Committee Edward Willis Posted January 26 Committee Share Posted January 26 Introduction The tiny nation of Timor-Leste, lying in the Indonesian archipelago, one hour’s flight northwest of Darwin, holds a special spot in the heart of many Australians who watched their epic struggle for freedom from occupation by Indonesia and their vote for independence in a United Nations referendum in August 1999. So it is a surprise to most people to learn that in World War II, when Timor-Leste was still a Portuguese colony, links were forged between Portuguese Timor and Newcastle and the Hunter Region. There were Novocastrians among the Australian commandos who, together with Dutch troops, invaded the colony and fought daringly in the mountainous country against the Japanese who had followed the Allied troops into the country. After a year of guerrilla warfare, the Australian commandos were evacuated, accompanied by hundreds of locals. For 15 months 540 of the evacuees from Portuguese Timor were accommodated at a camp at Bob’s Farm in the Port Stephens Shire, only 50 km NE of Newcastle. The camp was to play a role in diplomatic relations between Australia and Portugal, between the evacuees and Hunter Region communities, and between Newcastle and Portuguese Communists. This article covers the reasons for and consequences of Allied troops entering Timor before the Japanese, a brief examination of the Australian commandos exploits in Portuguese Timor, including Novocastrian commando Geoff Laidlaw, considers why Portuguese and Timorese were evacuated with the Australian soldiers, and why Bob’s Farm was chosen for an evacuation camp. These considerations are followed by a detailed account of the experiences of the evacuees in the Hunter region, embedded in the political, racial and class beliefs of the 1940s and new millennium postscript. I have a personal interest in the topic. I became an activist for Timorese self-determination after the Dili massacre in November 1991, I was present at the 1999 vote for independence and from late 1999 I lived in Timor-Leste for three years running an organisation for women, and still retain a connection. Portuguese Timor In 1941 Portuguese Timor had a population of 460,000 Timorese, 2,000 Chinese, and 400 Portuguese. 300 were administrators and soldiers and 100 were deportados who had been exiled to Timor by Antonio Salazar the fascist dictator of Portugal, for anarchist and Communist agitation, like bomb throwing. [2] Although Portugal was ruled by a fascist and might have been expected to align with the Axis powers of Germany and Italy in the war, Portugal announced that the 550-year-old Anglo-Portuguese Alliance ‘remained intact’. Britain did not ask for its assistance and so Portugal adopted a stance of neutrality. [3] Even before the Japanese entered the war, Australia and the Netherlands East Indies (which included West Timor), were concerned that Japan might take ‘protective custody’ of the strategic, oil-rich Portuguese colony on the eastern end of the island of Timor. [4] Australia was especially nervous that Japan could use Timor as a base to invade Australia. [5] When Japan bombed Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941, and aligned with the Axis powers, it had no plans of alienating Portuguese neutrality. [6] However two days later it was proposed in the Australian War Cabinet that 2/2 Independent Company be sent to Timor. [7] 2/2 was a commando company of specially selected rugged sportsman types who were trained in guerrilla warfare. [8] On 11 December, Britain’s Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs secretly ordered Australia ‘to stand by for joint action with Dutch forces to invade and take control of Portuguese Timor.’ [9] The next day 1400 Australians troops landed in Dutch Timor. The Australian and Dutch commanders sailed on to Dili, the capital of Portuguese Timor, to tell the Governor Manuel de Carvalho that as Japanese ships were in the vicinity, it was urgent that Allied troops land. After communicating with Lisbon, the governor replied, ‘Unless Portuguese Timor is attacked, my forces must resist such a landing’. [10] Diplomatic courtesy was short lived and the Allied commanders said they were going to land troops anyway and that the Portuguese force wastoo small to stop them. So, in what historian Henry P. Frei called ‘Australia’s blundering overreach’, on 17 December 1941, 155 Australian commandos and 260 Dutch (mainly Ambonese) troops, landed unopposed on a beach just west of Dili, and by doing so, brought the war to neutral Portuguese Timor. [11] The 2/2 commandos divided into three platoons which were based outside of Dili to try and escape the malaria rife in the low-lying capital. B Platoon was led by Captain Geoff Laidlaw. Before enlisting Laidlaw lived in the Newcastle suburb of Maryville and worked for Ampol Petrol. [12] He had been a New South Wales junior swimming and surfing champion and Country Rugby League representative. [13] His nickname ‘Bull’ described his ‘powerful build and demeanour’. [14] The Portuguese and Timorese were soon calling him Captain Karabau meaning Captain Buffalo. [15] It was in Germany’s interests that Portugal did not enter the war on the side of the Allies, but in 1942 the oil-rich Portuguese colony began to figure in Japanese strategy. Hitler coalesced and on 14 February ordered his navy ‘not to obstruct Japanese navy plans for as long as the Australians are sitting on Timor’. [16] On the night of 19 February a Japanese Task Force landed in Dutch Timor, while a subsidiary force secured Dili and its airport on the 20th. The Allied troops in the west of the island surrendered on the 23rd. [17] In Portuguese Timor the Australian commandos relocated deeper into the mountainous territory, an began to conduct guerrilla warfare against the undefeated Japanese troops. [18] The Australians were, in general, popular with the Timorese and Portuguese because of their friendliness, sense of humour, bravery, and payment for services rendered. [19] In contrast the Japanese began requisitioning food without payment and abusing the Timorese women. [20] Geoff “Bull” Laidlaw on the right, in Portuguese Timor, 1943 (Damien Parer) https://museum.wa.gov.au/debt-of-honour/the-criados (originally from the Australian War Memorial) Governor Carvalho had forbidden Portuguese officials to assist the Allied forces but many Portuguese did, as did many Timorese. [21] They variously acted as interpreters, guides, intelligence and food gatherers, provided Timorese ponies for transport and use of the administration telephone system between districts, cared