World War Two Military Operations.

It was a long way from Daly Waters to Tennant Creek today – a trip of around 420  kms on another day of 36C degrees. The topography was quite featureless and the environment grew gradually more arid. The trees of yesterday were replaced with small desert shrubs. It was a rather boring drive.

We did find two impressive memorials along the way. The first, monument was near the spot where the final join of the Overland Telegraph Line was made on 22nd August 1872.  This was a very exciting day and celebrations were held in every town between Adelaide and Darwin. Flags were hoisted, the bells of the Adelaide Town Hall rang out, and toasts were given in Darwin when the news broke of the successful completion of this Overland telegraph line. The line stretched from Adelaide to Darwin where it linked with a subsea cable that enabled, for the first time, rapid communication between the Australian colonies and the rest of the world,

The second memorial was to the Reverand John Flynn, a Presbyterian minister, who founded the Flying Doctor Service. Flynn was deeply concerned that two thirds of Australians in the outback had no access to a minister, doctor or nurse. He saw that only radio and fast, efficient transport would overcome the inlands vast distances. At that his ideas seemed wild and revolutionary. He developed a scheme which combined aircraft radios and medicine to provide a mantle of safety for inland people.

This iconic and wonderful Australian organisation (RFDS) now provides medical services to everyone across the vast outback areas of Australia. I originally thought that their aircraft were eqipped as air ambulances but I was very wrong. they are actually equpped as mobile intenive care facilities and can deal with the most serious of illnesses and injuries along with transport to regional hospitals.

We stopped in the WW2 town of Elliot for a cuppa and learned something about the history of this town from the information boards around its museum. The town did not exist before WW2 and was established a service base for supplies that were being rushed up, the then track, to Darwin. It comprised a large supply camp , hospital and transport faculties. The highway wasn’t sealed until later in 1941. 

One of Cathy’s doctor colleagues, Nick, spent some time here at Elliot after graduating. I admire his fortitude as there is nothing much here to keep one occupied or interested. The very uninteresting pub seems right at home in this little uninspiring town.

The war memorial at Elliot is on the site of the WW2 staging camp and features a statue of a rather short soldier who is somewhat out of proportion. I gues that he provides a good focus for local people on days such as Anzac Day however,

My father spent his first two years in the army in this area of Australia. I am not sure whether he ever got as far north as Elliot but i am sure that was posted a little further south in Tennant Creek and Barrow Creek. This photo of him was taken somewhere in Tennant Creek in 1942. We’ll allocate some energy over the next couple of days to see if we can find some of the locations where he might have been posted.

Further south along he highway, we saw a turn off to a place called Newcastle Waters which, at first, we didn’t consider taking. However we did quick U-turn and drove about three kilomtres into what can only be called a ghost town. The town consists of the remnants of the Newcastle Waters township near the cattle station of the same name. One of the highlights is the Jones’ Store, originally known as George Man Fong’s house, which has some excellent signage about the history of the town, and the Junction Hotel which was built in the early 1930s. The nearby waters are known for their impressive flocks of birds, particularly after “The Wet”. 

Most of our drive was through rather boring country although our interest was increased just before we reached Tennant Creek where we could see smoke from a series of fires burning to the west of the highway. We could see these many kilometres away and intially depbted whether the dark cloud on the horizon was actually cloud or smoke. I am sure that in the remote part of the country no maction was being taken to fight them . They will just birn out in a few day leavingf some blackened land but no threat to people or property.

Near Tennant Creek, we found the old telegraph station. The explorer John McDouall Stuart travelled through Central Australia three times between 1860 and 1862 and part of the point of his journeys was to establish a route for the overland telegraph line which would link Australia to Europe. So gifted was McDouall Stuart that when the telegraph line was completed it closely followed his route through the area.

In 1872 a repeater station was built 11 km north of the present town. The repeater station was the first sign of European settlement in the region and was, for many years, the only European structure in the region. Consequently it was a common meeting place for drovers, prospectors and others travelling the track from Port Augusta to Darwin. It closed down in 1979 and currently operates as a museum.

We had dinner at the Tennant Creek RSL hoping that someone would be able to tell us about the location of the WW2 camp. No one seemed to know and the only information that we could find was on the information board near the telegraph Station that said that in WW2, the army had a transit camp nearby. This would be 10 kilometres to the north of tennant Creek – around the same location as the original creek (currently dry) can be found.

One historical web page that I found said that Tennant Creek was declared out of bounds to military personnel in late 1941 and in September 1942 all licensed premises along the highway were made out of bounds to service personnel. Most convoys passed through Tennant Creek without officially stopping, though the town’s branch of the Country Women’s Association became famous for providing free tea and sandwiches to the convoys on their way through! 

Tomorrow, we will pass through the locality of Barrow Creek where I know Dad was posted for some of hi time in the Militia. The Militia (Reseves)  were only legally allowed to operate within Australian territory and in 1942 Dad transferred over to the full time Army (AIF). He was eventually posted to a supply company in Borneo and Labuan that were supporting military operations to retake islands in the Pacific Theatre of WW2.