Lorne Victoria Australia

The log cabin was built (1937) as a community hall for the campers who stayed at Queens Park and also served a useful purpose as a Spotters Site. It had a large stone deck along the front and very large windows from which you could spot in wet weather, these gave a clear view out over Louttit Bay and the open ocean and across to Aireys Inlet, a large open fireplace on the south end which was always kept well supplied with wood by the caretaker. The building situated just above the Great Ocean Road on the South side and facing East.

Interview of Lorne Spotters conducted by Joan & Graham Wheal July 1995

The first people interviewed were Marj Gaylard (nee Patterson) and Marj Grant (nee Jarratt).
Members of Lorne Spotters  are listed below:

• Helen Hughes Officer in Charge (Chemist)
• Bert Hughes
• Olga Armytage in charge of the Rosters.
• Chas Read, Caretaker of Queens Park Camp and also the Spotters hut which was of course included in the Camp area. (1st World War Veteran)
• Hector Stribling
• Don Stewart (Snr)
• Hubert Howell
• George Armytage
• Mick Murnane
• Monty Craigie
• Fred Harlock
• Nellie Harlock
• Miss Pethabridge (Chemists Assistant)
• Nita Hayward
• Win Hayward
• Eileen Clissold (Later married Jack Quick)
• Eva Holloway (Later married Frank Norton)
• Marj Patterson (Later married Bruce Gaylard)
• Marj Jarratt (Later married Wally Grant)
• Bid Hammerton (Later married Lyn Jarratt).
• Maggie Pairbairn McIntyre, Varna
• Grace Challis, later married Hal Brown
• Cyril Varcoe

Junior Members included

• Murray Mill
• Cliff Green
• Kelvin Dare
• Shirley Clissold (later married Alan Heathcote)

This list may not be complete as Marj was only listing these from memory.

HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT SPOTTERS WERE REQUIRED, WAS IT IN THE PAPER OR JUST WORD OF MOUTH?

I don’t know as I was approached by Mrs Hughes from the Chemist Shop who. asked a large number of people around town. I volunteered and I am not sure how Mari Patterson came to join whether it was because I joined or not, I think it was in 1942.

Chas Read was the caretaker at the Caravan Park and lived there all the time in a hut at the entrance to Queens Park Camp, but as far as I know he put his bed up in the Spotters Hut and was on 24 hour call

The log cabin was built as a community hall for the campers who stayed at Queens Park and also served a useful purpose as a Spotters Site. It had a large stone deck along the front and very large windows from which you could spot in wet weather, these gave a clear view out over Louttit Bay and the open ocean and across to Aires Inlet, a large open fireplace on the south end which was always kept well supplied with wood by the caretaker. The building situated just above the Great Ocean Road on the South side and facing East

DID THE SPOTTERS KEEP GOING TO THB END OF THE WAR?

Yes the group operated from 1942 until 1945.

HOW DID YOU GET THERE WHEN YOU WERE ON DUTY, DID YOU HAVE TO WALK?

This question was handed to Mari Gaylard to answer and was fairly simple as walking was the main transport in those days. Marg mentioned that she had a bike which she sometimes used. There was access by car but as we didn’t have one walking was the way to go.

HOW MANY HOURS DID YOU WORK IN EACH SHIFT?

We would go at 1 o’clock until approximately 6 o’clock. Our shifts were mostly on a Sunday as I was working at the telephone exchange, Mari Patterson worked nearly every Sunday with Nita Hayward.

WAS THERE ANY PAYMENT FOR THIS WORK?

No there wasn’t any payment or meals supplied, they all took their lunch and some took a thermos flask with a hot drink and everyone was volunteer as we all felt we were helping the War effort in some wav and felt quite proud to do it.

Marj Gaylard brought along a badge with Volunteer Air Observers Corp. with wings in the middle and the words Observer.

DID YOU HAVE ANY OTHER RECOGNITION OR WAS THAT ALL YOU RECEIVED?

