´óÏó´«Ã½

Meanwhile the news of the war in Europe was disastrous and our men in the Far East seemed to have vanished from the face of the Earth. At Chepstowe winter was approaching and, having at last contacted the Company which had made their HQ in Sydney, I now had the wherewithal to buy some winter clothes, so Joan and I went shopping in Ballarat.

Uncle Jim made lovely log fires for the cold evenings, but still the sun shone and the air was bracing. We began to get better news of operations against the Japs, with the Americans winning the naval battle of Midway and gradually getting a foothold on some of the islands, and overrunning Guadalcanal. These were the marines and some were withdrawn for a rest while fresh troops took their place. People round about were asked to entertain them, so Aunt Daisy had Paul and Dean, who enlivened the household greatly, but the visit almost created a tragedy.

One afternoon, Jonathan and I went to fetch the house cow from a paddock overlooking the dry, rocky bed of a creek, where the boys were shooting at the numerous rabbits with what seemed to be tracer bullets. As we watched, there was a line of fire running up the bank which was obviously unstoppable. So we ran back to the house with the news, and Uncle Jim rang up neighbours who seemed to arrive very quickly with their trucks, water tanks and beaters, while the fire had spread over the dry paddock in a terrifying way. The neighbours seemed to take it all very calmly, and luckily the wind was blowing away from Chepstowe House, but the fire almost engulfed a house five miles away before the wind changed, and the firefighters managed to extinguish the flames, and all came back to Chepstowe for refreshments.

Jonathan’s third birthday passed, and soon afterwards the sheep shearers came, a band who travelled and lived for 2 — 3 weeks in a bunkhouse near the shearing shed. Joan and Aunt Daisy had to produce enormous meals all day with the usual cups of tea. I decided to take Jonathan up to Wangaratta where Freyda, ( a friend whose husband had escaped from Singapore) was living with her cousins. Jonathan and I stayed at the pub opposite, a Wild West sort of place on a corner, and there was quite a lot of illicit drinking after hours; so someone was posted at the door to signal if there was any police activity, then everyone would disappear underneath the bar — all very amusing.

Every day Freyda and I took the children up into the hills a picnic lunch and would sometimes find an old man panning the stream for gold. The country was wild and beautiful and the air exhilarating. Freyda’s husband Geoff arrived one day to say goodbye before leaving for a secret assignment with the RAAF
The Diary of Mrs Ruth Irving-Bell Part 6

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.