A visit to Kerguelen Island 1963
- John Williams (Wilkes 1959 Mawson 1962)
Here our director Phil Law organised with the French hierarchy a collecting trip inland. Our party consisted of Dr Dave Wigg, Chris a former Macquarie Island biologist , Rex Filson our Lichenologist /carpenter and myself. Dave and Chris were to collect specimens in Lake Studer. This lake stopped further travel up the large open valley. Rex and I were to collect lichens plus other vegetation for the Melbourne Herbarium.
Our party went ashore on the first barge and set off for about 60 kilometres inland with three Frenchmen driving two old Weasels [one of which was minus the flotation cells front and rear] ; however , one Weasel soon developed a leaking water pump which saw our party continue in one Weasel leaving two Frenchmen to follow later after the repairs had been carried out .
The track led first from camp then along the beach turning inland, crossing a river about 1M deep and approximately 50 m wide . Next came several kilometres of stony dessert just after which we bailed out and walked whilst our driver negotiated a steep side slope of about 30M back to the river again ; the track now led up the big wide river valley with numerous river crossings .When not crossing rivers or stones we were mostly driving on boggy peat feather-bed similar to Macquarie Island. The scenery was magnificent, with low cloud at about 50M and with several waterfalls gushing down both sides of the valley.
We reached our destination then came lunch with all of the Frenchmen as the repaired Weasel had caught us up. We had been delayed as we stopped to collect specimens en route . And what a memorable meal it was- fresh baguettes with slabs of meat, cheese, olives etc washed down with ample red wine decanted from a plastic 20 litre jerry can. We then happily set off to work. Rex and I first climbed up a small waterfall collecting, wrapping specimens, and labelling them as we went until at about 50M up , we paused to have a look at the lake formed which was apparently formed by slips from both valley walls. The water stretched off into the distance for at a guess a kilometre or more; it looked almost man made and the wall appeared to be about 20 to 50M high and stopped the possibility of further vehicular travel. We kept climbing for approximately another 50M until we reached the dense low lying cloud. Above that it appeared that the top of the range was snow covered .The scenery was great and, I noted, except for the lack of trees we could have been in parts of Australia. The green ground covering was not grass but a common looking type of Burr- Acaena or commonly called Bidibid, a most annoying plant that loves sticking to laces and socks.
The dinner was magnificent ; as far as we were concerned the best offerings were the fresh lettuce, radishes and spring onions ; we of course had been without fresh salads for over a year. Sitting opposite me was the catholic priest nobbling everyone within reach , I retaliated , however , he held his wine very well and was none the worse for wear by evenings end. We sang and danced until it was time to return to the ship, The highlight of the evening being one of the scientists who was a very talented tap dancer and brother of a well known French Actress ; doing a tap dance on the table.
We returned to the ship about midnight by barge ,which earlier had been commandeered by the Danish Bosun to return a bunch of happy sailors on board. When he returned the barge he was severely reprimanded by the French Commandant ; apparently while we were ashore there were a few amusing incidents as the wine and pernod had their effect.
The ship then set sail for Hobart motoring downwind through the roaring forties with gale force winds astern and very large swells that seemed to almost want to swallow us as we sank down into the troughs . A fine day and a large friendly crowd greeted us in Hobart on the twenty fourth of March 1963; and even today ; over 50 years later fond memories are still there of the lovely friendly Hobart girls who took us in hand and showed us the sights.
1959 Wilkes personnel: http://antarctica.kulgun.net/History/Wilkes/1959/personnel.shtml
An Unusual Air Force Career
I left Brighton Technical School at 14 for a job with the Melbourne Harbour Trust as a messenger boy riding a bicycle around the city, North Wharf and Victoria Dock, I must have been fit as I usually cycled the 10 miles from home in East Brighton, I enjoyed that time seeing all those wonderful, beautiful old ships and gaining a world of experience. However, promises of training as a draftsman not eventuating the Air Force beckoned; due perhaps to my father enjoying his five years RAAF service at Point Cook in the 1920s and his 24 years of military service in WW1 in Europe & WW2 in Australia. Little did I know that I would work for both services for 24 years also.