for the wounded and hid the commandos from the Japanese. [22] The Timorese boys who looked after individual soldiers, and formed close relationships with them, were known as criados. [23] Geoff Laidlaw soon had Portuguese offering to fight alongside his platoon. These partisans were nicknamed ‘the International Brigade’ and were mainly deportados. [24] One of them, Arsénio Filipe, joined after his house was burnt down by the Japanese, tragically while his Timorese wife was still inside. [25] Another deportado, Alfredo dos Santos, suffered terrible leg wounds in combat with the Japanese. [26] The commandos avoided pitched battles but were relentless in staging skirmishes and ambushes. [27] B Platoon had observation posts overlooking Dili so, in May 1942, Laidlaw decided to stage a night-time raid on the capital. [28] They darkened their faces with charcoal and grease and armed with tommy guns, grenades and rifles tracked along a dry riverbed and a road till they reached what they thought were Japanese barracks. After shooting up the buildings they escaped without loss, claiming 20-30 Japanese casualties. They found out later that one of the huts they had shot up was the garrison’s brothel. [29] Laidlaw won a DSO for this action. [30] The Japanese began landing thousands more troops to deal with these uppity Australian commandos. [31] Newcastle Morning Herald & Miners’ Advocate (NMH), 1 January 1943, 3 Having been colonised by Catholic Portugal, Portuguese Timor had a strong Catholic presence and the priests also helped the Australians. When a RAAF plane crashed into the mountains after bombing Japanese barracks in Maubisse in August 1942, the pilot parachuted into tall grass. He survived but was badly burnt. [32] To avoid his capture by the Japanese, Monsignor Jaime Goulart, the Roman Catholic Apostolic administrator of the diocese of Dili, loaned his car for the pilot to be taken to a hospital where Portuguese doctor Elvira Teles treated him before he was hidden away. For her own safety, she and her daughter then joined the commandos in the bush. [33] In September 1942 250 commandos from 2/4 company were shipped to the island to reinforce the Australians. [34] After this new influx, it became more and more obvious to the Japanese that the Australians were being supported by a large proportion of the Portuguese as well as Timorese villagers so the Japanese began offering payment to the Timorese to kill all the ‘whites’. [35] The Australian force commander Major Callinan asked the Portuguese officials to help deal with the ramifications. They agreed, but only if their women and children were moved to safety. [36] Callinan radioed an appeal to Army headquarters in Australia to allow the evacuation of Portuguese families because he said, the commandos ‘owe their … existence to the … assistance given by these Portuguese.’ Permission was granted. [37] The Japanese had flooded the south coast with troops to prevent supplies and reinforcements being brought to the Aussies and so mass evacuations had to be carefully planned. [38] The first was staged on 30 November 1942 at Betano. At 10pm signals were exchanged with the 75-foot Kuru captained by Novocastrian John A. Grant, an experienced sailor - born on his father’s sailing vessel. Laidlaw was on the beach to ask Grant to evacuate wounded Portuguese fighters and women and children. By 2am Grant had crammed 70 onto his overloaded boat. All hands vacated their bunks for women with babies, the youngest two weeks old. On the morning of 2 December, the evacuees were transferred at sea to a corvette and taken to the safety of Darwin. [39] With even more Japanese battalions arriving and their scorched earth policy to make it difficult for the commandos to get food, the exhausted Australians were given permission to withdraw. [40] Monsignor Goulart who had been beaten by the Japanese for lending his car for the pilot, was worried about the threat to kill ‘all whites’, as two priests had already been slaughtered. He tracked down Callinan’s mountain hideout and requested evacuation for what came to total 10 Portuguese priests and one mestizo, 20 Italian and Filipino Canossian nuns, and two Dutch priests who had escaped from West Timor. [41] 1942 National Archives of Australia (NAA) SP857/6 PH/1862 In December 1942 the Dutch destroyer Tjerk Hiddes carried out three evacuations from beaches on the south coast, virtually under the noses of the Japanese. After marching for days through mountainous territory to reach the rendezvous point, sick and wounded troops, Dutch and Australians soldiers, deportados like the portly anarchist José Gordinho; the priests and nuns - the oldest an eighty year old - and extended families of Portuguese, and of Timorese who had been recruited to report on Japanese movements, they were all whisked away. Laidlaw and his platoon were the last to be embarked on the destroyer’s second trip. On the third visit the destroyer found no troops on the beach but evacuated 45 Portuguese and mixed-race, known as mestizos. [42] For a further evacuation on 9 January 1943, there were too many locals wanting to flee with the Australians so Major Callinan, in the spirit of the White Australia policy, ordered that only 50 ‘pure-blooded’ Portuguese could go. On the hour of midnight HMAS Arunta snuck into the beach. Women and children were embarked first, followed by wounded partisans, like Arsénio Filipe (with his two daughters Natalina and Nomeia), and the last of the soldiers. Only about 20 Portuguese could be fitted in. Two Portuguese men left behind suicided on the beach rather than be captured. [43] It caused great anguish to the Australian soldiers that none of the Timorese criados were evacuated and many of them were believed to be later killed by the Japanese. [44] What was the significance of the Australian commandos fighting in Portuguese Timor? Vitally important for propaganda purposes - they were the only Allied troops undefeated by the Japanese who had overran the regions north of Australia. They tied up Japanese troops for nearly a year - an entire Japanese division for six months - preventing them from being deployed elsewhere. [45] How the Allied presence and the Japanese occupation affected the Timorese will be discussed later. The White Australia policy which restricted residence to people of European descent was forced into hiatus during the war as thousands of ‘coloured’ people gained temporary residence. Asian seamen stranded in Australian ports; Indonesians evacuated alongside Dutch from the Netherlands East Indies; and Chinese from New Guinea. [46] Despite Callinan’s