At the end of the War we got a big certificate, and at one time some went into Geelong to receive their badges, neither of us went. On the badge is a number so obviously they were all registered.

GRAHAM NOTICED THE NUMBER AND ASKED IF THEY WERE IDENTIFIED BY THE NUMBER?

He was told that they were only known by name, the badge was received early on in the course.

WHAT SORT OF TRAINING DID YOU RECEIVE?

The only training we received was about an hour at the site explaining what the job entailed, what to look for, and how to report it, as well as having some charts on the wall showing the different type of planes.

DID YOU HAVE FIELD GLASSES AS WELL AS A TELESCOPE?

Field glasses were certainly supplied and some of the Spotters had their own personal glasses which they would bring along to use. (In one of the photo’s shown a telescope was in view on the landing out front)

WAS HECTOR STIBLING ONE OF THE SPOTTERS?

Yes just for a short time and then he joined up in the Air Force.

WAS THERE A PHONE IN THE SPOTTERS BUILDING?

Yes a phone was there to make reports but it did not get you through directly to the headquarters, only to the Lorne manual exchange although it was a priority line as there were only two lines to Geelong You then gave number which connected you to Geelong or possibly Laverton or Point Cook although we didn’t ever know who the call had gone and in those days you didn’t ask questions. Generally just after your call had gone through there would be a report from Wye River as there was a Spotting Station there run by Dickie Bird at the Rookery Nook Hotel, every plane seen was to be reported.

DID YOU SIMPLY REPORT AS MUCH AS YOU KNEW ABOUT EACH PLANE AS TO WHETHER IT WAS ONE ENGINE OR TWO AND WHICH DIRECTION IT WAS HEADING?

Yes this was fairly limited as our knowledge was not that great, there were several large illustrations near the phone on the wall and on the desk were some smaller diagrams. The planes were mostly Beauforts and Avro Ansons, which we got to be pretty good at identifying, and got in bit of a dither if anything different was spotted, most times they came in over the Lighthouse at Aireys Inlet, if you happened to hear one and it was not visible because of cloud we used to get quite excited and worried about it, we would eventually see it and then everything would be alright. Most times they came over in two’s but sometimes when four would come over we would get in a bit of a dither wondering if more were come. I don’t ever remember anything coming over that we could not identify, although at times some small trainer planes which were Wirraways which would sneak over the back of you and would not be heard until they were nearly on top of you.

Even though in one sense it was a fun thing to be around there, it was still a very serious it job we were doing, and we were always very concerned that we would make a mistake, sometimes a big flock of seagulls past or a large mass of seaweed would gather out to sea and wewould at first think it was maybe a submarine, your imagination would run riot for a while until the seagulls took off and flew away or the kelp would shift.

JOAN WHEAL ASKED IF THEY HAD MODELS OF PLANES AS SHE HAD HEARD THAT SOME SPOTTERS HAD THESE?

They said they couldn’t remember any models but only just charts.

JOAN ASKED IF THEY HAD CLOUD CHARTS?

Both ladies replied yes to that as it gave them an idea of the type of clouds. Most Sundays on duty they saw at least one plane. One thing they remembered was a plane going over making a strange a noise but decided  if noise there was a problem that the others flying with it would have contact with the base if necessary.

WAS THERE ANY PASSWORD WHEN YOU MADE YOUR REPORT?

There was no password but you simply told them that it was from Queens Park Lorne. But no code number was ever used. Anglesea Spotters were known as Queen 1.

JOAN ASKED IF THEY MADE WRITTEN REPORTS AS WELL AS PHONING THE INFORMATION?

No phone calls were made and the only written part was to sign on and off.  No knowledge of any written reports from the previous person on duty as they would have remembered reading if they had seen anything.

GRAHAM ASKED ABOUT MENTION OF SOMEONE HAVING SEEN A SUBMARINE IN THE AREA?

To the best of their knowledge they had never seen anything of submarine. Some of the locals mentioned that a submarine had been sighted but not by these particular Spotters.

