Pat Ritter. Books

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‘Alright you two I’m not being paid enough to do the job of three.’ Rose called to Harry and her father.
‘We’ll catch up later; I want to know the rest.’ Harry told Ted and returned to the tail of the mob.
Droving is a lonely life; at times dangerous particularly when water is scarce. This trip was a joy because Harry enjoyed listening to Ted’s story and the sheep grazed along the stock route. Because they only travelled six miles a day Harry worked out he had plenty of time for rest.

Chapter 7

It was almost noon when Harry cooed out to the other two to have a break near the river. There was a slight cool breeze blowing and the sheep looked relaxed. He was happy with wether sheep because to control them was easier compared to ewes and lambs. Wethers were better sheep to drive.
Under the shade of a gum tree near the river bank Harry dismounted from his horse; unsaddled and placed dinner camp hobbles around its front legs and let it graze. The other two did the same and joined Harry by the fire he’d built to boil their quart pots and have lunch. Henry made sandwiches for their lunches with mutton and damper sprinkled with golden syrup over the meat.
Rose moved away from the camp to rest under a nearby gum tree to give her father and Harry time to chat. She didn’t want to be in their conversation or to know what they were talking about, especially if it was about the war.
She had no desire to mention the war with her father because; in the past he almost chopped her head off with abuse and told her it was none of her business. She was alarmed at the thought he would never allow her to wear rubber thongs because they had made in Japan stamped on them. She never understood why he hated Japanese however; it was his problem, not hers.

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‘What happened after you got back to the bunker?’ Harry asked.
‘The line was re-connected and communication fixed. The fight went on but we were forced to withdraw to Singapore Island. Many lives were lost - a new unit called ‘G Troop’ was formed’.
‘Weren’t you scared?’
‘Bloody oath, we were all terrified and thought we were going to die.’
‘Don’t worry I’d be the same – you’re a bloody hero, Ted. Did you know?’
‘No, I’m not a hero; those people who fought and were killed are the heroes, those ones who fought and fell back to Singapore Harbour. We fought like this for about a fortnight and on the 14th February we surrendered.’
‘That must have been a tough thing to do.’
‘I thought we could have fought on but the top brass told us to put our guns down on the ground and raise our arms. It was strange, in the distance we heard noises – it sounded like army tanks and over the horizon we saw hundreds of Japanese riding bicycles without tyres – the sound from the steel rim of the bicycles on the road sounded as if army tanks were coming.’
‘You must have been shattered.’
‘We’d been fighting for over a fortnight and losing the battle, then the water supply was cut off to one million Singapore civilians. They were being massacred by the intense bombardment of bombs – death was everywhere.’
Harry couldn’t believe anything of this magnitude could exist among human beings. In his minds eye he saw people dead, others fleeing from the enemy and proud to know men like Ted who fought brave to fight the enemy - had to surrender.
‘I can’t imagine how you put your rifles down and surrendered.’ Harry questioned.

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‘We were losing men and the people of Singapore were being killed – it was a massacre – we had to do something; surrender was the only option.’ Ted admitted sadly.
Harry couldn’t think of anymore to ask Ted, his mind filled with horror when he visioned death, war and thought how lucky he was to be a drover, ‘we better get back to the job at hand – are you okay?’ Harry asked.
‘Yeah, I’ll be okay – I’ve never told anyone about this before and it sort of shakes me up a bit with the memory of it. I don’t know how we survived but not all of us got through.’
Both men looked at each other in wonderment, Harry thinking how in hell anyone survived and his job as a drover was an easy one compared to fighting in a war.
Ted became solemn, thinking about his mates he buried and left behind. It was a time in his life he wished to block out but talking to Harry released ghosts from the past. It was good to face those ghosts head on and talk to someone about what happened to bring them out into the open.
‘Okay you two back on the job.’ Rose sang out in a bid to tell Harry and her Pa there was work to do and another couple of miles to go for the day. It was day two and another twenty-eight days before they reached their destination.

Droving sheep is looking at the arse-end of a sheep most of the day; there wasn’t much else to do but dream of what may be, possibly enjoying a swim in the afternoon or late evening in the river. Rose thought of these things and fishing, she loved fishing since her first time when she caught a yellow belly. It was the first fish she had caught in her life.
Henry had the camp established by late afternoon when the mob arrived to be locked away for the night.

One day melted into the next and each day Ted shared his story with Harry, ‘after we surrendered we marched 20 miles

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to Changi Prison, men cried with disappointment. I drank half a bottle of wine and went to sleep. In the early part the Japanese were decent blokes, we had plenty of food and wine.’
‘Where did you get the wine?’ Harry asked inquisitively.
‘Japanese didn’t move into our District Headquarters; we raided the place and took all the liquor. The men were in a good mood; we drank the wine and liquor at headquarters that night before we marched next morning.’
‘I think I would’ve done the same.’ Harry said.
‘In the beginning we didn’t know what to expect only when we marched to Changi Prison. We were treated with respect, especially the Australian troops, most of the men made it. There were many dead along the way. A truckload of dead past us and I understood why we surrendered.’
Ted looked exhausted sharing his story with Harry who felt a blow by blow experience visualised in his mind the atrocities caused by war. Ted shared small parts of his experience with Harry; a little at a time and each time Harry was engrossed by the story; he almost forgot about droving.
Rose took over the droving at times which allowed Harry and her father to talk. She saw a difference in her father and was surprised he confided in Harry, more than he confided in her, to share his experiences of the war. He’d never shared those experiences with her or anyone else.
They crossed the Queensland-New South Wales border at Barringun and this was cause for celebration. Rose stayed in camp with Henry while Harry and Ted rode to the pub.
Rose didn’t mind remaining in the camp with Henry for over the time they’d been on the drove each shared their life experiences. Rose was surprised to hear Henry was an aboriginal commonly referred to as the ‘stolen generation’.
He was born on the northern aboriginal camp Hollywood where he lived with his parents and many aunts and uncles.
When he was a baby, government people came to the camp and took him away. He was raised by white people

