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Instead of nauseating Easter chocolate treats,Little Darwin has received two great letters which were sent by a teenage Serviceman ,Thomas William Scott,of Adelaide, when based in the Territory during WW11 . In the first letter, dated 13/11/42,he wrote to a mate,Fritz, in Adelaide, and told him the trip up to the Territory had been a "fair bastard "and that he did not think he would ever want to come back here after the war.
On the initial trip north, during which there was “ a lot of strife”, they got one decent meal a day. You could sleep on a barbed wire fence after that experience , the last stage of the journey made in cattle trucks . During the first few weeks, Scott was made the cook and the meals were “terrific”- a description, he admitted, which could be taken any way you liked.
One morning he got the curry powder mixed up with the egg powder...“and you should have seen their faces when they tried to eat it. " It was so”bloody hot” , they were drinking water all day to cool off. His attempt at making cream also failed because he used flour as an ingredient .Glad indeed was he to see the cooks arrive and take up their duties.
Part of the letter seems to imply that he had seen a promising horse which he might bring back down south to win the 1945 Melbourne Cup.
MOSQUITOES ! They were so big that they were caught in rabbit traps and trained to be water carriers. BEETLES! Chew tobacco . WHITE ANTS !They carry your boots away if you leave them out at night .CROCODILES : He had seen one about five foot long, and he would not want one to take a liking to him in the water as he might come home with a “squeeky”(sic ) voice.
The moon was becoming brighter and the Japs were expected any night.
Despite all these drawbacks, he felt fitter than ever. There were movies once a week shown on a screen made from canvas slung between two saplings, swinging gently in the breeze. If it rained, you just sat watching as the show continued. WEATHER : “Bloody hot.”
In the other letter to Fritz, dated 9/5/43,Scott , a Leading Aircraftsman, born at Norwood,said it was being written while he was in hospital after a month away in the islands " on jobs " , returning with pneumonia and sandfly bite poisoning.
Of late he had been sailing and flying. Fritz , it seemed ,was in the railway service ,perhaps an engine driver, at Mile End, Adelaide .It was almost a year since Scott had joined up .With a bit of luck, he could be back in Adelaide in the New Year and would like a good game of soccer . The possibility of him becoming a goal umpire is also discussed . Mention is made of “ Moonshine” who had his 21st birthday and had been " the union adviser ".
Young Frankie , not 17, had put up his age and signed on to serve outside the Commonwealth in the merchant navy. Scott signed off both letters ,Your Old Cobber ,Scottie, the last with kisses for Nance and Pat, with instructions for the girls not to fight over them.
The letters, part of a pile discovered in a southern op shop, were delivered to us by former Darwin resident, Beverley Bird . More excerpts from the letters, which give a great first- hand account of the Territory during the war years , will appear exclusively in Little Darwin .