preference for pure-blood Portuguese, many mestizos and Timorese were brought to Australia. The army had evacuated them, so the army had to find a place to house them. [47] Bob’s Farm Evacuation Camp The Australian Army chose a nearly completed commando training camp in sandy scrub at Bob’s Farm, on the Nelson Bay Road in Port Stephens shire for the evacuees. The training camp was not yet occupied and therefore available, and the isolation was considered an advantage as evacuees with knowledge of Allied operations in Timor were to be kept away from public scrutiny if possible. [48] Australian army nurses with some of the evacuees at the camp, 1943 (photo by army nurse Dorothy Turner, held by the Port Stephens Family History Society (PSFHS)) On, or about, Saturday 9 January 1943, having travelled by boat, train and truck, the first evacuees arrived, more than one hundred, half clothed, hungry and invariably without belongings. [49] There were wooden huts with electric lighting, tables and chairs and beds and mattresses, which were allocated to the priests and nuns and what were called the ‘better class’ Portuguese by the camp commandant. The Army Staff Office at Raymond Terrace had provided army tents and personnel including a hygiene sergeant, butcher, and cook. [50] The remainder of the evacuees were housed in the tents which were equipped with a bucket, a basin and a kerosene lamp and slept on hessian ‘bags filled with straw’. Army rations were generous but not to the taste of people used to a rice diet. [51] Newcastle organisations, mainly women’s, rose to the occasion. The Civilian Aid Services speedily organised clothing and footwear, toys and playing equipment, and ‘comforts’ like soap. The Red Cross sent crockery and cutlery, fruit juice and condensed milk. By the Sunday afternoon a 16-bed hospital had been set-up and a living room furnished for the Portuguese doctor Elvira Teles who had helped save the pilot in Timor. She was now a widow because her husband, also a doctor, is believed to have committed suicide in the colony. [52] Dr Elvira Teles with Australian nurses and a doctor, 1943 (Dorothy Turner, PSFHS) The Bomb Victims Auxiliaries turned up with 5,000 garments, shoes and three sewing machines. With lessons from the nuns and local volunteers, 70 women became competent dressmakers. The RAAF Comforts Fund provided rolls of material, as well as sweets and fruit for the children, who it was discovered did not like chocolate although they were keen on cordial. St Vincent de Paul supplied comforts to the nuns, and the Catholic United Services Auxiliary donated necessities so a school could be opened. The priests and nuns gave lessons and the children quickly grasped some English. For the spiritual side, a makeshift church was soon operational. [53] By 19 January, 502 evacuees, of whom the army categorised 400 as ‘natives or half-castes’, had been moved into the hot, spartan camp. [54] The official desire to delineate gradations of race was obvious and they had to be registered as ‘Aliens’. [55] Police from Raymond Terrace attended to take details, signatures if they were literate, and not just fingerprints, also handprints. [56] Each day a medico from a nearby field ambulance unit visited the camp. Private doctors dentists and eye specialists came as required, many voluntarily. Births and operations took place at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in Waratah. And some of the deaths. Four year-old Fernando Neves died from heart failure while under anaesthetic for a surgical operation at the Mater. He was buried, as were others who died while at the camp, in the Catholic section of Stockton cemetery. The officiating minister for Neves’ funeral was Father Edward Jordan from the Stockton Catholic church. [57] Because the camp was so heavily camouflaged it was extremely difficult to find the track in, so the new commandant, Bill Crothers, seconded from the Newcastle Milk Board, propped a white painted tin in the fork of a tree to mark the track for the flow of volunteers, suppliers, and medical personnel driving the gravel road to Bob’s Farm to help. [58] Antonia Soares’ alien registration form (NAA: SP11/2, Portuguese/Soares A; copied at PSFHS) In February 1943, another 32 evacuated Portuguese were sent to the Bob’s Farm camp wearing various items of Australian military uniform. [59] They caused a big stir by visiting Newcastle hotels with these items on display. In a time of war this was strictly not allowed but on being questioned, a few of the men explained that Captain Laidlaw has asked them to join the Australian commandos in Timor and they had been supplied with rifles, steel helmets and military paraphernalia. [60] Following an inquiry, five of the men received back-payment for having been ‘armed, equipped and treated as Australian soldiers …’. [61] At the camp, an Australian army report described what it labelled the Bob’s Farm Caste system. ‘The Europeans eat and live apart and do not mix with the natives. Priests and nuns eat and live in their own quarters, but mix more freely with the native population. Natives, Half Castes, and Whites married to natives live and mess together.’ ‘Class feuds’ were ‘the order of the day’ the report said. ‘One set refused to cook for themselves, another refused to cook for them’. No one would dispose of the kitchen waste. [62] The commandant and hygiene sergeant cleaned the quarters after dark a few times to preserve ‘what little white prestige still remained.’ [63] Australians did not like disparities of race, the Portuguese added class concerns to the mix. One camp resident, Custodio Noronha, the judge advocate and chief of all prisons in Portuguese Timor, was in a difficult position as he had previously sentenced some of the deportados, like Arsénio Filipe, to secondary exile on Ataúro island off Dili. [64] In Timor if the deportados passed an official in the street they had to bow their head. [65] At Bob’s Farm they began asserting that they now lived ‘under democratic Government and each and every person must be considered equal.’ The army report determined that ‘whilst Government officials, deportees and natives are congregated in one community, there will be continual unpleasantness and bitterness.’ [66] The pressure cooker atmosphere was not just between Portuguese officials and deportados. Vasco Marçal was a Chinese-Portuguese mestizo who had killed his girlfriend in Shanghai, been tried for the murder in the Portuguese colony of Macau and imprisoned in Portuguese Timor. After the Japanese invasion he had escaped and joined the Australian commandos, interpreting and cooking for them. [67] Dili, Portuguese Timor. 