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until he was twenty-one years old. He knew all about the white man’s way of life and happy with his upbringing; however, he was aboriginal and needed to be with his own people.
On his twenty-first birthday his release from the white people surprised him; he returned to Cunnamulla and to Hollywood. There he found his gin and under tribal law they became husband and wife. He built their home from a half 1000 gallon galvanised water tank and within a couple of years he felt he owned the world with his wife and children.
They heard loud male voices singing –, ‘they’re back from the pub, Harry’s singing his favourite song ‘Saddle Boy.’ Henry expressed.
‘Sounds like they had a good time, I’m pleased Harry is getting along with Pa because he needs someone he can talk to.’ Rose remarked.
Harry and Ted rode into camp almost falling from their mounts and the words, ‘saddle boy ride for home’ sang through the silence of the night. They were both intoxicated to the level of inebriation. Both fell from their horses and landed on the ground, ‘I’ll do it – go to bed both of you.’ Rose interrupted.
Harry smiled up at Rose with a cheeky grin on his face, ‘you’ll make a horse tailer yet,’ he mumbled. Rose put her arms around his broad shoulders to take his weight. Harry felt he was in heaven and being rescued by an angel, ‘you are beautiful – you know.’ He whispered close to her ear.
‘Off to bed, and thanks for looking after Pa, he’s a changed man since he’s been talking to you.’ She placed a goodnight kiss on the side of his cheek. Harry felt light headed and made his way toward the camp. Ted retired to his swag while Harry took his boots off and fell into his swag, ‘we had a bloody good night Ted – you beat me with those rum chases.’ Ted didn’t hear Harry because he was sound asleep and snoring.

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When daylight broke the next morning two men limped around the camp with their heads hung low trying to remove the alcohol taste from their mouths.
‘Breakfast is ready.’ Henry called, ‘greasy chops and eggs – come and get em. You look like you had a good time last night.’
‘Henry, I don’t know how Ted put so many rum chases away – you wouldn’t believe how many, I thought he had hollow legs.’ Harry commented.
‘Get into this tucker and you’ll feel better.’
Rose and Ted joined the camp, ‘your horse is saddled and ready Harry.’ Rose said.
‘Ah..thanks, Rose,’ was all he could say? His thoughts were different; he didn’t wash his face and still felt her soft lips against his cheek. A slight smile broke across his face.
After breakfast it was back on the road for droving to continue. Mid-morning they stopped for a break and Harry wanted to hear more of Ted’s story about the war.
‘Where were we, ah..that’s right – we arrived at Changi Prison, food was good and plenty of water. A couple of soldiers tried to escape but were re-captured and told to walk back to camp. They were lucky.’
‘Did you ever think about escape?’ Harry asked.
‘Not on your Nellie – Japanese were everywhere on the island, I wanted to stay alive. I cobbered up with a couple of mates and we cooked and cared for one another, they were good blokes – we stuck together.’
‘How did they feed you?’ Harry asked.
‘At the start they gave us plenty of food, particularly rice and we scrounged food where we could get it. One of my mates found pawpaws and another made rissoles from crusts of bread and bully beef.’
Ted continued his story; he felt comfortable sharing it with Harry. He trusted him. It was when he told him about burying dead Chinese shot by the Japanese and the bodies were 24 hours old, memories returned to haunt him. He

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continued his story of how he survived on rations of rice and water and lived out in the open until the camp was organised for the prisoners to be housed in the jail; ate rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner, he wondered how he did survive. Was it any wonder his nightmares of this incarceration continued to this day. Harry couldn’t believe how Ted survived through his ordeal of imprisonment.

They were two days from the final leg of their trip when storm cloud darkened the sky. ‘We’re in for a good one – look at those clouds building in the east, that’s where the bad storms come from.’ Harry told the others.
‘Whata want to do Boss?’ Henry asked.
‘We’ll put these babies to bed early and make the camp safe and have an early night.’ Harry told the others.
The sheep were herded into the brake and everyone returned to the camp, thunder roared overhead, splinters of lightning flashed across the sky.
Henry moved the truck to higher ground just in case the storm clouds broke. On the black soil there is an old saying, you stick to it in the dry and it’ll stick to you in the wet. He’d bogged the truck before and knew he didn’t want to dig it out of a bog hole again.
After setting up camp on higher solid ground Henry prepared dinner. A huge tarpaulin swung over the truck fastened by steel picket pegs driven into the ground – on the horizon deep black clouds blackened the sky. Wind blew hard - Henry placed a sheet of galvanised iron sheeting around the fire and camp ovens to stop the fire from blowing out.
‘It’s going to be a doozie of a storm, Boss.’ Henry said in alarm.
‘That’s drovin for ya – it takes all types of weather.’ Harry commented.
They were safe – it wouldn’t matter how much terror the storm showed; they were safe.