This story told by Marj Grant as a matter of interest this was noticed from her own house at 18 Grove Road at about 11pm there was terrific heavy gun fire out to sea and a lot of searchlights, this went for 20 minute and I remember my poor old dad thinking that the Japanese were going to land, and we were all very worried and then it was all over and never heard any more about it. No doubt that would have been reported from spotters but we never ever read it so that confirms that there were never any written reports.

I SUPPOSE THEY HAD THE PLACE BLACKED OUT AT NIGHT?

Mari Grant was never at the Spotters Cabin late at night was not sure about precautions there but the town was blacked out and Blackout Wardens were about, Cecil Clissold, Jim Allen who were very strict, the Post Office was heavily blacked out. When some of the boys came home on leave they were surprised to see Lorne blacked out when the places the had been fighting in had been lit up as normal.

I remember a funny story about all the windows at the Anglican Church being blacked out. After the War was over whoever was doing the cleaning at the church cleaned the lower windows and never thought of the top half until the Reverend Bull was there 25 years later and commented while preaching that he couldn’t stand looking up at the top part of the windows and not being able to see the sunlight come in so he had them cleaned the next day.

Marj Pattersons father Alex had been a member of the Voluntary Defence Force here in Lorne. George Crabbe was Captain, Alex Patterson was the Lieutenant, they had a track cleared through the bush which was made to evacuate the women and children out if the enemy had landed, Mr Patterson used to always say that he had a bullet for each of his family and one for me and I used to alway laugh and say well give me a sporting chance. I know of two of the local girls who always had a suitcase packed which seems incredible now. But you grew up in time of fear and this was all part of the way you lived.

GRAHAM HAD ASKED ABOUT ANY FUNNY STORIES?

When the War first started the switchboard was in the Post Office in about 1941 the switchboard was moved into what had been the Postmaster’s lounge room as he had moved up into a house in Fern Avenue, so that meant that the boy who was on night duty was sleeping in what was virtually the Postmasters lounge beforehand and of course everything was very secretivc and in middle of the night the boy heard the morse start up in the Post Office and even though he could read morse this was not clear enough for him to read and it was almost like a secret code and he was very worried so he rang the Postmaster who in turn rang the local Policeman and then rang back to tell the boy they would sneak down. I don’t know if the Postmaster had been issued with a gun or if the Policeman issued him with a gun at the time, at about 3 in the morning they crept down and were going to burst into the Post Office thinking that someone was sending a secret message only to find that at sometime during the night the switch on the morse had slipped down and was only receiving a broken message.

Interviewing Eileen Quick (nee Clissold) by Graham Wheal July 1995

In 1942 local cars were all driving with blackout lights, some of the boys returning on leave thought this hilarious as Singapore which had fallen to the Japanese was lit up, with precautions taken. Eileen doesn’t ever remember having a Spotters Badge or a Spotters Certificate. She could remember one morning about 9 am went six large birds, that flew right across the horizon and at first thought it was planes reporting this, she was told that they had no planes up which made her think she was connected to Laverton. They often saw one or two planes together. Eileen commented that she could only identify a couple of types of planes They always wanted to know the direction of travel of the planes.

The Lorne Spotters had not sighted any Submarines but were later told that one had been sighted under Mount Defiance and one under Big Hill

Mr Bird at Wye River Spotters had sighted one at Mount Defiance and commented that it might have been the same one supposedly sighted at Big Hill.

After the War a neighbour of Eileens at Dhurringile in the 1970’s who had been in the Navy during the War told her that they had stopped ship off the Western Australian coast with Germans on board. When the were being interrogated one mentioned that they had been in a submarine in Louttit Bay and some of them had come ashore in a small boat and landed on some, rocks near a pier, after this they went to a hotel and bought some beer, then went down the street and got some food and mingled with the people on the beach. But they were too frightened to speak because of their German accent. They supposedly had a map of the township and were intrigued by the fact that all the roads went up to the mountains, also on the map was Louttit Bay.

Sources:

• Lorne Historical Society Collection