Despite the earlier belief that a Japanese invasion was imminent , boredom set in at the Mataranka Army camp in the Northern Territory , relieved slightly by two-up , beer nights, occasional concerts. It has to be said that the camp’s litterateurs - playwright Sumner Locke Elliott , journalist /cartoonist Frank Hardy and writer Frank Ryland - obviously found the place inspirational , providing ideas for short stories, skits , yarn telling , a ground breaking Australian play . There was the irreverent, aptly named camp paper, Troppo Tribune , in which Hardy , a Communist, played a large part , which helped let off steam for one and all .
Nevertheless, sitting out there in the bush waiting for something to happen could and did drive men crazy. It was a situation somewhat like the British military TV spoof It Aint Half Hot Mum . The photograph at the top of this post is from the Little Darwin Ephemera Collection and shows hairy "chorus girls" in New Guinea during WW11.
Another person who influenced Frank Hardy at Mataranka was Paul Mortier who had trained for the Catholic priesthood but became an avid Communist. He had come from the Adelaide River area where there were larger Australian and American camps . Entertainment there had included concerts .
Among the photographs from that period is one taken at Adelaide River showing the 6th Division Front Line Diggers Concert Party which had returned from the Middle East. In the actors posing for the photograph were three female impersonators ; the orchestra consisted of men all wearing suits, some with bowties. More and more Australian and American concert parties toured Australia and New Guinea and the islands as the war progressed , some with genuine females. The film star John Wayne came to the Territory.
The late NT Administrator , former MHR, Jock Nelson, told this writer that there was a belief that a huge cache of liquor had been buried by Americans in or near one of the NT camps.
At Mataranka , Mortier recruited others in the camp into Communism and was involved with Hardy in production of the Troppo Tribune . Hardy was said to have become Mortier’s best friend , a relationship which would later have an unexpected big impact on the battle for Aboriginal land rights in the future .
In the Mataranka area was an Army workshop which carried out repairs on vehicles , a hospital , an ammunition dump and railway sidings ran from the main line. A large team of Aborigines helped load trains and do other jobs . An Aboriginal boy , Bardyal (Lofty) Nadjamerrek, aged about 16, chopped wood and did other tasks. He became a recognised artist with work in the National Gallery of Australia, the Victorian Art Museum , the Museum of Contemporary Art , Sydney , and other museums and major collections .
The above l944 hand-made Christmas card from Madang , New Guinea, is another example of Australian fighting men’s humour . It was sent by “Toby” to Bonds Tours staff in Adelaide. In 1945 Mortier married Dulcie Haslam , an arts student who had been one of the foundation members of the Sydney University Labour Club , active in pre-war student politics. She had heard Paul speaking in the Domain along with other activists of the day including Rupert Lockwood . A talented writer, she is said to have played second fiddle to her husband’s driving political interests and campaigns. Later she became a teacher in languages in secondary schools .
Mortier, a highly strung individual, passionately supported and promoted Communism . After the war he religiously wrote copious material for the Communist paper ,Tribune, for which he received little remuneration. He was a devoted foot-soldier for the cause, an educated cultural voice . The National Library of Australia catalogue has a Paul Mortier listing in connection with North Star , a Darwin Communist publication , dated May l947
In l948, after the Sydney Morning Herald ran a large article about Communist influence in the People’s Council for Culture , several organisations disassociated themselves –the British Drama league, the Sydney Literary and Debating Society and the Metropolitan Theatre .
Mr Justice Nicholas, asked to have his name as a vice president of the British Drama League removed. Paul Mortier, secretary of New Theatre, in a letter to the paper pointed out errors in the article ,one being that Katharine Susannah Prichard was a member of the executive committee .
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Arrested and charged with footpath obstruction in Sydney during a demonstration against the Korean War in l950, Mortier , organiser for the NSW Peace Council, told the court he believed in the Bible only as a very interesting historical document . He refused to answer when asked if he was a Communist . Placards worded HANDS OF KOREA and CALL OFF THE YANKS had been displayed . During the Cold War, when ASIO agents sat in their car outside the Mortier home, Mrs Mortier told a daughter to take out a cup of tea.
Mortier wrote the above pamphlet in l955 which explained the relationship between art and politics, dismissing artists who said there was no politics in art . He presented what was described as “the party line.”It aimed to find the correct way to use art in the struggle against imperialism and build socialism. Mortier criticised the second volume of Manning Clark’s Select Documents In Australian History ,1851-1900 in the Tribune, saying the historian lacked Marxist understanding and had rejected class struggle as the key to historical development.
Mortier also took a stand against jazz in the early l950s. As " the party theorist,"he urged the young to turn away from the eroticism, escapism and subjectivism of jazz for folk music. As a result, the Eureka Youth League played a leading role in the revival of Australian folk .
Mortier also took a stand against jazz in the early l950s. As " the party theorist,"he urged the young to turn away from the eroticism, escapism and subjectivism of jazz for folk music. As a result, the Eureka Youth League played a leading role in the revival of Australian folk .
Both Paul and Dulcie Mortier were devastated in 1956 when the Soviet leader, Nikita Krushchev revealed the barbarity of Stalin’s ruthless rule. In the upheavels caused by the revelations,there were splits in the Communist Party of Australia and Paul came under attack. Prone to bouts of severe depression, he overdosed on barbiturates in 1965. Saddened by the shock suicide of his wartime friend , Frank Hardy was going through a tough patch in his own life , short of money and not sure of the future. Darwin beckoned , so he hitchhiked north and became involved in a new battleground and over the coming years would also work on a major novel intended to honour Paul Mortier, but which ended up a disappointment for his widow. NEXT : The Unlucky Australians .