I was on the fourth intake of engineering apprentices starting on 25 January 1950. I started behind the eight ball being only 4 foot 11 inches tall- 1 inch too short for the service but I managed to convince the Air Force doctor, on my medical exam, that, as my father was 6 feet tall I was going to grow. And that I did- shooting up to my present weight and 5 foot 10 inches on 3 years of good Air Force tucker. Now, about the food, it was plentiful except for eggs and butter and we tried all sorts of things to get an extra egg, just imagine my delight when on a Saturday mess duty, due to many apprentices sleeping in, there was a tray of 17 eggs and half a tray of bacon left over- not being one to waste things I demolished the lot and, there were no explosive after effects. Regarding food, butter was issued at the rate of one fortieth of a pound of butter per meal; not much for 2 slices of toast! Rationing was still in place from the war years and on home leave we were issued with ration coupons for tea and butter that were very much appreciated at home. The time at Wagga was fairly interesting; after school time a group of us convinced the Air Force to provide all the materials and a supervisor to build a primary glider which was almost finished when we bought a crashed 2 seat Merlin sailplane, we then transferred our energies to that, got it flying and I think we all had a flight before it crashed off the towline at the old wartime airfield at Uranquinty that was just being reopened. Once again the Air Force was good to us as they provided a test pilot, a van, a Weapon Carrier for towing and a driver, we had a great time there at weekends over a month or so. By this time our 3 years at Wagga were up and we all dispersed to postings around Australia.
After Wagga the usual aircraft depot 6 month spell gaining experience was spent at 1AD Laverton on different aircraft types and in hydraulic and pneumatic sections; then, onto Maintenance Squadron Point Cook servicing and overhauling their Tiger Moths and Wirraways, incidentally, getting up many hours in the back seat writing down the test pilots remarks, sometimes with some difficulty as some pilots were freshly back from the Korean war and they would practice their dog fighting skills, often low down among the isolated gum trees near the You Yang ranges. After a couple of years, and, to my dismay as I wanted a more adventurous operational squadron posting, I was posted to Maintenance Squadron East Sale to work on more of the same but also Mustangs, Lincolns, Dakotas and Vampires. From E Sale by a stroke of luck as it turned out I, went back to 1AD and Canberra bombers.
Now, for the last couple of years I had applied to go to the Antarctic and had been selected as the reserve airframe fitter; so, when in late 1958 the old Antarctic Auster came in pieces into the hangar for overhaul for a special trip south to take over the US base of Wilkes, on the Antarctic coast; I lobbied to be the corporal in charge. I got the job and one day, the pilot, Squadron Leader Doug Leckie came to check progress, we met and I was selected to go south with him. After test flights on wheels at Laverton and on floats at Point Cook, [where a slight problem, when, due to incorrect supplied measurements the float top was punctured on take off] the Auster was trucked to North Wharf on the Yarra river in Melbourne and loaded on top of number two hold of the icebreaker Magga Dan- it was one of those hot 100 degree days - no foretaste of the temperatures to very soon come to us.
We rolled our way south on the Danish ship sharing a luxurious cabin with Sqdn Leader Doug Leckie, a Navy Lt Commander- Ian de Burnside, Engine fitter, Corporal Nev Meredith and myself- In Ian's eyes our only misdemeanour was to use non nautical terms when referring to the ships parts! En route we serviced an automatic weather station at Lewis Island, a tiny speck of rock beside the ice cliffs of the continent, here Doug took the Auster up for a sea ice check to plot our way further west toward Wilkes.