1946-01-11. Sergeant G. Milsom (Left) talking to Vasco Maria De Marcal (Right), a Portuguese who had been of great assistance to the Australians of Sparrow Force During 1942. He embarked for Australia with the 2/2nd Independent Company at Betano on 1942-12-12 and later worked in a war factory. (Photographer Sgt K.B. Davis) Marçal was now in charge of the Bob’s farm canteen. A Portuguese bureaucrat complained that Marçal gave too much bread to his friends. The deportados objected to eating in a canteen controlled by a convict and other mestizos. A fight erupted and the ‘portly’ José Gordinho shouted to the other deportados to arm themselves with knives. One of them yelled out ‘someday I am going to kill some of these mestizos.’ [68] Hot-blooded Latin temperament was on display and Australian military personnel had to step in to defuse the situation. Alongside these tensions, affection developed between many Australians and camp inmates. Army Nurse Dorothy Turner née Mills had travelled by train from Townsville with one group and recalled ‘It didn’t take long before we got to know and understand each other and we learned quite a bit of their language. … They told us haltingly of their persecution and hatred of the Japanese … For the most part, they were farming … folk,’ she wrote, ‘dusky, dark-eyed smallish people with happy, gentle personalities. Children were very dear to them and were everywhere.’ [69] There were 200 at the camp. [70] Many of the campers used to walk down the hill to the Bob’s Farm Post Office shop run by the Upton family. The Uptons would invite them in for afternoon tea, and a singalong around the piano. They called Mrs Upton ‘Mother’. [72] One of the Portuguese priests would bring some of the boys there to train them in wrestling. [73] The Uptons also had a market garden and let the Timorese take apron loads of pumpkin runners and Princes Feather which the locals labelled a weed. [74] Cheap cooking ingredients to add to the army rations. 1943 photo by Dorothy Turner, PSFHS Photo by NMH photographer Milton Merrilees, Greg and Sylvia Ray’s collection. [71] A deputation of deportados found their way to the Newcastle Trades Hall in Union Street Newcastle in order to send their greetings to the Soviet Red Army for their official birthday on 23 February, and to ask for help in finding paid employment. [75] The son of one of the Newcastle trade union organisers had been a commando in Timor and while he was at home on leave, told the secretary of the Newcastle Federated Ironworkers Association about the camp, saying that if it had not been for the people there, the commandos’ position would have been hopeless. Because of what the commando said and because the men had been ‘deported from Portugal because of their trade union or political activities’ the Trades Hall was keen to help. The president and secretary took two of them and an interpreter to see the Federal Labor Member of Parliament for the Hunter, Rowley James who in turn wrote to Prime Minister John Curtin (Australian Labor Party) that ‘the government should be able to provide employment for Portuguese’ who had ‘assisted the Australian guerrillas in the fight against the Japanese’. [76] The Prime Minister presumably contacted the Man Power Directorate, in charge of filling labour shortages during the war because the NSW deputy director general Chas Bellemore found a few jobs for the men in a pulp-wood plant in Victoria but complained that it was a difficult task because of their lack of English skills. [77] This was before the post-war immigration of non-English speaking European refugees and the Australian government became more prepared to find work for virtual non-English speakers. That year 1943 twenty deportados joined 2,500 others who marched in the biggest ever Newcastle May Day procession in the city, with 50,000 spectators lining Hunter Street. [78] After they returned to the camp from an exhilarating day, the men were rudely brought back down to earth when they were accused of joining the Communist Party by commandant Bill Crothers, as though belonging to the party was a crime. [79] The Communist Party of Australia had been banned in June 1940 by Liberal Party Prime Minister Robert Menzies but the succeeding Prime Minister John Curtin had lifted the ban in December 1942. [80] The men who marched in the May Day parade would continue to be looked on with suspicion by conservative elements in positions of authority. Portuguese Timorese and Australians in front of the Upton’s shop, 1943 (Lucy Upton photograph album, held by PSFHS) In September 1943 one last batch of evacuees arrived at Bob’s Farm, including more deportados. [81] Two security staff were embedded in the camp to keep an eye on the deportados’ conduct, and to suspiciously log all visitors and car registration numbers. One of the new arrivals teamed up with two others to record pro-fascist Portuguese activities in Timor. Some of the pro-fascists were at the camp, like Francisco Mousinho. [82] However, the three deportados could not generate any interest in their information and Mousinho and his wife were having a disastrous year anyway, with a stillborn baby, and their nine year old daughter Ivelise dying from epileptic convulsions on the way to the Mater hospital. [83] Following threats of violence at the camp, Crothers requested the removal of the most troublesome deportados, and Arsénio Filipe, Amadeu Neves and the portly José Gordinho were sent to live at the Salvation Army People’s Palace and found jobs at Lysaght’s, which made galvanised iron sheeting, (where my mother was coincidentally working at the time making Owen machine guns). But these moves were deemed insufficient. The Army decided that 15 deportados should be interned because they knew a great deal about Australia’s commando operations in Timor, and could use that knowledge to put their own interests before Australia’s national security. [84] Their own interests does appear to be a euphemism for their Communist and Soviet Union sympathies and connections with Newcastle Trades Hall. The three men only worked at Lysaght’s for 3 hours before they were arrested, along with the 12 others, on 23 September 1943 and unjustly imprisoned in Liverpool Internment Camp. [85] They were understandably distressed to be categorised as prisoners-of-war and to have to wear the same red clothing as the fascist Italian prisoners. [86] In marked contrast, 18 young Timorese men staying at the Bob’s Farm camp were chosen for Special Operations training at Fraser Island Commando School. [87] A number of them were returned secretly to Portuguese Timor with two Australian soldiers to gather information on Japanese troop movements. [88] Arsénio Filipe believed that the new Portuguese Consul, Álvaro Laborinho, who the deportados labelled a ‘lackey of the fascist Salazar’ was responsible for their imprisonment. [89] Because of the number of Portuguese now in Australia, Laborinho had arrived that month as the first ever official Portuguese Consul in Australia, and he did choose to pay his first visit to the Bob’s Farm camp on the same day the men were relocated to Liverpool. [90] Newcastle Sun 3 May 1943, 3 The camp had the dubious honour of being mentioned in a Japanese propaganda broadcast: ‘Portuguese refugees … are housed in canvas tents with no flooring in a concentration camp near Newcastle.’ Although the tents did have floors, the Consul was also critical of the conditions and wrote to the Australian authorities that owing to the lack of decent accommodation, poor sanitary conditions and isolation, there were growing signs of despondency and sickness in the camp. He thought the evacuees should be relocated. [91] To brighten up their stay, a Christmas party organised by the Evacuees Welfare Committee was held in December 1943. Secretary Mrs R. Tomlinson had gathered bags of marbles; rag dolls and toy animals made by Home Science High School Ladies Auxiliary; and wooden toys made by men from Stockton and Carrington. [92] Unaffected by the racism of the White Australia policy, many people in the community were embracing the camp members, especially the children. Human kindness was manifest. The Department of Interior, which managed the camp, had the racist belief that the Portuguese could be housed elsewhere and found employment, but the ‘native’ and mestizo Timorese would have to stay at Bob’s Farm because they could not be integrated into the community. [93] However the Consul managed to re-accommodate all the evacuees in private hotels and rental houses in Armidale, Narrabri, Glen Innes and find paid employment for some of them. [94] The religious personnel were dispersed into monasteries and convents. [95] On 22 March 1944 the last evacuees departed. [96] An Upton family member recalled ‘all of a sudden everyone disappeared’. [97] Twenty-two evacuees were still living in private accommodation in the region because the men had employment. [98] Custodio Noronha was working as a clerk at the Dairy Farmers Co-operative, presumably organised by Crothers, who was on secondment from the Milk Board. Stephen Yeow, a Singaporean-born mechanic who spoke English well, was employed by Sandeman’s bus service at Salt Ash; and a few men, including the convict Vasco Marçal, had jobs at the Masonite Factory in Raymond Terrace. [99] The deportados in Liverpool internment camp, who of course had been originally exiled to Timor because of their involvement in radical politics, did not stay there quietly. They wrote letters of complaint, requested a visit by the International Red Cross and, more dramatically, went on hunger strikes. The Newcastle branch of the Boilermakers’ Society wrote to the Minister for the Army protesting the internment of ‘anti-fascists’ who had assisted the Australian army fight the Japanese. [100] NSW Supreme Court Judge Mr Justice Davidson was tasked with visiting the Liverpool camp and checking on the situation. He saw proof of the partisanship of at least five Portuguese who had recently healed battle wounds, with one man’s leg having ‘been riddled with machine gun bullets’. [101] (Probably Alfredo dos Santos). Finally in March 1944 the Director General of Security decided to release most of the Portuguese internees. [102] Meanwhile, to accommodate the deportados and their families after the closure of the Bob’s Farm camp, the Portuguese Consul had rented Minimbah, a 13-acre fenced property with a two-story stone building about 9 kilometres from Singleton. The men were not allowed to leave the property but some of their wives were allowed to visit Singleton to shop. A member of the security services visited once a week, their mail was censored, and the local police and shopkeepers were directed to keep a close eye on the residents. The last of the interned deportados were released and relocated to Minimbah in August 1944, bringing Francisco Horta and Arsénio Filipe’s young daughter, Natalina Filipe, into close proximity. [103] After Japan unconditionally surrendered in August 1945, news filtered out that the Timorese had suffered greatly under the Japanese occupation. There had been torture and killings, burning of villages and crops, and the massive relocation of villagers had prevented new crops being sown with the resultant widespread famine. Many towns had been devastated by Australian and American bombing. In late October 1945 Monsignor Jaime Goulart, living at a monastery in Pennant Hills, had been appointed the first Bishop of Dili by the Pope. When interviewed he expressed ‘appreciation of the hospitality and assistance he and his people have received from Australia. But’, he added, ‘remembering Timor, it has only been hospitality repaid.’ [104] Bishop Goulart had no grand cathedral to return to in Dili. It had been bombed by the Japanese. [105] The Australian and Dutch invasion of this tiny country may have been advantageous to the Allies, as mentioned earlier, but as James Dunn, Australian consul to Portuguese Timor in the 1960s, wrote, the invasion and Japanese occupation ‘was one of the great catastrophes of World War Two in terms of relative loss of life’. At least 40,000 Timorese were estimated to have died out of 460,000. [106] Also, because Portugal was neutral in the war, its colony was not eligible for the reconstruction aid that USA gave to Germany and Japan. The Australian government never offered any compensation. [107] At home, our government reinstated the White Australia policy and the evacuees had to be repatriated. [108] Many of the Portuguese deportados applied for permanent residence. Although they were all nominally ‘white,’ only Alfredo dos Santos of the injured leg was allowed to stay. For the others, not only their politics but also their ‘moral habits’ were considered not to be ‘conducive to good citizenship’. The latter accusation can probably be traced back to a Bob’s Farm camp administration report that Portuguese living with ‘native women’ was a sore point with local ‘decent living people’. [109] A few other evacuees managed to remain in Australia, like the Singaporean Yeow family because the father had a British passport. [110] Senora Angelina da Costa is farewelled by Mrs R Tomlinson NMH, 28 November 1945, 5 They built up a market garden at Fullerton Cove and stayed in the area. [111] Because he spoke fluent English Deolindo de Encarnação had become the secretary to first Crothers, then to Laborinho in Sydney, and in the latter role he and his family were allowed to stay in Australia after the war. [112] On 27 November 1945 a special train brought the evacuees back to Newcastle. The Upton family, Mrs Tomlinson from the Evacuees Welfare Committee, Father Edward Jordan from Stockton Catholic church and the Portuguese Consul, were among the crowd to farewell them. The children, including 70 born during the stay in Australia, had stuffed koalas bears and teddy bears and dolls to take back and the bigger ones had bottles of Newcastle cordial tucked under each arm. Passports were issued by the Newcastle Customs House. 