大象传媒

Except for crew and gun crew (one gun mounted on the foredeck) we were all women and children. I spent my days chasing after Jonathan up and down the companion ways and trying to persuade him to eat the somewhat unpalatable food. However, he remained well, while many others fell ill with enteritis. We saw no enemy ships or planes, but the gunners blew up a floating mine. Jonathan ran around the deck all day and, three days out from Freemantle when the ship was tipping around a lot, he escaped and fell from the top of an iron ladder onto the lower deck. There were a number of women sitting around, but being immersed in their own affairs, they did not notice him. It was a horrifying moment, but amazingly the doctor found nothing but a large bruise.

Nevertheless, on arrival in port, some kind Red Cross souls came on board and took him off to a Perth hospital for further examination, and I was told I could visit, but only to look through a window. This was really the end for me, and I sat down on the deck and wept. No-one noticed, as they were all gathering luggage and children to disembark, and eventually I gathered myself together and climbed into the coach which was to take us five miles into Perth.

What a truly depressing journey on the long straight road, lined with, what seemed to my eyes, to be little tin roofed shacks, like chicken houses, on plots of sand. It was afternoon, and we were taken to a Church Hall for cups of tea and told we were to be billeted, temporarily, in one of the schools. I was so sad for my opposite neighbour, as she had a very sick infant and only a drawer from one of the chests for it to sleep in.

I found a car to the hospital the next morning to peer through the window. I think I was still wearing the shorts and shirt I wore from Singapore and my hair was somewhat unkempt. It seemed so extraordinary to see all the 鈥渓ocals鈥� going around in an unruffled way, smartly dressed even to hats and gloves! Perhaps it was Sunday. I was somewhat shocked to see the large notice at the hospital gate 鈥橣or the children of the poor and needy鈥�. In fact, that was me, as I had only the 拢10 we were allowed to bring from Singapore.

We were told the school term was about to begin, so we had to find accommodation 鈥� not easy when the city was full of holiday folk from the 鈥榦utback鈥�. I found a single room in a small hotel, but as the hospital was discharging Jonathan and my cash was getting low, I had to hunt for a bedsitter, looking at the adverts each day.

The Perth suburban roads are straight and go on for miles, so I invested 15 shillings in a pusher for Jonathan, a very simple little chair on wheels, with a long handle with a ring on the end, so it could be hung on one of the hooks on the backs of buses. We went quite a few miles, and each address we arrived at was so dirty and full of flies that I wouldn鈥檛 have taken Jonathan there, or else the landlady, with cold eyed disapproving stare said 鈥淣o children鈥�. So away back on the bus, with cash that had got so low that I thought that I should ask for a Government loan, as no funds had come into the Bank from Singapore, and the news was getting worse daily.

So I went to the Town Hall and I was told there would be an allowance for us both of 拢3.5s. I said this would be somewhat inadequate for lodging and food and was told there were some kind souls in a room at the back who had offered to give shelter to 鈥榚vacuees鈥� as we were called, and we were at once 鈥榯aken under the wing鈥� of an awfully sweet girl called Kathleen, who had a small daughter Jonathan鈥檚 age and whose husband, a padre, had gone off with the Forces. We liked each other and the children 鈥榞ot on鈥� together. It was a restful little house and garden, where the children had a swing overhung with grape vines and masses of grapes beginning to ripen.

I decided I must find Dorothy, and traced her to one of the big RC hospitals, where I was very shocked to see the elder of her two girls just recovering from severe enteritis. Poor Dorothy, she looked exhausted, and was planning to go to some cousins who had a huge sheep station in New South Wales.

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