We then sailed west to Dumont d’Urville, the French base where, after a stormy, rough Army DUKW trip ashore we were royally entertained; strangely the wines were Australian and ours on the ship were French- on west again sailing inside the pack ice belt for a few days where the sea was very calm and enjoyable; on to Wilkes Base where a group of 26 Americans were waiting to hand over the station. The station was an eye opener; as it was the last station built by the US for the IGY 2 years before and all left over food, fuel and equipment from the building of 3 stations was left at Wilkes. Doug did a lot of flying there on skis over the change over period- one day he was in the air for over 9 hours and we only had a couple of under carriage mishaps that were soon fixed.
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| AUSTER on pontoon on Nella Dan |
For my first 3 months I was the carpenter and plumber,and, when the second engineer had a serious break down, and had to be restrained, then, locked up for 10 months until he could be repatriated by Neptune via McMurdo and NZ. The Russians flew a Russian made DC3 over from their base at Mirny with their Doctor, Commissar, and 7 others and some extra drugs. Our Doctor was apprehensive about the visit as he had recently escaped from Hungary but all went well and we socialised readily; that was during the cold war years of course. I then became second engineer for 3 months until the chief engineer was accidentally killed. I then had everything to look after- trucks, bulldozers, over snow tracked vehicles, fixed plant, 3 phase electricity supply, water and fuel supply and explosives. [I survived an Army course and became qualified to handle service explosives for my second trip south - after much experience on the first trip] - Scariest of all to me was the power supply through not being confident with 3 phase power; however, with help from the rest of our crew the station functioned well without a power breakdown for the rest of our year. Too soon for me, as even with our problems I still liked the way of life; we sailed via Macquarie Island for Melbourne, 6 weeks leave and back to the Air Force at Aircraft Research and Development Unit at Laverton; as well as working on the usual aircraft there, I became partly qualified on a very unusual jet plane- the Avro 707A delta wing research aircraft. After some time there I was posted to 86 Wing and the Hercules transports at Richmond. I was a bit bored there at first and applied to go south again as a Diesel mechanic; the Antarctic Division was keen for me to go as Senior Diesel mechanic but I asked to be assistant as I thought that my experience was limited. Before I left the Hercules, the workload increased as the first fuel tank problems were found and I was in there helping to deal with the big job of treatment and repairs; a few years later that experience helped me to deal with an isolated Sabre corrosion problem in Malaysia.
And so, soon, in mid 1961 I was back in Melbourne again for a few months indoctrination before sailing on the Nella Dan for Mawson; the ship sailed via the small base of Davis on the coast of the Vestfold Hills Antarctica, where we poured concrete and helped install a new generating set into the power house. This time the Air Force insisted that I be paid at Air Force rates of pay and allowances- previously, Phillip Law, unbeknownst to me, had fought long and hard to pay me the slightly higher rates - contrary to Queens regulations.
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| FOLD ISLAND DASH |
That second tour, compared to the first stressful one was wonderful as I was able to do lots of trips as mechanic on the sea ice assisting with surveying and biological surveys on the continental plateau around the mountains nearby. There were however lots of problems and dangerous situations to overcome. In particular, on a three week autumn 'depot laying trip' at around 2000m altitude, the Weasels track broke at -30 degrees and then when nearing the end of a one day 100 mile sea ice trip to count penguins at a distant penguin rookery, the timing gear on the Weasel failed. Thank goodness luck was with me again and I was able to fix it by inserting heavy aluminium foil into the hub of the fibre timing gear.
The rolling trip back was interesting as we called into the old ANARE station on Heard island, then into the French base on Kerguelen Island where I was able to go inland by Weasel and help our lichenologist and our Doctor collect lichens and other samples. It was a very interesting expedition as the Weasel almost sank at one stage and it was the first time for me to have a French lunch of baguettes, cheese and red wine that was decanted from a 4 gallon jerry can. The evening celebration only got better, I remember a talented Frenchman dancing and singing on the table and their priest trying to get us all to freely imbibe. The sail back to Hobart was memorable as we were running with the wind along the roaring forties and there were massive swells we were climbing and sinking down into.