562 evacuees, at the time ‘the largest number of passengers ever to board a ship’ in Newcastle, departed from Lee Wharf on the SS Angola. [113] On board the Angola were Arsénio Filipe and his daughters, the portly José Gordinho and Francisco Horta. Some of the deportados including Horta were returning to Portugal because their exile had been repealed. [114] Horta later returned to Dili where he married Natalina Filipe. In December 1949 they gave birth to José Ramos-Horta, a prime mover in the struggle for Timorese independence. [115] Undoubtedly the radicalism of his deportado father and grandfather influenced his outspoken advocacy for the cause. Geoff Laidlaw returned to Newcastle and was appointed head salesman of Ampol. He took up golf and became captain of Merewether Golf Club from 1950-52. His name can still be seen on the honour board. He later became head of Ampol in Western Australia. [116] Captain Grant returned to Newcastle to work for the Maritime Board before relocating to Yamba. [117] The SS Angola at the Lee Wharf, Newcastle, 1945 (Lucy Upton photograph album, PSFHS) Did the presence of Portuguese-Timorese in the Hunter Region have any significance? While the Australian authorities retained their suspicion of Communists, the Newcastle Trades Hall displayed their internationalism by giving solidarity and support to the deportados. The Newcastle Morning Herald regarded the social service work at the Bob’s Farm camp as ‘one of the outstanding wartime achievements’ of local women's organisations. [118] And despite the racism of the White Australia policy, those who had regular contact with the Portuguese and Timorese forged bonds of affection and never forgot them. So perhaps these cross-cultural experiences in the region led to changed mindsets about the need for a White Australia policy and was one of a myriad of cracks leading to its eventual dismantling. What happened to the camp? The camp commandant Bill Crothers nostalgically went back to Bob’s Farm years later and was sad to find all traces of human habitation had been removed, there was not even a white-painted tin in the fork of a tree. [119] Local Stewart Upton learnt that the Worimi Land Council were granted the land but eventually sold it. There is now a fig and olive plantation there. [120] So it seemed that all that remained were the memories of a few Hunter residents and eight graves in Stockton cemetery. [121] But reminders kept popping up. Retired army nurse Dorothy Turner’s inquiry about the camp in the early 2000s was the catalyst for the Port Stephens Family History Society publication. [122] Because of my interest in Timor-Leste and reference to the camp in Michele Turner’s Telling East Timor, I had started my own research and in that process contacted former Herald journalist Greg Ray who sent me photos he had obtained that were originally from the Newcastle Morning Herald. So when Timorese student Grazela Albino came to the University to study and told me her grandfather had been at the camp, we discovered that Antonio Albino, in his 90s and living in Timor-Leste was in one of the photos. When I took Grazela and another Timorese student to visit the camp site and to Stockton cemetery to show them the graves, Grazela was not happy that seven of the graves were unmarked. So with the permission of Newcastle City Council and the help of a group I belong to, the Hunter East Timor Sisters, and the Newcastle Men’s Shed, all the graves of the young and old people who died while living at the Bob’s Farm camp now have wooden crosses with plaques featuring their name and date of death, and that they had lived at the camp. Francisco Horta and Natalina Filipe 1950c (José Ramos-Horta’s Facebook page, 2019) So although the World War II links between the brave nation of Timor-Leste, and Newcastle and the Hunter Region, are not widely known, besides the relatives of those who died while at the Bob’s Farm camp, there are a number of other people who are determined that the connection is not forgotten, and is in fact held in high regard. 18 February 2024 judithaconway@gmail.com EDITOR'S NOTE: Thank you to Jude Conway for giving permission to reprint this article. REFERENCES [1] This article is based on a joint talk I gave with Denise Gaudion from the Port Stephens Family History Society (PSFHS) at the “Newcastle and the Hunter at War” Symposium, 9 November 2017 and talks I gave to the University of Newcastle’s “War Experience” series on 9 October 2019 and to the Newcastle Family History Society on 5 October 2021. If not directly referenced, the original Australian, Portuguese, Japanese or German sources can be traced through my footnotes. [2] Ernest Chamberlain, Forgotten Men: Timorese in Special Operations in World War II, 2010, http://www.scribd.com/doc/29688334/Forgotten-Men-Timorese-in-Special-Operations-during-World-War-II (accessed 2 May 2023), Annex A 15, 41; Paul Cleary, The Men who Came Out of the Ground: A Gripping Account Of Australia’s First Commando Campaign: Timor 1942, Hachette, 2010, 30; “Who blundered?: Allies Rebuffed—Not Allowed to Aid War Effort,” Tribune (Sydney), 3 March 1943, 2. [3] Joaquim da Costa Leite, ‘Neutrality by Agreement: Portugal and the British Alliance in World War II,’ American University International Law Review, 1998, 14 (1): 185–199, 189. 