Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 463
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[Page 463]
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family entertained us there on several occasions with unstinted hospitality, night and day. The Dubbo Golf Club gave all officers the freedom of their club house and the excellent eighteen-hole course. To enable the older officers to meet the leading citizens, and the junior ones to meet the younger set, very enjoyable dances were held regularly on Saturday nights in the club-house, and were a great social success.
Round about Easter, I took a week of my accumulated leave to motor down to "Afton Water" with Madge and Alan (aged three years). My parents were overjoyed to have us with them for a few ays. But my father had aged very rapidly and was very shaky; but his mind was still clear enough.
Late in 1941, following the fall of Singapore and the Japanese occupation of New Guinea and New Britain, it seemed that this enemy might be landing on our eastern beaches any time in the very near future. Very urgent steps were taken to fortify this coast at vulnerable and important places, particularly around the ports. All available troops and war material were moved into tactical positions.
It was quite impracticable to defend the whole of the Eastern Australian Coast, so those responsible decided to try and hold it southwards from a point about a hundred miles north of Brisbane. This was known as the "Brisbane Line", and at the time caused a great political furore, and a big public outcry.
Almost overnight, lines of barbed-wire apron fences appeared on the beaches north and south of Sydney and many other beaches with enfilading machine-run emplacements at the ends of the esplanades. In a matter of weeks, massive concrete tetrahedrons (costing twelve pounds each) were produced by the Water Board and other public utilities, and placed, with small intervals, in closely spaced lines across roads leading inland, as tank barriers. All road names and direction signs were removed, and names of towns on the post offices and other public building were obliterated. As in Britain, church bells were to remain silent until