During my Antarctic years I collected a Polar medal and 2 service Medallions. I also have a mountain in my name that I have not seen and a group of tiny islets called Williams rocks about 15 km off the Mawson coast.
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| Surveying |
The latter I helped survey; we had to travel over the sea ice to them by Snow Track and my motor cycle outfit! On the way out, Dave the surveyor and I may have been the first to drive a motor cycle up on top and around on a grounded iceberg. Also I found the first Acrospora Williamsii lichen ever found and our lichenoligist named it as such.
and our Doctor collect lichens and other samples. It was a very interesting expedition as the Weasel almost sunk at one stage and it was the first time for me to have a French lunch of baguettes, cheese and red wine that was decanted from a 4 gallon jerry can. The evening celebration only got better, I remember a talented Frenchman dancing and singing on the table and their priest trying to get us all to freely imbibe. The sail back to Hobart was memorable as we were running with the wind along the roaring forties and there were massive swells we were climbing and sinking down into. During my Antarctic years I collected a Polar medal, 2 service Medallions, a mountain in my name that I have not seen, a group of tiny islets called Williams rocks about 15 km off the Mawson coast that I helped survey; we travelled over the sea ice to them by Snow Track and my motor cycle outfit. On the way out, Dave the surveyor and I may have been the first to drive a motor cycle up on top and around on a grounded iceberg. Also I found the first Acrospora Williamsii lichen ever found and our lichenoligist named it as such.
After 6 weeks leave on return, I was posted first to Point Cook and Sergeants stripes then to Malaya to 86 Wing and Sabre fighter jets, getting there by a luxury cruise on MV Fairstar from Melbourne to Singapore, which incidentally was having a period of unrest and I was one of the few allowed off the ship.
At Butterworth I, not having been through Williamtown and Sabre training had some study to do to catch up on and while there I was usually in Maintenance Squadron snag gang; after a few months I was posted to 79 Squadron, Ubon Thailand, where we had 8 hot Sabres for the defence of Thailand. To me that was a wonderful place, we all had a great feeling of camaraderie and the locals were friendly. The postings there were only for 8 weeks at a time , however, I managed to extend a few times and finished up doing about 12 months- half of my time served in that tropical tour. A stroke of luck happened there when I was made a ‘Specially Approved’ driver to help drive an armed convoy of 3 new trucks from Bangkok to Ubon. It turned into a 3 day journey through supposedly bandit infested country over a lot of unsealed roads. On another Ubon posting I had to help return a Jeep from Khorat back over much of the same route, and again, back in Malaysia I was fingered to drive a staff car from Singapore back to Butterworth. To have one of those licences was, in my times a very desirable licence to have as it could lead to some adventures.
Not long before returning to Australia a badly corroded Sabre came in for repairs- I told my bosses of my previous corrosion work and I was put in charge of a job that would otherwise have had to be returned to Australia for repairs. I think that I must have received a good report from that as, when I returned to Australia on posting to Maintenance Squadron East Sale I was promoted to Flight Sergeant. That brought with it a posting into Headquarters Support Command in Melbourne for technical spares assessing duties. Just before I left E Sale I had my only charge in RAAF service - a serious technical one and I was found guilty. But, due to mitigating circumstances I only received an admonishment; and six months later I was in Switzerland as a temporary Warrant officer!
I was doubtful about having a desk job but came to like it- my boss in there was Wing Commander Avro Anson an old friend initially from Point Cook where he was a Warrant Officer pilot, then 1AD from where I left for the Antarctic in 1959. I had been in Victoria Barracks only perhaps 5 months when he offered me the job of going to Switzerland to assess spares for the Army's Pilatus Porter aircraft. My qualifications apparently were that I was not too much into the Air Force stores system and I had to think outside the box and develop a simple, early days of computers, parts listing system using punch cards.