1998. [4] Australian War Cabinet Secret Agendum, Supplement No. 3 to Agendum No, 270/1941, “Occupation of Portuguese Timor” in A5954 564/1 “Relations with Portuguese Timor,” Shedden Collection, National Archives of Australia, Canberra. [5] Axis History Forum: “Port. Army in Macau and East Timor”, https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=131249 (accessed 8 September 2017). [6] Henry P. Frei, “Japan’s reluctant decision to occupy Portuguese Timor, 1 January 1942 ‐ 20 February 1942,” Australian Historical Studies, October 1996, 27 (107), 281-302, 281. [7] Christopher C. H. Wray, Timor 1942: Australian Commandos at War with the Japanese, Melbourne: Hutchinson Australia, 1987, 24. [8] B.J. Callinan, Independent Company, Melbourne: William Heinemann Ltd, 1953, xiv. [9] Frei, “Japan’s reluctant decision”, 284. [10] Frei, “Japan’s reluctant decision”, 286. [11] Frei, “Japan's reluctant decision”, 302; Cleary, The Men who Came Out of the Ground, 27. [12] “DSO for Major Laidlaw,” Newcastle Sun 29 May 1943, 3; Tom Nisbett, “Vale Geoffrey Laidlaw DSO”, 2/2 Commando Courier, July 1978; 2. Cleary, The Men who Came Out of the Ground, 16. [13] The Onlooker, “Geoff Laidlaw Great When ‘Going Was Tough’”, Newcastle Morning Herald & Miners Advocate (NMH), 6 January 1943, 2. [14] Christopher Wray, Timor 1942: Australian Commandos at War with the Japanese, Hutchinson Aust, Melbourne, 1987, 31. [15] José Ramos-Horta to author, Facebook Messenger, 26 September 2019. [16] Frei, “Japan's reluctant decision”, 296. [17] Frei, “Japan's reluctant decision”, 298-299. [18] Frei, “Japan’s reluctant decision”, 299. [19] Wray, Timor 1942, 88, 178. [20] Wray, Timor 1942, 101. [21] Callinan, Independent Company, 9. [22] Wray, Timor 1942, 88; Yvonne Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp: Refugees from Timor in Port Stephens During World War II, PSFHS, Tanilba Bay, 2014, 3. This book can be purchased at https://portstephensfamilyhistory.com.au/shop/bobs-farm-cadre-camp-refugees-from-timor-in-port-stephens-during-world-war-11/. [23] Cleary, The Men who Came Out of the Ground, 110. [24] Ramos-Horta to author, 2019; Wray, Timor 1942, 97. [25] Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, Annex A 16. [26] Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, Annex A 6. [27] “Astonishing Exploits By A.I.F. On Timor,” NMH, 1 January 1943, 3. [28] Wray, Timor 1942, 101; Cleary, The Men who Came Out of the Ground, 130. [29] Cleary, The Men who Came Out of the Ground, 131-133. [30] “DSO for Major Laidlaw,” Newcastle Sun, 29 May 1943, 4, Cleary, The Men who Came Out of the Ground, 278. [31] George Rottman, World War II Pacific Island Guide: A Geo-Military Study. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2002, 211. [32] Wray, Timor 1942, 128; Cleary, The Men who Came Out of the Ground, 179. [33] Callinan, Independent Company, 197; Michele Turner, Telling East Timor: personal testimonies 1942-1992, Sydney: University of New South Wales Press 1992, 39. [34] Cleary, The Men who Came Out of the Ground, 204. [35] Callinan, Independent Company, 197, Wray, Timor 1942, 145. [36] Callinan, Independent Company, 177. [37] Callinan, Independent Company, 188; Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, 18. [38] Callinan, Independent Company, 200; L. Klemen, “The fighting on Portuguese East Timor, 1942,” 2000, https://warfare.gq/dutcheastindies/timor_port.html (accessed 24 April 2022). [39] Wray, Timor 1942, 156; “Modern Sea Dog On The Beach”, Daily Examiner (Grafton), 4 February 1948, 2; E. Samuels, “HMAS Kuru Beat The Japs: How a Gallant Little Ship Rescued Evacuees from Timor”, Australasian, 10 November 1945, 21. [40] “Japanese ‘Scorched Earth’ Policy and the August Push”, https://museum.wa.gov.au/debt-of-honour/japanese-scorched-earth-policy-and-august-push (accessed 24 April 2022); Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, 19; Cleary, The Men who Came Out of the Ground, 262. [41] Callinan 197; “Dramatic Timor Rescues: Nuns, Priests Brought Here by Destroyer,” Catholic Weekly, 5 August 1943, 1; “Evacuees From Timor In Northern Camp,” Newcastle Sun, 30 July 1943, 4. [42] Wray, Timor 1942, 159, 162; Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, Annex A 40; “Life Story: Bishop Goulart of Dili,” Catholic Weekly, 25 October 1945, 2; Cleary, The Men who Came Out of the Ground, 273, 276-77. [43] Callinan, Independent Company, 216; Wray, Timor 1942, 172; Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, Annex A 16; Cleary, The Men who Came Out of the Ground, 291. [44] Cleary, The Men who Came Out of the Ground, 290, 334; “Criados— A special bond of friendship and mutual respect,” Across the Timor Sea, https://acrossthetimorsea.com/criados/ (accessed 2 May 2023). [45] James Dunn, Timor: A People Betrayed, Sydney: ABC Books 1996, 20; Peter Stanley, “Remembering Darwin … and Timor, February 1942,” Pearls and Irritations, 17 February 2022, https://johnmenadue.com/remembering-darwin-and-timor-february-1942/ (accessed 4 April 2022). [46] “Most Refugees Leaving Aust.,” Telegraph (Brisbane) 7 December 1945, 4; Kevin Blackburn, “Disguised Anti-Colonialism”, Australian Journal of International Affairs, April 2001, 55 (1), 101-117, 103; Margaret J. Kartomi, The Gamelan Digul and the Prison Musician who Built It: An Australian Link with the Indonesian Revolution, Rochester (NY): University of Rochester Press, 2002, 63; “Chinese immigrants and Chinese-Australians in New South Wales”, National Archives of Australia, https://www.naa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-06/research-guide-chinese-immigrants-chinese-australians-in-nsw_0.pdf, (accessed 24 April 2022). [47] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 17, 18. [48] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 18. [49] “Timor Refugees Tested C.A.S.,” NMH, 29 November 1945, 2, reports that 100 evacuees arrived on the Saturday. Fraser, who examined the Australian army archives, wrote that 155 arrived on the Sunday (Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 19). [50] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 20. [51] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 20, 21. [52] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 22; “Newcastle Help For Bob's Farm Evacuees,” NMH, 30 July 1943, 6; “Timor Refugees Tested C.A.S.”