of time off and they did manage to sneak over to Great Keppel Island for a weekend.
The Army didn’t do away with all mod cons, they had a “boozer” on the camp and this proved to be a popular honey trap – a well-used affair after stand-down each day.
The pic at right shows the RAAF Comms people at choir practice one night at the boozer.
After the exercise at Rocky finished, it was back to Darwin where she met her future husband, he was a Radtech with 2CRU and in 1984 she and her husband both took a discharge.
After the RAAF they travelled around a bit and ended up in the mining town of Pilbara where they worked in the mine for a while. After building up a war chest, they decided to travel and worked in Borneo for 2 years followed by South Africa for 7 years, after which they returned to OZ and settled in Brisbane.
“And here we are!!”
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I dusted once. It came back. I’m not falling for that again.
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Ground Training School – 1946 to 1951. It then became the RAAF Technical College then on the 1st December 1952 it became the RAAF School of Technical Training.
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In 1939 Allonville, a 300 acre farm not far from the Wagga Wagga township, was purchased by the Commonwealth for 12,500 pounds. The base was developed as ˜RAAF Base Forest Hill' and first flew the RAAF Ensign on 29 July 1940. It was part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (known as the Empire Training Scheme) along with airfields at Uranquinty and Temora.
The first unit based at RAAF Base Forest Hill was No 2 Flying Training School, which is now located at RAAF Base Pearce in Western Australia.
No 31 Squadron formed on 14 August 1942, flying Beaufighters and serving in combat during World War II. The Squadron was disbanded in 1946, but reformed in July 2010. 31 Squadron is now the City of Wagga Wagga Squadron and is the Unit responsible for providing airbase support for the Base at Wagga - in earlier times it would be called a Base Squadron. In 1946, RAAF Base Forest Hill was declared the home of all Ground Training, with the establishment of the Ground Training School. In May 1950 the RAAF School of Technical Training was established.
The base was renamed RAAF Base Wagga in 1952 to identify with the broader community. In 1985, the School of Management and Training Technology was established (but was later disbanded in 2004), and the School of Postgraduate Studies was established in 1998. In January 1999, Ground Training Wing was formed. This amalgamated with RAAF College in 2008 when the College moved from Point Cook in Victoria (where it had been since 1947), but in December 2009 they were made separate again.
No 1 Recruit Training Unit also relocated to RAAF Wagga from RAAF Edinburgh in 2008.
The School of Administration and Logistics Training was established in 2005.
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I enjoy a glass of wine each night for its health benefits. The other glasses are for my witty comebacks and flawless dance moves.
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The Shanty Hotel, which is a bit back towards the Hume Highway from RAAF Wagga in an area called Alfredtown, was a favourite “after hours” sneak out for Wagga appies years ago. It’s been there for a long time but its days are now numbered, it’s been closed since ANZAC Day 2009.
The first settler at Alfredtown was a Mrs Mary Ryan and her seven children who took up occupancy at a property called Clandore in the late 1860s. Helen Ryan, a daughter of Mary Ryan, married Percy Rogers and set up a hotel north of the present Shanty. Following the flood of 1870, the road was re-routed and they then built their hotel opposite Clandore. It was initially called the Prince Alfred Hotel. 1978 renovations revealed the original shingles beneath the iron roof.
Although extended and altered in a Spanish/Modernist style, the original core of the 1870 building can still be seen. It has rendered wall scribed to resemble ashlar, and 12-pan windows flanking a timber door.
The Shanty has social and historic value for the Alfredtown and Ladysmith communities.
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To err is human. To blame it on someone else shows definite management potential.
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Sorry, no first names. |
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Standing L-R: Cunningham, Walsh, Harkins, Don’t know, Don’t know, Wootton Seated L-R: Walker, Stevenson, Lipacomb. McKenzie, Kemp, Phelan.
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Sorry, no names. |
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Standing L-R: Peter Concanon, Graham Harrison, Paul Caudwell, Peter Ackerley, Peter Tiller. Seated L-R: Peter Hill, Peter Finlayson, Terry Leighton, Pat Baxter, Peter Wiseman.
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Dear wine, we had a deal, you were to make me funnier, sexier, smarter and a better dancer. I saw the video, we need to talk.
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Sorry, no names. |
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Sorry, no names. |
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Ex 53 Instrument Fitters Course. |
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L-R: Wal Bellamy, Larry Cowling, John Versluis.
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Standing in front of the Igloo in which a lot of Box Packers did their course. |
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L-R: Peter O’Loughlan, Sid Burrows (RIP), Bob Hend, Allan Johnston, Neville Beeton, Tony Latter.
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