And so the rush started- I met Warrant Officer Blue Buchanan, an Army Motor mechanic from the Army Cataloguing department at Albert Park Barracks. We were told to be ready to go in 6 weeks and to try to learn some German, the RAAF School of Languages helped with a couple of tapes but learning was slow! In the event it was more like 3 months before we left.
There was a problem with travel as Blue, a Warrant Officer in those days was entitled to first class travel; so that we could travel together the solution was to temporarily promote me! And so I became probably, the only W Officer airframe fitter in the Air Force- about 8 months after my last promotion. The job overseas entailed travel inside Switzerland, to Paris regularly and once to the U.K. It was interesting but work at the factory was slowed by their primitive listing and parts numbering systems which were in the throes of converting to computer listings. From the expected 4 months it carried on for 10 months and then it was back to HQSC - where I reverted to Flight Sergeant for a couple of years until a fairly early promotion to Warrant Officer Engineer, 20 years after a boy joined the RAAF Apprentice scheme.
The notification of the promotion was a funny happening. I received a phone call to report to my Group Captains office – wondering what it was about while walking I dismissed a promotion as being many years too early. However, when I walked into his office I was greeted in turn by three other old Group Captains by the rank I held when they knew me; and so, I was greeted smilingly first as Corporal, then as Sergeant, then as Flight Sergeant after which my boss said – congratulations- “Warrant Officer”. Each one had known me when I had done something special whilst under their command. It was serendipitous that three of his old friends were visiting him on that day. I was a little worried that there might be repercussions having jumped many people senior to me. However, I never heard of anyone appealing my promotion.
We were given staff of 1 civilian clerk, 1 corporal equipment and 1 Army Private. Together we listed spares, assessed requirements, wrote instructions for use, had listings printed, published, bound and Blue and I delivered the initial copies to Army units as needed. We had to liaise between the services, civilian departments and nicely apply some pressure to get the job done as quickly as possible. All of the paperwork was done to our simple computer listing system for Army use. Then 6 years went by and Government instructions were to conform to the one universal system- as this happened I realised that I had had a good, unusual life and it was time to move on. I was discharged in January 1974, 24 years after joining up at Wagga Wagga and I then started on a new set of adventures, those included travel, marriage to Esther Powell, 24 years as a farmer in New Zealand back country with our 4 children on correspondence schooling- the eldest Catherine has been a cruise ship captain and now in 2018 is a pilot on the lower Thames in London. Rachael, after travels in Asia and working in Canada; with partner Troy have baby Imogen and are living in Christchurch. Accountant David and his Polish wife Justyna and 16 month Daniel live and work in London. That leaves Sarah a qualified boat skipper, and Vaughan with 6 year old Sam and 2 years old Charlotte living and working in Picton at their boat repair business. All seem to have inherited the travel bug!
. . . When I looked back at my time in the Air Force I had worked outside the service for over a third of the time, and yet , I was promoted very quickly. My last promotion was funny -I was called to my Group Captains office to be greeted smilingly by three other old Group Captains who greeted me by the rank that they knew me from. The first one from when I first went to the Antarctic, the second one Knew me from Malaya when I took charge of an isolated corrosion problem on a Sabre jet fighter , thus saving dismantling and shipping the aircraft back to Australia.[I knew the process from corrosion work on Hercules transport planes a couple of years before,] And the third one knew me from Paris meeting me monthly when I had to fly there from working for the army in Switzerland.My boss then said congratulations Warrant Officer! So I finished up one of the first ex apprentice Warrant Officer Engineers.
The final recommendation came after I acquired some technical information that I should not have seen. After showing my Wing Comander boss in Melbourne and explaining it to him, he directed me to take it and explain it to the Chief engineer of the Air Force in Canberra. He was impressed and asked how I had achieved it. I told him my quite a complicated tale- after I had finished he shook his head and I assume he thought “James Bond” and went straight off to the promotions department and pushed a rise in rank through !
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