. [53] “Newcastle Help For Bob's Farm Evacuees”; Oliver Hogue, “Escape from Timor: priests meet man they thought dead,” NMH, 30 July 1943, 3; “Native Children Won’t Eat Chocolates”, Newcastle Sun, 30 July1943, 4; James Cunningham, “From Timor To Bob's Farm,” Sydney Morning Herald, 16 September 1978, 8. [54] Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, 38. [55] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 26. [56] I viewed copies of Alien registration forms at the PSFHS. [57] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 24; NSW Death Certificate for Fernando Neves, copy held by PSFHS. [58] Cunningham, “From Timor To Bob’s Farm”. [59] Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, 40. [60] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 21-22; Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, Annex A 6, 16, 33. [61] Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, 40. [62] Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, 38-39. [63] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 22. [64] Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, 39, Annex A 15. [65] “Timor Vital Point In Australia's Defence,” Townsville Daily Bulletin, 26 September 1945, 3. [66] Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, 39. [67] Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, Annex A 57; Cleary, The Men who Came Out of the Ground, 277. [68] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 28-29. [69] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 62-64. [70] Cunningham, “From Timor to Bob's Farm”. [71] For information about this collection see https://www.phototimetunnel.com/ (accessed 18/2/24.) [72] Port Stephens Historical Society interviews with Bob’s Farm locals Norm Blanch, Dorothy Blanch and Gordon Holliday, Rex Coombes and Eric Holliday, 11 May 1999 (copy in author’s possession). [73] Stewart Upton interview for “Sealed with all my love … stories of Love & Migration” exhibition, Newcastle Region Maritime Museum, 2002 (copy in author’s possession). [74] Port Stephens Historical Society interviews, 1999. [75] “Refugees Fought With Aussie Commandoes,” Tribune, 10 March 1943, 2; “February 23 is Defender of the Fatherland Day”, https://pacsto.org/events/23-fevralya-den-zaschitnika-otechestva, (accessed 2 May 2023). [76] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 33 [77] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 33; Deputy Director General of Man Power to Rowley James (MP), 10 June 1943, Newcastle Trades Hall archives, A5062, University of Newcastle Special Collections. [78] “Work Found For Timor Refugees,” NMH, 13 August 1943; “Newcastle's Biggest May Day March,” Newcastle Sun, 3 May 1943, 3. [79] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 29. [80] “Banning of the Communist Party in World War II,” John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library, 1998, https://john.curtin.edu.au/letters/activities/communism.html (accessed 7 May 2023). [81] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 20. [82] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 26-27 [83] Newcastle Family History Society (NFHS), Stockton Cemetery Burials, NSW 1890-2005, NFHS, 2005; NSW Death Certificate for Ivelise Mousinho, copy held by PSFHS. [84] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 37-38; Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, Annex A 8, 40. [85] Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, 71. [86] Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, 72-73; Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 37. [87] Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, 60. [88] Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, 27, 28. [89] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 26; Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, Annex A, 17, footnote 45. [90] “Portuguese Consul In Armidale,” Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser, 24 September 1943, 5; Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, 44, 71. [91] Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, 44. [92] “Christmas Party Plans For Timor Evacuees,” NMH, 16 December 1943, 4. [93] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 30. [94] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 43. [95] “Life Story: Bishop Goulart of Dili”. [96] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 43. [97] Port Stephens Historical Society interviews, 1999. [98] Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, 46. [99] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 33-34. [100] Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, 72-73. [101] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 39. [102] Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, 74. [103] Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, 45; Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 41-42. [104] “Life Story: Bishop Goulart of Dili”. [105] “Dili Cathedral Opened For Use on Feast of Immaculate Conception,” Union of Catholic Asian News, 27 December 1989, https://www.ucanews.com/story-archive/?post_name=/1989/12/28/dili-cathedral-opened-for-use-on-feast-of-immaculate-conception&post_id=39142 (accessed 7 May 2023). [106] Wray, Timor 1942, 179; “Impact on the Timorese: We brought nothing but misery on those poor people,” Western Australian Museum, https://museum.wa.gov.au/debt-of-honour/impact-on-timorese-we-brought-nothing-misery-on-those-poor-people (accessed 7 May 2023); Dunn, Timor, 22-3. [107] Cleary, The Men who Came Out of the Ground, 318. [108] Kevin Blackburn, 'Disguised Anti-Colonialism', Australian Journal of International Affairs, Apr2001, Vol. 55 Issue 1, 101-117, 103. [109] 16 November 1945, H. S. D. Hay, A/g Inquiry Officer, to the Inspector Commonwealth Investigation Branch Sydney, in “Portuguese Evacuees from Timor – Permanent Admission,” Shedden Collection: A367, C63656. [110] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 33-34. [111] Ellie-Marie Watts, “Bobs Farm refugee camp’s story in print”, Port Stephens Examiner, 2 December 2014. [112] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 33, 47. [113] “Angola Sails With 587 Evacuees,” NMH, 28 November 1945, 2; “Escaped Japanese On Timor,” 28 November 1945, 5; Denise Gaudion, Port Stephens Historical Society, email to author 7 October 2017; Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, 45. [114] "Passenger list of Portuguese-Timor evacuees per SS Angola ex Newcastle, 27 November 1945,” Shedden Collection, A367; Chamberlain, Forgotten Men, 33. [115] “José Ramos-Horta Facts: The Nobel Prize, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1996/ramos-horta/facts/ (accessed 2 May 2023). [116] “Personal,” Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder, 24 January 1950, page 3; “Golf Gossip” Newcastle Sun, 29 August 1951 p12; personal observation; Tom Nisbett, “Vale Geoffrey Laidlaw DSO”, 2/2 Commando Courier July 1978. [117] “Modern Sea Dog On The Beach,” Daily Examiner, 4 February 1948, 2. [118] “Newcastle Help For Bob's Farm Evacuees,” NMH, 30 July 1943, 6. [119] Cunningham, “From Timor to Bob's Farm”. [120] Stewart Upton interview; personal observation. [121] NFHS, Stockton Cemetery Burials. [122] Fraser, Bob’s Farm Cadre Camp, Foreword. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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