HOW WE HAVE GROWN!!!! OUR CANVAS "CITY”.

Dozerdust, Volume 1, Issue 10, 14 August 1943, Page 4

HOW WE HAVE GROWN!!!! OUR CANVAS "CITY”.

Facing the AEWS Hut, and about. twenty yards from it, you will see Len Day working at a n lastj his sleeves tolled up, and a leather apron on; he is either busy half soling a boot or banging nails into one. Above the table at which he works hangs the sign,” Boot Shop • The sign does not imply that a stranger would mistake Lon.’fi shop n for the RAP HQ, but it does suggest that the camp has developed considerably in the last few weeks. We have settled n in ” so easily since our arrival that the sign ” Boot Shop ” does not strike as incongruous,• or unusual. We accept it. We likewise accept the debates and di on national and international question as part of the normal life in camp. In the first few days of our settling ” in n few of us would have anticipated the all round development that has taken place.

Most of us can remember when D.P# » •» O’Connor started making his n chairs 0 and the single bench on which he worked; that bench has developed into a ” carpenters shop ” where n DiP.,’* and ” Bunny " Spencer, with other lads from the Bldg Section have turned out book shelves for the AEWS.HQj, fittings and accessories for Public. Relations HQ#, hefty tool chests for use out on jobs and for other Units, and ( the most important ) five, two and one hole bomb ” ranges, combining such modern featuresas comfort and collsabability for transport. Mortify caskets, crosses, pegs and chairs too, are made# The ’’-Shop H is designed to meet tropical conditions—it is without walls and has a canvas roof#

Adpining. the carpenters is Opl.C. Storey of the Tinsmith & Plumbing Dept# Here you will get anything from a sink* bath, drums cut into coppers and chimneys made out of old biscut tins# Close to the plumber is the Paint Shop which works in silence on grave pegs, crosses and other products of the mortuary workers#

Moving tothe more cheerful quarters we come to. the cookhouse where Cpl. Tony Radisich ,Sprs« J. Lord, M* Corrie, L. Scott, Palmer and S. Nash point out that we have left behind the old oilburner cooker' and open air meal table# The present mess building is a hundred and eighty feet long and twenty wide# The cookhouse and servery occupies foxaty feet, the mess seventy and the Rec. Hut seventy. The mess tables will accomodate over two hundred men. Tony how has a six tray .oven stove which will cook enough for one sitting. There is also an Aidershot oven for cooking meat# Hot water for tea, coea and coffee is provided by a copper made by plumber and tinsmith. Six fofi'-J • five drums, built into a clay over , provide hot water for washing up while several other drums suitably cut ****************************************

serve as wash tubs for mess utensils.

The. Recreation Hut, to which a floor is now being added, boasts of scrim walls, a ping pong table, quoit sots, darts and boards, a gramaphone with records of a dubious quality and a hefty punch bag. Although an electric lighting system has ■ not been instituted, makeshift lights- are available for debates, discussions, ping pong games and boxing. At Services end of the camp we find t the tt Fitting Shop" where Sprs. Cryil Walker and Eric Greig.make an equally good job of fashioning scalpels for the RAP and .repairing- springe for the GMO’s. -That this part of the Services can acquit themselves in any line they turn their hands to is no exaggeration. This shop too, is tropical in design, -unlike the carpenters shop, it has no roof. Fitters say they are kept too busy to notice wind and rainlll

Across the road from the fitters is the Electrical Dept# Opls. Georgesori, Whitten ■■■ and Sprs .Moreton. Winterbourn and ” Pan Handle K Johnston are kept busy, if not in camp, elsewhere#. ” Pan Handle “ is designing special steel pheaths for hornetstings. He is of the opinion that progressive hornets will welcome the 1 innovation.

Much of the work, it would be more to the. point to say most of the work has been done out of camp. This is true of both Building and Services# So that taking everything by and large we have done very well# No mention has been made of the QM and his staff; we hope to feature them in a later issue# Our QM does not share the characteristics which led up to the popular army song on QM’s. There. is also the Draughting and Survey groups to be featured as well as other lads in HQ Section. There is the Canteen too,which is our closest approach to a department store and, it might be added, patronised as such.

Part of us. but with their own location, is the Wharf Coy* which has its own camp site fifty or so yards from us. Apart from possessing their own QM Store, Orderly Boom • and ” canvas city ” they join with us in our mess, recreation, canteen and social activities. Their NO l.cook, Eddie Heald is conductor in chief of the Savaloy Banana Orchestra which rendered n choice tt selections in the Rec, at 'the boxing and P.T. on Wednesday night. And that reminds < us that Len Day did not turn up to the boxing school on Wednesday night, The Boot Shop may have been working overtime.